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The protection of the wolf in Switzerland is not being relaxed. The electorate rejected the revision of the hunting law.
Hunting law
Federal filing: Hunting Law Amendment
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Y
1’530’811
be right -
NOT
1’653’873
be right
- The hunting law is rejected with 51.9 percent.
- The results showed a gap between the mountain cantons and the urban and western Swiss cantons.
Of the five national proposals that were put to the vote on Sunday, the revised hunting law was arguably the most controversial in the run-up to the election campaign. It was a long time before a statement could be made on the result of the vote. But in the end it became clear: the hunting law simply failed. It was the central plateau and western Switzerland that tipped the scales to say no to the hunting law.
Lukas Golder from the gfs.bern institute interprets the result of the hunting law as follows: “The mountainous areas and the cantons of Central Switzerland voted for the hunting law. The great Swiss plateau along with western Switzerland, where many people live, tipped the scales to say no today. “
Preventive deaths
In general, the arguments of Left-Green and the environmental and animal associations, which had called the referendum against the bill, were more convincing in the vote. Again and again, and also on election Sunday, there was talk of a “wolf hunting law”, of “a failed law that harasses wild animals.”
Above all, it was the recently allowed pre-emptive slaughter of individual wolves, as well as the legitimate and planned regulation of wolf packs that warmed the minds of the opponents. It was a contradiction to kill a protected animal without causing any harm, said the tenor. The revised hunting law allows shooting “in advance”.
Opponents feared less biodiversity
Opponents saw in the new hunting law not only the endangered wolf, but also other protected animal species. In the voting campaign, it was almost forgotten that the regulatory rules should apply not only to the wolf, but also to the ibex.
Environmentalists warned that the beaver or lynx could soon be on this list. Reference was made to an article of the law that establishes that the Federal Council can declare other protected animal species regulated without the consent of parliament or the people. The Federal Council denied such plans. Opponents concluded: “What the review really involves is less species protection.”
The old law is the new
With the no to the revised Hunting Law, the 1986 law remains in effect. Even before the vote, opponents announced that after the rejection, work would soon begin on a new proposal to have a law that would truly do justice to the protection of species.
