Canton of Zug: Authorities curb fox hunting after study

The Lucerne-based lawyer Pascal Wolf has submitted petitions in over twelve cantons to examine the scientific necessity of fox hunting.

In the canton of Zug, his submission of December 2025 (Bill No. 4032.1, reference DI DIS 58479-05) has yielded a concrete result as the only canton so far: on 19 June 2026, Landammann Andreas Hostettler confirmed in writing on behalf of the Directorate of the Interior that, at its meeting of 16 June 2026, the hunting commission took note of the commissioned study by the wildlife researchers at SWILD and decided on initial consequences: fox hunting will no longer be actively promoted, and data collection will in future be more consistently divided into hunting, damage prevention, special kills and animals found dead.

What the study proves

The SWILD study (Dr Claudia Kistler / Dr Fabio Bontadina, May 2026, 25 pages, commissioned by the Office for Forests and Wildlife of the canton of Zug) provides a merciless assessment. Key finding: the licence hunting of foxes practised in the canton of Zug neither reduces the population size sustainably nor curbs wildlife diseases. On the contrary: hunted populations compensate for losses through increased fertility of vixens, improved survival rates and immigration from neighbouring areas.

In the canton of Zug, an average of 308 foxes per year were killed between 2000 and 2025 (according to the SWILD report 2000–2025), with a strongly declining trend. According to the study, this decline is not explained by falling populations, but by the waning willingness of recreational hunters to shoot foxes. Reliable population figures are lacking: as no systematic monitoring exists, all conclusions drawn from kill and animals-found-dead data must be interpreted with great caution.

Wildlife feeding as an underestimated problem

The hunting commission is responding to another finding of the study: the Office for Forest and Wildlife (AFW) is to actively inform the public in future about the negative consequences of direct and indirect wildlife feeding. Foxes that are attracted by human food sources lose their natural shyness and avoidance behaviour, which creates or intensifies conflicts in residential areas in the first place. The SWILD researchers attribute a considerable proportion of the fox presence near settlements to the availability of food of anthropogenic origin.

The rabies argument does not hold

The study once again explicitly refutes the epidemic argument repeatedly put forward in hunting circles. During the rabies epidemic that reached Switzerland in 1967, intensive hunting and earth gassing failed. The decisive measure was an oral vaccination campaign carried out from 1978 onwards, through which freedom from rabies according to WHO criteria was achieved in 1999. For the fox tapeworm (Echinococcus multilocularis), a French study shows: despite hunting pressure increased by 35 per cent, the infestation rate in the hunted test area rose from 44 to 55 per cent, while it remained constant in the less hunted control area. Young foxes, which are mobilised by hunting pressure and fill the gaps, carry higher worm burdens than adult animals.

Geneva and Luxembourg as a benchmark

Two case studies structure the results section of the SWILD study. In the canton of Geneva, which has dispensed with militia hunting since 1974 and authorises only state game wardens to carry out kills, significantly fewer foxes have been killed over decades than in the canton of Zug, which is similar in size by area, without any discernible deterioration for agriculture or public health. In the last reporting period, no regulatory kills of foxes were carried out at all.

In Luxembourg, where fox hunting has been banned since 2015, according to SWILD — with reference to the Luxembourg veterinary administration — the state veterinary authority has recorded a decline in fox tapeworm prevalence since the ban. Luxembourg's environment minister stated in 2024 that the controversy surrounding the ban had largely subsided, because the feared problems had simply not materialised. The study concludes: a hunting ban would, in all likelihood, not cause the fox population in the canton of Zug to rise noticeably.

A sober look at the damage balance

Between 2012 and 2025, the canton of Zug recorded 67 cases of wildlife damage caused by foxes, with total compensation amounting to 28,088.70 francs. That corresponds to around 2,000 francs per year, with an average of 5 cases. In 93.5 per cent of cases chickens were affected; lambs, sheep and calves made up the rest. The SWILD researchers point out that losses among lambs are frequently overestimated, because the cause of death is difficult to determine without forensic investigation. Effective protective alternatives, such as secured fences in open-air runs and guard dogs, show better results in scientific studies than hunting the predators.

What the commission decided

On the basis of the study, the hunting commission is taking three measures: first, a more consistent separation of the statistical categories (hunting, damage prevention, special kills, fallen game); second, refraining from actively promoting fox hunting, with a focus on the edges of settlements and nature reserves; third, an information campaign by the AFW on the feeding of wild animals. The commission intends to decide on any further-reaching steps at its next meeting, once an improved data base is available.

A complete renunciation of fox hunting is therefore not yet up for discussion in Zug, but the study removes the official basis from the narrative that recreational hunting of foxes is scientifically necessary. The canton of Geneva demonstrates how wildlife management without recreational hunting works. The dossier on fox hunting without facts documents how hunting associations have so far dominated the discussion.