Thurgau becomes first canton to ban earth hunting

The canton of Thurgau will be the first canton in Switzerland to ban earth hunting with dogs for foxes and badgers.

The animal welfare association is expected to withdraw a corresponding initiative. Earth hunting with dogs for foxes and badgers is controversial: animal welfare advocates consider it cruel, while hobby hunters regard it as justified. The Federal Council had tightened the requirements for earth hunting in the new Hunting Ordinance in 2012, but did not ban it outright. Now Thurgau will become the first canton to ban earth hunting, as the Grand Council decided on Wednesday, 19 April 2017.

Initiative against earth hunting

The Thurgau Animal Welfare Association had been calling for a ban on earth hunting since 2010 (Wild beim Wild reported). In order to put pressure on politicians, the animal welfare advocates launched a popular initiative last autumn calling for a cantonal ban on earth hunting. The initiative was submitted in March.

«With the ban, democracy has been served. I will therefore propose to the initiative committee that we withdraw our initiative,» said Reinhold Zepf, President of the Thurgau Animal Welfare Association, on Wednesday.

Little opposition in the Grand Council

There was little opposition in the debate to the planned ban on earth hunting, even though a group of hobby hunters had bombarded the cantonal councillors with information material and in the morning had been handing out fresh croissants to lobby against the ban. Outside on the street, some blew hunting horns. The hobby hunters pursued their hobby responsibly and with high standards of animal welfare, they argued. No restrictions were needed. A representative of the SVP put forward a motion to drop the ban on earth hunting. This was rejected by a large majority. Council members were urged to form their own opinions. «We do not respond to threats,» said Stephan Tobler from Neukirch.

Thurgau's hobby hunters are divided on the issue of earth hunting, said a cantonal councillor who is himself a hobby hunter. Earth hunting is hardly practiced anymore and is not appreciated by the public, as the rapid success of the initiative against earth hunting has shown. It is therefore in the interest of hobby hunters to avoid a popular vote.

Fox hunting is unnecessary

Hobby hunters don't need to regulate the population of healthy foxes at all, if they had any understanding of wildlife biology. In the Canton of Geneva, foxes have not been regulated for decades, and the canton has, for example, the highest brown hare population in Switzerland. The country of Luxembourg, the Swiss National Park, and others also have a ban on fox hunting, and everything is in perfect order — entirely without the animal cruelty of hobby hunters.

«Even without hunting, there are not suddenly too many foxes, hares or birds. Experience shows that nature can be left to its own devices,» says Heinrich Haller, National Park President, or wildlife warden Fabian Kern from the canton of Zurich: «We have observed that fox mothers give birth to more young in areas where the animals are hunted. While a cull can provide localised relief, the vacant territories are quickly reoccupied. Nature regulates itself.»

More on this in the dossier: Hunting and Animal Welfare