Stop Fox Hunting – Write to the Basel-Landschaft Cantonal Parliament
The Executive Council of the canton of Basel-Landschaft has replied twice to Pascal Wolf's fox hunting petition, contradicting itself in the process. In its first statement of 16 June 2026, signed by Council President Dr Anton Lauber, it described the “regulation of huntable species” as an important wildlife management measure. In its second reply of 11 August 2026, signed by Council President Thomi Jourdan, it declared that fox hunting is “not carried out with the aim of area-wide population regulation” and that the findings from Zug were “already being taken into account”. Neither letter contains a single scientific source.
The contradiction is obvious: anyone who first declares regulation an important measure and then, two months later, denies it as an aim once scientific evidence is on the table cannot claim that existing practice has long since taken that evidence into account. The current hunting directive of 18 March 2026 still sets a regular hunting season for the fox from 16 June to the end of February. In 2024, 676 red foxes were killed in the canton of Basel-Landschaft.
On 22 October 2026, Landrat member Flavia Müller (Greens) brought the issue before parliament. Her Postulate calls on the Executive Council to examine the necessity of fox hunting scientifically, and asks how recreational hunting can be abolished. Please ask the members of the Landrat to refer the postulate.
You can do something, no matter which canton you live in. Get in touch directly with your cantonal parliament member or your National Councillor. It's legal, effective, and takes only a little time.
Important: Don't rely on email alone. We have received feedback from several cantons that messages about hobby fox hunting sometimes come back as undeliverable. Whether this is due to faulty addresses or a targeted filter cannot be determined from the outside. It is therefore better to use several channels: write a letter, make a phone call, or seek a personal conversation. You can also contact the parties and parliamentary groups directly – a message to a party or group secretariat is often more effective than one to individual council members. A phone call or letter cannot be filtered out as easily as an email and often leaves more of an impression.
Template letter – copy this text into your email programme
Subject: Fox hunting in Basel-Landschaft – please take action
Dear Ms [Name] / Dear Mr [Name]
I am writing to you directly as a citizen because I am concerned about the practice of fox hunting in our canton.
The Executive Council has replied twice to the fox hunting petition, contradicting itself. In its first reply of 16 June 2026, it described the regulation of huntable species as an important wildlife management measure. In its second reply of 11 August 2026, it stated that fox hunting does not serve area-wide population regulation and that the scientific findings from the Zug report had already been taken into account. Taken together, these two statements do not amount to a coherent position.
Only what the canton knows can be taken into account. The underlying expert report by the SWILD office dates from May 2026, was prepared for the canton of Zug and, according to the Executive Council, reached Liestal only when the petitioner sent it in. The first reply of June does not mention it at all. The current directive on the exercise of hunting in the 2026/27 hunting year, dated 18 March 2026, continues to set a regular hunting season for the fox from 16 June to the end of February, unchanged. There is no sign in enforcement of any reorientation having been taken into account.
In 2024, 676 red foxes were killed in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. Regular hunting on this scale cannot be justified by saying that the authorities want to remain able to act in the case of individual sick or problematic animals. Such individual cases are already regulated separately in the same directive and are permitted at any time. They do not justify a general hunt of several hundred healthy foxes a year.
The science is unambiguous: more than 30 years of wildlife-biology research show no lasting regulatory effect from fox hunting. Compensatory effects through higher reproduction and immigration quickly offset the kills. In the case of the fox tapeworm, hunting is even counterproductive. The canton of Geneva has managed without recreational hunting since 1974, and Luxembourg since its fox hunting ban of 2015, without the authorities becoming unable to act in genuine problem cases.
I ask you to scrutinise the Executive Council's reply critically and to press in the Landrat for a genuine, scientifically grounded review of fox hunting. No federal law obliges the canton to hunt foxes. The canton of Zug has shown that this room for manoeuvre can be used.
Kind regards
[Your name]
[Your place of residence]
What was decided in the canton of Basel-Landschaft
The Executive Council replied on 16 June 2026 in four pages, without citing a single study. It names five functions of fox hunting (disease control, dealing with habituated animals, putting sick animals out of their misery, epidemiological monitoring, the ability to act in an emergency), but provides no scientific evidence. Not one study was cited for any of these functions.
Particularly revealing: the cantonal government itself points to Geneva («including the state hunt (Geneva), interventions in wildlife populations remain a component of wildlife management») – without mentioning that Geneva abolished recreational hunting in 1974 and has managed with minimal interventions ever since.
What Science Says
Population regulation: Compensation mechanisms – higher fertility, better survival rates, immigration – offset the losses. Even the killing of three quarters of a population is made good again the following year.
Rabies: Intensive hunting could not stop the rabies epidemic of the 1970s. Only the vaccination campaign from 1978 onwards worked. Lethal methods can even worsen epidemics, because hunted animals become more mobile.
Fox tapeworm: In a French study from the Nancy area (Comte et al. 2017), prevalence rose from 44 to 55 per cent despite heavy hunting pressure – because young foxes filling the gaps carry a higher worm burden.
Geneva: No recreational hunting since 1974, no population explosion, no worse disease situation. Luxembourg: Since the hunting ban in 2015, the proportion of foxes carrying the fox tapeworm has fallen from around 40 to below 10 per cent.
Full overview of studies: Studies: The Impact of Recreational Hunting on Wild Animals
Why writing in is worth it
The cantonal government evades the issue, but the Landrat can put the question on the political agenda. That is precisely what your letter aims at. The more members of the Landrat who are confronted with the one unanswered question, the harder it becomes to ignore: what scientifically proven purpose still justifies the regular hunting of several hundred foxes every year in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, when population regulation has no scientific basis as a justification and individual problem animals can also be removed in a targeted way?
The Zug SWILD report
The canton of Zug is so far the only Swiss canton to have responded to Pascal Wolf's fox hunting petition with a genuine scientific study. In autumn 2025, the Department of the Interior commissioned SWILD – Urban Ecology, Wildlife Research, Communication – to produce an expert report. The second version appeared in May 2026 and was presented to the hunting commission on 16 June 2026.
The result is unambiguous: the fox hunting currently practised cannot sustainably regulate populations, does not improve disease control and is inferior to non-lethal methods when it comes to protecting livestock. The experience from Geneva (since 1974) and Luxembourg (since 2015) confirms that wildlife management works without recreational hunting of the red fox.
The full study is publicly accessible: Scientific Basis for Fox Hunting
Where to find the contact details
You can find the email addresses of all 90 members of the Landrat on the official member list at baselland.ch. Das E-Mail-Muster lautet einheitlich vorname.nachname@lr-bl.ch. Bitte vor dem Versand die konkrete Adresse auf der offiziellen Liste verifizieren.
What has happened so far in the canton of Basel-Landschaft
📌 Postulate by Flavia Müller: Examining the scientific necessity of fox hunting
Landrat member Flavia Müller (Greens) demands five answers from the cantonal government, up to and including the abolition of recreational hunting.
📌 Basel-Landschaft backpedals: first regulation, now «no target»
The second reply of 11 August 2026 contradicts the first. «Already taken into account» stands up neither to the timeline nor to the current hunting directive.
📌 Canton of Basel-Landschaft Responds to Fox Hunting Petition – Without a Single Scientific Source
Four pages of bureaucratic language, not a single cited study. An analysis.
📌 Dumbing Down the Public in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft
While the evidence is ignored, the canton celebrates 35 new recreational hunters.
🧠 The Psychology of Recreational Hunting in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft
What it says about an administration when it ignores evidence while celebrating new recruits at the same time.
📌 After Bern and Lucerne: Basel Questions Fox Hunting
In the Basel Grand Council, a councillor is demanding a scientific review. In 2024, 679 foxes were killed in the two Basels.