Fox hunting: Bern government refuses to examine the evidence

Bern's cantonal government has rejected a cross-party motion that sought to test scientifically, in a limited area, what the consequences of suspending fox hunting would be.

Wild beim Wild editorial team — 20 May 2026

The motion was submitted on 3 December 2025 by GLP cantonal councillor Casimir von Arx, co-sponsored by representatives from the SP, SVP, Greens, EVP and FDP.

It called for a time-limited, scientifically monitored field trial: in a suitable area, the effects of a complete or partial halt to red fox hunting on fox populations, wildlife health, public health, biodiversity and agriculture were to be investigated.

The scale of the issue is considerable. According to federal hunting statistics, between 15,000 and 25,000 red foxes are typically shot in Switzerland each year, with between 2,000 and 3,500 animals in the canton of Bern alone. As the «Berner Zeitung» reported at the end of October 2025, most of the roughly 3,000 foxes killed in Bern end up in the rubbish.

The driving force behind the initiative is the lawyer Pascal Wolf, who has launched similar motions in more than twelve cantons, focusing mainly on questioning the scientific necessity of fox hunting. Authorities have so far often rejected them, most recently the competent Lucerne commission, whose approach wildbeimwild.com has critically traced. Wolf's commitment and the technical background are also documented in detail.

The cantonal government's reasoning

In its decision of 6 May 2026, the cantonal government recommends rejection. Its reasoning is based not on data but on the structure of hunting law: under the federal hunting act, the red fox is a huntable wildlife species, its population is widespread across the entire canton and in no way threatened. Restrictions on hunting could primarily be justified on the grounds of species protection, which does not apply here. There is therefore no need to scientifically investigate the effect of suspending fox hunting.

One passage formulated by the cantonal government itself is striking: since non-threatened species may be used by hobby hunting, hobby hunting is «effectively an end in itself» and need not fulfil any explicit regulatory function. With this, the government confirms precisely the point that hobby hunting usually disputes in public.

The core contradiction

This is precisely where the response falls short. The motion did not ask whether the fox is threatened, but whether hunting actually fulfils the purposes ascribed to it. The Regierungsrat leaves this question unanswered. Lead signatory von Arx accordingly criticises publicly on Radio BeO that the government is sidestepping the actual concern of the motion.

The scientific basis is by no means open. Rabies was eradicated in Switzerland with vaccine baits, not with the rifle. The fox tapeworm can be effectively reduced through deworming baits, while hunting is considered unsuitable for this purpose. Fox populations remain stable even under heavy hunting pressure, because immigration and higher reproduction quickly offset losses. The decline of rare species is attributed by the majority of research to habitat loss and intensive agriculture, not to the predator fox. The state of research on evidence-based fox management has been summarised by wildbeimwild.com.

A look across the cantonal border shows that abstention is practicable. In the canton of Geneva, hunting by private individuals has been banned since 1974; only up to twenty official special kills take place each year. Luxembourg has protected the fox year-round since 2015. There are also hunting-free areas within Switzerland: in the Swiss National Park, all hunting has been prohibited since its founding in 1914, the fox is fully protected there like all other species, and numerous other national parks in Europe handle it the same way. A population explosion, increased disease or excessive damage has not occurred in any of these cases. The frequently heard argument that the Geneva model cannot be transferred therefore does not stand up to scrutiny. More on this in the dossier on the self-regulation of wildlife populations and in the article on the cruelty of fox hunting.

When hunting promotes disease

The discrepancy becomes particularly clear in the health argument for hobby hunting. Rabies was eradicated in Switzerland with vaccine baits, not with the rifle. With the fox tapeworm, a four-year study in the Nancy region shows the opposite of what was expected: despite massively intensified nocturnal hunting across roughly 700 square kilometres, in which the bag rose by 35 per cent, the fox population did not shrink. The infection rate with the parasite climbed in the test area from 40 to 55 per cent, while it remained stable in the comparison area. The study bears the telling title "An inappropriate paradigm". By contrast, deworming baits are considered effective; in the Bavarian district of Starnberg they reduced the risk of infection by 97 to 99 per cent.

With ticks too, the evidence speaks against shooting. In areas with high activity of predators such as fox and stone marten, rodents carry significantly fewer ticks, and these are less often infected. Anyone who decimates the mouse-hunting fox thus tends to increase the risk of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis, whose case numbers in Switzerland recently reached record highs. wildbeimwild.com has shown how hobby hunters spread diseases and why hobby hunting even promotes diseases.

The urgency is high, because Switzerland is a European hotspot for the fox tapeworm. A review published in 2025 in "The Lancet Infectious Diseases" counted 4,207 cases of alveolar echinococcosis across Europe for the years 1997 to 2023, around 68 per cent of them in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Per capita, Switzerland ranks second after Lithuania. To rely, of all things in this situation, on a demonstrably counterproductive hunting strategy instead of on deworming is hard to justify in terms of health policy.

Licence canton without territorial obligation

Important for context: Bern is one of sixteen licence hunting cantons. Anyone who buys a licence may hunt across the entire cantonal territory without bearing responsibility for a specific hunting ground. The notion that hobby hunters fulfil a comprehensive stewardship task through fox shooting cannot be derived from this system.

How things proceed

The rejection by the Cantonal Council does not close the matter. The motion will now be decided by the Grand Council, expected in the autumn 2026 session. The cross-party backing shows that support for a fact-based review of fox hunting is growing well beyond traditional animal welfare circles.