Hunting safaris in Valais (Swiss Press Local 2020, by Francois Ruchti) - Swiss Press Award
Mise au Point, RTS télévision
Francois Ruchti
To shoot a lion in Africa costs CHF 30 000. An ibex in Valais is available for CHF 20 000. Specialised travel agencies offer their customers trips hunting ibex in Switzerland. This type of big game hunting is unique to Switzerland and attracts more than a hundred amateur hunters every year. As the report shows, this offer annually brings CHF 650 000 into the coffers of the canton of Valais. The canton charges CHF 13 000 for an animal with horns of one metre length. The Valais gamekeepers, who oversee the amateur hunters, leading them straight to the beautiful game, which they attract with salt stones, deny any illegality. In their opinion, it is about rebalancing the herds and reducing the number of old animals, “many of which would not survive the winter anyway …” In total, 36 % of all ibexes over the age of eleven are shot in the Valais every year, which, according to other experts, puts the balance of the herds into question.
Interview with Francois Ruchti
