Fox-hunting panel in Utzenstorf: four hobby hunters, one non-hunter and no genuine dialogue

On Sunday, 14 June 2026, the Landshut Castle Friends Association invited people to the «Landshut Dialogue on Wildlife and Hunting» in Utzenstorf.

The topic was: «Fox hunting, necessary or questionable?» To set the mood, the documentary film «All for the foxes, a wild animal, loved and hunted» by biologist Isabella Sedivy was shown at midday. From 2 pm a specialist talk by hobby hunter Martin Baumann followed, before a panel discussion was set to illuminate the topic from «various angles». Around 50 people attended the event. What followed, however, was anything but a balanced dialogue.

Of the five panel guests, four publicly professed their support for hobby hunting: Nicole Imesch, hunting inspector of the canton of Bern; David Clavadetscher, managing director of JagdSchweiz; Martin Baumann, hobby hunter; and Sara Wehrli, responsible for hunting policy at Pro Natura, who over the course of the evening likewise outed herself as a hobby hunter. Only Casimir von Arx, GLP cantonal councillor of the canton of Bern, who by his own account had been invited subsequently, represented a hunting-critical perspective. The moderator Reinhard Schnidrig, wildlife biologist and former head of the wildlife section at the BAFU, is also a hobby hunter.

Baumann, who advocated consistent hunting of the fox, at least conceded that earth hunting is hard to justify to society. «Hunting for the rubbish bin» is not tolerated by the majority of the population, according to his own assessment. As an argument in favour of hunting he cited the threat posed by the fox to ground-nesting birds, mentioning the grey partridge, which is extinct in Switzerland. What he kept quiet about: the main reason for the disappearance of the grey partridge is habitat loss due to intensive agriculture, not the fox. He said not a word about this.

Particularly explosive: Baumann also spoke out in favour of earth hunting, the practice in which dogs are driven into fox dens to force a fight in the most confined of spaces. The Foundation for the Animal in the Law (TIR) reaches a clear conclusion in its expert report on earth hunting (Publication Series Volume 10, 2012) that this hunting method fulfils the offence of animal cruelty, and indeed several times over. In doing so, the TIR also analysed whether the cantonal regulations that legalise earth hunting even rest on a lawful basis at all. The cantons of Zurich, Thurgau and Baselland have meanwhile banned earth hunting. That, of all people, a hobby hunter should advocate this practice on a public platform, without even beginning to question it, shows how far the self-image of hobby hunting is removed from social realities. A detailed background article on earth hunting as legalised animal cruelty can be found on wildbeimwild.com.

Nicole Imesch confined herself to the legal observation that the fox is huntable and may therefore be hunted. That «huntable» is not a scientific argument and also entails no obligation to hunt remained unchallenged. The canton of Geneva has refrained from hobby hunting since 1974, and the canton of Zug is taking the first steps in the same direction, with regard to fox hunting.

Von Arx, the only non-hunter on the panel, put forward the most constructive proposal of the evening: in the canton of Bern, a scientifically monitored trial should be launched to forgo fox hunting in a test area. The Grand Council of the canton of Bern had already rejected the corresponding motion. As expected, the panel aligned itself with this rejection, without providing any scientific basis for it.

From the audience, too, there came only four contributions, all of them from hobby hunters. Critical voices were not heard.

Remarkable was a statement that unintentionally summed up the very essence of hobby hunting: hunting was, for the individual hobby hunter, self-rewarding behaviour, driven by the dopamine reward system. In short: pure self-gratification. That, of all people, an advocate of hobby hunting should phrase it this way speaks volumes.

The «Landshut Dialogue» showed once again how criticism of fox hunting is being systematically stifled in Switzerland without any scientific basis being provided. As long as panel discussions on this topic are filled almost exclusively with hobby hunters, and even the moderation comes from the same circles, genuine dialogue is impossible. A pity, because the topic would deserve an honest, scientifically grounded debate.