Recreational hunter in Ticino convicted as poacher: Silencer, night vision device and illegal bait traps

In Ticino, a 68-year-old recreational hunter from the Mendrisiotto region was convicted by the court in Mendrisio for shooting a female wild boar weighing approximately 40 kilograms in the forests of Meride about two hours before the official opening of the high hunting season in 2024.

Judge Elettra Orsetta Bernasconi Matti classified the offense as serious. The Ticino game warden service, which had been monitoring the man for some time, referred to him more as a poacher than as a recreational hunter.

Heavily armed poaching instead of recreational hunting

What the game wardens found during the inspection reads like an inventory of a professional poacher: The carbine rifle used had an illegally shortened barrel, was equipped with a homemade silencer, and featured a thermal night vision device. The man also carried an additional firearm and unauthorized equipment. In his hunting cabin in Meride, authorities found an automatic feeding system and a salt lick stone, with which he had systematically attracted wildlife.

«Serious, simultaneous and deliberate offenses»

The cantonal Office of Hunting and Fisheries left no doubt about the severity of the case. The authority spoke of a series of serious, simultaneous and deliberate offenses. In fact, this is not a trivial offense or a one-time slip-up: The man had built a complete illegal infrastructure to deliberately attract wildlife, kill it outside permitted times, using prohibited equipment, and avoid detection.

The sentence: 40 daily rates of 90 francs, conditionally suspended for two years, a fine of 400 francs, a payment of the same amount to the cantonal wildlife fund, and revocation of his hunting license for three years. Additionally, the 68-year-old was convicted for purchasing and importing a prohibited laser pointer in 2025. The court found his explanation that the device was intended for his cats to be not credible.

Symptom of a structural problem

The case from Ticino is not an isolated incident. It exemplifies a fundamental problem with recreational hunting in Switzerland: Oversight of armed recreational hunters in the field is structurally inadequate. Game wardens are chronically understaffed, territories are vast, and hunting seasons are long. Those who equip themselves with silencers, night vision devices and bait traps deliberately calculate that they will not be inspected. That this man was «under observation for some time» and still managed to operate a complete poaching infrastructure unhindered demonstrates the limits of the system.

Three years of license revocation may sound like a significant penalty at first glance. But measured against the extent of the offenses, this sentence is lenient. In a system that organizes access to weapons and wildlife as recreational entertainment, there are insufficient deterrent mechanisms. As long as the recreational hunting lobby successfully blocks every move for stricter controls and higher penalties, such cases will not remain the exception.

Wildlife deserves better protection

Swiss hunting law urgently requires improvements. Those who kill wildlife with illegal equipment and deliberate planning should not be punished with suspended fines, but with a permanent weapons ban and permanent loss of hunting rights. The female wild boar from Meride had no chance. She was lured into a trap with technical precision and killed before the season even began. That is not hunting ethics, that is organized animal cruelty.

Source: Ticinonline / Corriere del Ticino, April 1, 2026