Absurdistan: Solothurn Cantonal Government

The IG Wild beim Wild advocates for serious wildlife management with game wardens — not for hunting driven purely by the urge and desire to kill, which hobby hunters glorify today.

This form of hobby hunting, characterized by an overwhelming “killer mentality,” is neither traditional, ethical, nor morally or animal-welfare compliant.

On September 6, 2017, the SP/Young SP parliamentary group demanded a ban on earth dog hunting from the cantonal government in Solothurn:

The cantonal government is instructed to amend the hunting law so that earth dog hunting is prohibited.

A commendable proposal. For the mere act of keeping a wild animal in captivity — in an artificial burrow — is neither species-appropriate nor compliant with animal welfare standards. Everything else, such as “animal-welfare compliant,” “legal,” and so on, amounts to splitting hairs in the context of earth dog hunting and fox hunting in the negative government council decision — and does not lead toward a civilized society.

Having yourself photographed in front of a pilgrimage church and then putting Christian values into practice is clearly not a virtue of these Solothurn politicians. They rejected the SP's motion out of hand with a declaration of “non-materiality.”

Cantonal Councillor Brigit Wyss commented in her closing remarks, according to the Solothurner Zeitung , as follows: “One could assume that earth dog hunting is justifiable today. Not for reasons of tradition or because of the regulation of the fox population. But because many hunting dogs are now family dogs — and therefore require training in the context of earth dog hunting.” Anyone who puts such confused nonsense out into the world should simply be voted out of office.

58 members of the cantonal parliament subsequently voted against it, and 31 voted in favor of a ban on earth dog hunting.

Both driven hunts (battue and push hunts) as well as fox hunting remain primarily animal cruelty and are unnecessary hunting methods, as we know from many case studies. The absurd decision of the Canton of Solothurn's cantonal government does nothing to change this.

The fact that hobby hunters' hunting dogs are now to be misused even more and trained in the context of earth hunting serves only to make animal cruelty socially acceptable in the hobby hunting milieu, warns IG Wild beim Wild.

The Stiftung Tier im Recht has produced a landmark legal opinion on this matter, which makes it clear that from the perspective of animal protection law, the practice of earth hunting, for example, fulfills the criminal offense of animal cruelty in multiple respects.

Luxembourg has had a total ban on fox hunting for several years and thus implements in an animal-welfare-compliant manner what at least 18 international studies have long demonstrated: Fox hunting is nonsense. In the Canton of Geneva, foxes have not been hunted for decades simply because it is hunting season, and in the Canton of Ticino, fox hunting is also frowned upon according to federal hunting statistics.

Foxes protect us from disease

Those who are concerned about diseases such as Lyme disease, tularemia, or the so-called fox tapeworm should, according to studies, speak out unequivocally against hobby hunting.

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in Europe; more than 200’000 people are infected with it every year. The Federal Office of Public Health estimates that approximately 6’000 to 12’000 people in Switzerland contract Lyme disease annually.

In Switzerland, by contrast, only approximately 8–10 people per year contract the fox tapeworm. The fox is the natural enemy of bank voles and field mice. These rodents can also transmit the rapidly spreading Hantavirus to humans through their droppings and urine. The fox is irreplaceable as a forest guardian; foxes primarily catch mice — to the benefit of agriculture and forestry.

Study: Fox hunting is counterproductive

In a study from France, a four-year scientific study examined whether hobby hunting is an effective measure against the fox tapeworm. For this purpose, hobby hunting of foxes was significantly intensified in an area of just under 700 square kilometers near the city of Nancy. Over 1,700 hours, foxes were shot at night, including from moving vehicles, resulting in a 35% increase in the hunting bag.

1. The fox population wasNOT reduced by the drastically intensified hunting in the test area.
2. The fox tapeworm spread in the intensively hunted test area instead of being reduced: the infection rate even rose sharply from 40% to 55%, while it remained constant in the comparison area during the same period.
3. Instead of hobby hunting — which is clearly not only pointless but even counterproductive — the treatment of foxes with deworming bait is recommended where necessary.

As other studies (for example from the Starnberg district) have impressively shown, these deworming baits can effectively reduce the fox tapeworm infection rate in foxes to nearly zero percent. More on failed population control through hobby hunting and on hunting myths.