Switzerland hunts – but why, really?

For the shotgun-wielders, the hunting year in Switzerland runs, in most cantons, from 1 April to 31 March of the following year.

Around 100 species of mammal live in Switzerland. They are divided into insectivores, bats, rodents, hares, predators and ungulates.

While most Swiss people catch sight of wild animals at most while hiking or on a wildlife camera, year after year an astonishingly large number of militant hobby hunters still head into the forests and mountains.

Their bloody toll: 65’811 ungulates – roe deer, red deer and chamois – were shot in the 2023/24 hunting year. On top of this came more than 1’200 protected ibex on the high hunt. But that is only part of the balance sheet. On the so-called low hunt, which according to prominent biologists is entirely pointless and which affects predators above all, a further 23’565 animals were killed. Almost 20’000 of them were red foxes. Wolf and lynx are not listed in the newly published statistics.

Pointless fox hunting?

Scarcely any animal divides hobby hunters and animal and nature conservationists as much as the fox. For some a «case for regulation», for others a symbol of outdated hunting traditions. Scientifically, the matter has long been clear: more than 18 studies show that fox hunting too does not regulate populations, nor does it protect against diseases. On the contrary – the decimation can destroy social structures within the populations and even intensify disease dynamics.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of animals are shot every year – a contradiction of the Animal Welfare Act, which permits interventions only for a «reasonable ground». Such a ground simply does not exist here, criticises IG Wild beim Wild.

Threatened species in the crosshairs

Even more absurd is hobby hunting of species that have long been considered endangered. The brown hare, for instance, is on the Red List, its populations having collapsed since the 1950s. Nevertheless, almost 1’400 brown hares were killed in the past hunting year – despite protection provisions in several cantons.

The rock ptarmigan is also potentially endangered and officially under protection. Yet 282 animals fell victim to the shotguns of the perpetrators of violence. The contradictions in Swiss hunting law thus become plain to see.

Geneva: A Different Model

A wholly different path is taken by the Canton of Geneva. In 1974 the population abolished hobby hunting by popular vote. Since then, around a dozen game wardens have looked after the populations. They intervene only when it is truly necessary.

The result: 286 wild boars, 36 roe deer and 19 red deer were killed last year – considerably fewer than in hunting-loving cantons. Foxes, badgers, brown hares and so on? Zero. The difference is striking: while Geneva manages with one million francs a year for wildlife management and wildlife damage – the equivalent of a cup of coffee per inhabitant – the similarly sized canton of Schaffhausen records almost 2’000 kills of ungulates alone, along with hundreds of predators killed. Since Geneva has an international airport, birds are shot in the interests of public safety. In addition, there are also kills of birds authorised by the authorities for the railway and a few farmers.

And the damage? It barely differs. On the contrary: during the hunting season, many animals from the surrounding cantons and France seek refuge in Geneva – living proof that wild animals avoid hunting areas.

Sanitary and therapeutic kills by the roughly 12 game wardens in the canton of Geneva are not the same as regulatory hunting based on hunters' tall tales or the misconceived nature experience of hobby hunters.

Before the hunting ban for hobby hunters in Geneva over 400 hunting licences were sold per year. Three full-time positions are needed today for the regulation of wild animals and prevention, which represents an enormous gain for biodiversity — one that is also scientifically documented and visible. Typical Swiss values such as safety, animal welfare and ethics are the guiding principle in Geneva. In total, the canton of Geneva must spend around one million francs, including wildlife damage, per year on wildlife management. By comparison, fishing would consume considerably more costs, even though licences are sold there.

Between anti-culture and science

Hobby hunting in Switzerland stands at a crossroads. Scientific studies show its contradictions and inefficiency ever more clearly. Even the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) lets it be known through Wildtier Schweiz that hunting statistics allow only limited conclusions about the state of the populations.

In the chaos in which nature finds itself after decades of unscientific care and management by hobby hunters, it is hardly surprising that more and more stakeholders are complaining.

Thus a picture of two realities remains: on the one hand, cantons in which tens of thousands of animals die every year in the name of “decimation”. On the other hand, Geneva, which has proven for half a century that modern, animal-welfare-oriented wildlife management is possible — and works.

The question presses itself: how much longer does Switzerland want to cling to a system that is neither scientifically tenable nor ethically justifiable?

Hobby hunting not only has no cultural and barely any economic significance, but also serious ecological consequences. Anyone who loves nature should be aware that every disturbance — even a seemingly small one — has direct effects on the lives of animals, on biodiversity and on the environment. What one loves, one does not kill. Balanced hunting management, as in the canton of Geneva, is therefore crucial to preserving species diversity and natural tranquillity in our forests.

• Hunters spread diseases: Study
• Scientific literature: Studies on the red fox
• Hunting promotes diseases: Study
• Luxembourg extends fox hunting ban: Article
• A ban on the senseless fox hunt is overdue: Article
• Low hunting and wildlife diseases: Article
• Deterring wild animals: Article

More on this in the dossier: The psychology of hunting

Natural disaster: hobby hunters

In the chaos in which nature finds itself after decades of nurturing and care by hobby hunters, the proportion of endangered species is greater in no other country in the world than in Switzerland. For decades, these contract killers have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultivated landscape, with at times dramatic consequences (protective forests, diseases, agricultural damage and much more). More than a third of plants, wild animals and fungi species are considered threatened. Switzerland is also bottom of the European league when it comes to designating protected areas for biodiversity. And it is precisely these circles of hobby hunters, with their lobbying, who have been responsible for this for decades through politics, the media and legislation. It is they who notoriously block contemporary, ethical improvements in animal welfare and sabotage serious animal and species protection. Hobby hunters regularly oppose more national parks in Switzerland, because for them it is not about nature, biodiversity and species conservation or animal welfare, but about pursuing their perverse, bloody hobby.

Did you know …

• that in Switzerland innocent young wolves are eliminated?
• that hobby hunters lie when it comes to assessing game meat quality, and that processed game meat is, according to the WHO, carcinogenic like cigarettes, asbestos or arsenic?
• that, according to a study, nowhere is the lead contamination of golden eagles and bearded vultures higher than in the Swiss Alps, due to the ammunition used by hobby hunters?
• that the code of hunting ethics of hobby hunters diametrically contradicts the Animal Welfare Act and is a mirage?
• that hunting is war, where animal competitors are simply eliminated?
• that there are countless illegal and unmarked high seats in our countryside, some of them so rotten that they pose a danger to children and can lead to people dying?
• that year after year countless people are killed or injured by hunters' weapons, some so severely that they end up in wheelchairs or have limbs amputated?
• that in Switzerland around 120,000 completely healthy roe deer, red deer, foxes, marmots and chamois are killed every year, mostly pointlessly?
• that, because of hobby hunters, it is today barely possible to live in harmony with wild animals or to see wild animals?
• that loads of shot make hares cry out like small children and rip apart the entrails of “shot” roe deer and red deer, so that as they flee they leave a trail for the follow-up search?
• that the claim by hobby hunters that the cruel massacres of wild animals are necessary to regulate wildlife populations has been scientifically refuted?
• that hobby hunters openly admit that hunting is about the “lust for killing” and “the joy of making a kill” of a pathological passion?
• that hobby hunters have no sixth sense and yet regularly claim they only shoot sick and weak animals, which of course is not true in practice?
• that hobby hunters travel abroad for trophy hunting, far from all species and hunting protection regulations, and that there are even Swiss hobby hunter tour operators for such moronic hunting pleasures?
• that the overwhelming majority are not legitimate professional hunters, but pursue hunting as a hobby, sport and leisure pastime, which is not ethical and actually contradicts the animal welfare act?
• that 99.07 % of civilised people in Switzerland are not hobby hunters, meaning only 0.3 % hobby hunters take pleasure in these bloody activities?
• that these wildlife killers do not hunt on the basis of scientific justifications?
• that protected species should actually not fall under hunting law, because hobby hunters are overwhelmed by species conservation and repeatedly shoot animals on the Red List, such as lynx, wolf, brown hare, grey partridge, quail, etc., for fun?
• that hobby hunters deliberately decimate certain animal species in order to have no competition for their unnatural behaviour (fox, lynx, wolf, birds of prey, etc.)?
• that the game dies before the hobby hunter can even fire a single shot, that this is to be prevented and that this is probably the central idea of husbandry and care as well as hunting planning?
• that among wild boars (and foxes) normally only the lead sow bears young, but due to her being shot all female animals within the sounder reproduce, and that this is also why we have a glut of wild boars?
• that grazing animals – red deer, roe deer, etc. – originally lived mainly during the day in fields and meadows, like goats, sheep, cows, etc., and not in the forest?
• that the wolf is vital to the long-term health of wild ungulates, because it captures sick or weak animals with incredible precision, for example, and is thereby vastly superior to hobby hunters?
• that foxes usually end up in the rubbish after the senseless hunt?
• that foxes today are hunted mainly so that there are more hares, etc. in the frying pan for hobby hunters? But that the fox feeds on hares for less than 10 % of its diet, and never catches a healthy hare?
• that hobby hunters in animal welfare cannot be tackled with gentleness alone, street festivals, prayer chains, etc. (a rough wedge belongs on a rough block)?
• that hobby hunters, with their hunter's tall tales, carry out a disrespectful mockery of living creatures?
• that it is frowned upon to shoot big game at feeding sites or during the mating season, yet the hobby hunter has no scruples about doing exactly that to their prey competitor, the fox?
• that in some cantons hobby hunters go hunting only for the tender flesh of a young animal?
• that hobby hunters shoot pregnant mother cows in front of their young, or only young animals during the rearing period (post-special hunt)?
• that hobby hunters poison the environment, nature, humans and animals with their ammunition?
• that bestiality, barbarism, cruelty, bloodshed and senseless torment cannot be a cultural asset in a civilised society?
• that hobby hunters shoot around 10,000 roe deer fawns every year?
• that in harsh winters hobby hunters lure starving animals with feed, only to be able to shoot them treacherously and cowardly?
• that hobby hunters set trained dogs on burrows to hunt down and eliminate foxes and badgers (earth hunting)?
• that hobby hunters lure peaceful creatures into box traps, in which they may suffer for days and have to wait for their killer, or often subject the animals to hours of death agony (trap hunting)?
• that hobby hunters cowardly murder or injure peaceful wild animals from ambush while they sleep or bask in the sun, using state-of-the-art precision weapons?
• that hobby hunters support awards, fur markets, prize-givings for the trophy cult, trophy shows, the fur trade, etc.?
• that hobby hunters put firearms into the hands of underage schoolchildren and practise killing with them?
• that hobby hunters often carry out their agonising deeds in solitude, which encourages animal cruelty?
• that hobby hunters only seriously injure many wild animals, and leave the victims often suffering for hours in enormous agony and fear until a tracking dog finds them and they are shot?
• that hobby hunters (apart from vivisection) inflict the most agony and abuse on animals, including through the manner of killing?
• that the hunters' love of animals and nature does not delight in the existence of the beloved object, but rather aims to possess the beloved creature body and soul, culminating in turning it into prey through the act of killing?
• that hobby hunters positively encourage browsing damage through hunting pressure, in particular on predators such as fox, lynx and wolf?
• that hobby hunters throw the door wide open to antisocial, unethical and unchristian behaviour?
• that hobby hunters deny the public normal, natural observations of and interactions with animals?
• that there is no greater product of torment, contaminated with ammunition, than game meat?
• that there is no uniform regulation across Switzerland regarding eyesight tests, shooting practice and so on for hobby hunters?
• that there is no psychological character assessment for hobby hunters?
• that there is no ban on alcohol for hobby hunters when they shoot at animals with their weapons?
• that hobby hunters intrude into educational institutions in order to talk their tall hunting tales and their violence into children?
• that a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed that hunting associations promote practically everything that is cruel, needless and heartless?
• that the association «Jagd Schweiz» primarily cultivates disrespect and a culture of violence – precisely the opposite of what a cultivated person in our society should strive for.
• that in the canton of Grisons alone, over 1’000 reports and fines are issued against hobby hunters every year?