Macho Cult Trophy Hunting: Affront Against Women's Day
In this year's licensed hunt in Sweden, up to 143 lynxes may be shot from the country's population of approximately 1'400 animals until 15 April.
The recreational hunt, which attracts many foreign recreational hunters, is angering animal welfare advocates.
«The lynx hunt lynx hunt that began on 1 March violates our fundamental understanding of what is right and wrong. The macho cult surrounding this type of trophy hunting is an affront against International Women's Day,» says animal rights activist Eva Stjernswärd.
Authorities favour a macho culture
Sweden, the country with the highest firearms violence in Europe, permits automatic weapons and gang violence even in nature. March begins with the brutal trophy hunt for lynxes.
The Swedish “Environmental Protection Agency” permits 10’780 foreign and Swedish recreational hunters to participate in the hunt for 143 defenceless lynxes, which are sacrificed for trophy hunting by the county administrations. The majority of participants are men with concealed identities.
Violence presupposes indifference to the suffering of others, regardless of whether that violence affects humans or animals. The attraction some men have to violence has evolved into an industry of live-action violence pornography.
Paradoxically, the abuse and violence against lynxes takes place during the mating season from March to April.
Male violence against women continues to spread shame throughout Sweden. Women must remain hidden to avoid being killed when society fails them.
The same violence affects defenceless lynxes, because the county administrations do not respect protection orders. Lynx mothers with cubs are never granted “protected shelter”.
The masculine, militaristic power over nature also drives women to kill or to apply the male norms that guide decisions in trophy hunting. This remains deliberate animal cruelty and reinforces Sweden's violation of existing international conventions for the protection of endangered animals.
Trophy hunting is dominated by men
Interest in weapons is dominated by men. Statistically, men are more susceptible to violence than women. Animal cruelty is committed predominantly by men and boys. Hunting crimes are committed by men, and each year between 100 and 150 lynxes are killed illegally.
Hunting associations market lynx hunting as thrilling entertainment. Recreational hunters film live close-up footage and the retreat with action cameras of the lynx's death throes. Lynxes with bleeding eyes, wounded or panicked in trees, hunted by GPS-equipped dogs, reveal sadism, and recreational hunters are obsessed with tormenting lynxes and defenceless nine-month-old cubs.
Military weapons against animals
In 2023, the Swedish government rewarded the recreational hunter collective and introduced military automatic weapons against animals. The unlawful depiction of violence constitutes a criminal offence that penalises the dissemination of violent pornography, and in some cases gross violence against humans and animals. Section 16 of the Penal Code states: «The same applies to anyone who depicts gross violence against humans or animals in moving images, close-ups or clips with the intent to distribute, or who disseminates such a depiction.»
Trophy hunting of lynxes violates our fundamental understanding of what is right and what is wrong. The deliberate torture and killing of animals is antisocial behaviour. For lynxes, it is torture.
The fact that such a pronounced macho cult is promoted by Swedish authorities is a symbolic affront on International Women’s Day on 8 March, which should inspire hope for a more humane society.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
