Animal Cruelty: Fox Massacre in Switzerland

The fox is a very illustrative (and sad) example of how the hobby hunter, through ignorance, commits acts of animal cruelty and, through a compulsive need to control nature, creates problems himself while extinguishing natural regulatory mechanisms.

Editorial Team Wild beim Wild — 24 November 2025

Foxes are essential to both agriculture and forestry as hunters of mice and play a significant role in curbing “rodent-transmitted pathogens” such as hantaviruses and Borrelia.

For these reasons, we should see the fox for what it is — namely as an important component of the ecosystem and an enrichment of native fauna.

Research conducted by IG Wild beim Wild with the cantonal offices for hunting and fisheries revealed astonishing facts. Only the canton of Lucerne, for instance, keeps statistics on diseases in foxes. Of the 2,217 foxes senselessly shot in the canton of Lucerne during the 2018/19 hunting year, only 39 foxes had a disease (mange 32, distemper 1, other diseases 6). All other foxes were disposed of at taxpayers’ expense.

In Switzerland, the cantons of Bern, Aargau, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Valais, Lucerne and Zurich stand out particularly negatively for disproportionate hunting of foxes and badgers and for acts of animal cruelty.

In the canton of Bern, according to federal hunting statistics, around one fifth of all red foxes in Switzerland are shot, even though experts see no justification for this.

Special culls in the federal hunting statistics

Definition of special cull: A cull carried out within a protected area or during the closed season as a result of disease or injury. These culls were carried out by cantonal game wardens in a protected area or by hunting supervision authorities in the hunting districts.

In the canton of Bern, special culls function as a kind of reward system for hobby hunters. Each year, 800 hobby hunters in the canton of Bern who are particularly active in wildlife management receive special permits. During the period from 16 June to 31 August, species such as carrion crows, rooks, Eurasian jays, magpies, feral domestic cats, raccoons, raccoon dogs, foxes and badgers — which are subject to a closed season until 31 August — are simply shot without justification. Although these wild animals should be protected at the cantonal level, the special permits resulted in, for example, 300 foxes and 371 badgers being shot in 2018. Even Eurasian jays are not spared from the shooting frenzy of hobby hunters.

Conditions as in the darkest Middle Ages in Graubünden! According to a resolution of the municipal council of Laax, a bounty of CHF 40.— is paid for every fox and every badger killed by local hunters on the municipal territory of Laax during the small game season.

In a letter to all municipalities in the canton of Zurich regarding the newly introduced night hunting of foxes and badgers, the controversial Urs Philipp from the Office for Hunting and Fisheries claims that foxes transmit rabies — despite warnings from the Swiss Rabies Center that a hunter-led reduction of fox populations is not feasible and that recreational hunting as a means of combating rabies is in fact counterproductive. As we know today, it was only animal-friendly vaccine baits that were able to eradicate terrestrial rabies — it has been considered eradicated in Switzerland since 1999 and across large parts of Europe!

According to federal hunting statistics, foxes in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden are pursued for a full 5½ months — badgers for 6 months. Given such stress and hunting pressure, it comes as no surprise that these animals fall ill. For years, the epicenter of fox tapeworm reports across all of Europe has been located in eastern Switzerland! Although our hobby hunters consistently claim to ensure healthy wildlife populations, what they primarily practise is animal cruelty.

During the 2018 hunting season in the canton of Solothurn, 658 foxes and 222 badgers — most of them healthy — were killed by militant hobby hunters on a non-scientific basis and without any expertise in wildlife biology.

According to modern science, fox hunting is ecologically, economically, and epidemiologically pointless — indeed, even counterproductive! As a general rule, fox populations that are hunted less also produce fewer offspring.

Wild beim Wild is of the opinion that these pointless massacres and acts of animal cruelty in all of our living spaces are not in keeping with the times, and calls for a ban on all small game hunting!

Sources and studies:

Update 2025: New developments on fox hunting and the fox tapeworm

Since the article's publication in February 2020, its central findings have been confirmed:

Hunting figures
The federal hunting statistics continue to show high kill numbers. In the 2022/23 hunting year alone, nearly 19,000 predators such as foxes were killed for pleasure during small game hunting season. A sustainable regulatory effect on fox populations or conflicts remains unproven.
Fox tapeworm
New studies classify Switzerland as a European hotspot for alveolar echinococcosis. The increase in case numbers is attributed primarily to high fox density, closer contact between wildlife, domestic animals, and humans, as well as improved diagnostics. Specialist bodies continue to recommend hygiene, regular deworming of dogs, and public education — but not fox massacres.
Models without hobby hunting
The canton of Geneva remains an important counterexample: for decades, a system without hobby hunting has functioned there, with officially controlled interventions as a last resort. A collapse of ecosystems or an epidemic disaster has not materialised.

The current data thus support the criticism of the senseless and animal-welfare-violating killing of foxes in Switzerland.

Dossiers: Fox in Switzerland: The most hunted predator without a lobby | Fox hunting without facts: How JagdSchweiz invents problems

More on the topic of hobby hunting: In our dossier on hunting we compile fact-checks, analyses, and background reports.