Close Season: Over 60 Organizations Stand Up for the Fox in Germany

While in Dortmund at «Jagd & Hund» the latest trapping systems, semi-automatic hunting weapons, and exotic trophy hunting trips are being offered for sale, thousands of foxes are losing their lives as part of so-called «fox weeks».

In all likelihood, large numbers of these are parent animals needed for raising their young. Because even at hunts taking place from the start of the fox mating season – i.e. from the end of November each year – every male fox killed is a potential fox father-to-be, and every vixen killed is potentially pregnant. From mid-January onwards, the first fox cubs are born, meaning that even the hunts taking place right now carry the risk of killing actual parent animals and condemning their cubs to a horrific death by starvation or freezing.

Wildtierschutz Deutschland and the Aktionsbündnis Fuchs, which is supported by over 60 animal and nature conservation organizations, wants to prevent this. Animal welfare advocates are calling on Julia Klöckner and her colleagues in the state ministries of agriculture and environment, in a formal letter, to immediately account for the actual birthing periods of foxes at the legislative level and to recognize that the male fox is also necessary for raising young. Even if the primary provider of the fox family is killed between mating and birthing season, his offspring have significantly lower chances of survival. To genuinely ensure the protection of parent animals, a closed season for foxes starting at the beginning of the mating period would therefore be necessary.

When the Federal Hunting Act was first published in 1952, the protection of parent animals was defined solely based on the period during which fox cubs were born at the time. Many hunters still act accordingly today and fail to take into account that fox cubs in this country are now demonstrably born not in March, but already in January and February. Findings from fox research regarding the family structure of foxes are largely ignored by both hunters and politicians.

«It must have been the intention of the legislators at the time to create comprehensive protection for the parent animals necessary for raising young. «Hunting associations that uphold fair chase on paper should also engage in some self-reflection. Perhaps they might recall their own policy document, which, in the context of fair chase, calls for self-restraint on the part of the hunter and states that by no means is everything permitted that is not expressly forbidden.»

Lovis Kauertz of Wildtierschutz Deutschland.

We also reject any extended hunting season for foxes, because fox hunting is not necessary for either ecological or epidemiological reasons. This is demonstrated, among other things, by numerous national parks in Germany and, since 2015, our neighbor Luxembourg, where a year-round closed season for foxes has been in effect.

The Aktionsbündnis Fuchs (Fox Action Alliance) was founded in 2017 and advocates for a year-round closed season for foxes. The alliance is supported by over 60 animal and nature conservation organizations.