Stop Fox Hunting – Write to the Zug Cantonal Parliament
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.
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 – 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.
Canton Zug is the only Swiss canton to have commissioned a scientific study on fox hunting. The result from SWILD (May 2026) is clear: current hunting practices do not sustainably regulate fox populations, do not improve disease control, and are inferior to non-lethal protective measures. Canton Geneva has managed with minimal individual interventions since 1974. Luxembourg banned fox hunting in 2015 – the prevalence of fox tapeworm subsequently declined sharply.
Nevertheless, around 19,000 red foxes are shot in Switzerland every year – with no demonstrable benefit for public health or agriculture, at taxpayers' expense, and causing considerable animal suffering.
I ask you to take the recommendations of the SWILD study seriously and to advocate in the cantonal parliament for evidence-based fox management – with a clear focus on non-lethal methods.
Canton Geneva has managed without recreational hunting since 1974 – and thus effectively without fox hunting either: only state game wardens are permitted to intervene there, and in the last two years not a single regulatory kill has taken place.
Kind regards
[Your name]
[Your place of residence]
What Canton Zug has decided
On 16 June 2026, the hunting commission took note of the SWILD study and adopted three measures:
Data on hunting, damage prevention, special kills and roadkill/fallen game will in future be evaluated with more consistent separation. Fox hunting will no longer be proactively promoted; the focus will shift to settlement edges and nature reserves. The Office for Forests and Wildlife will inform the public about the negative effects of wildlife feeding on the fox population.
This is not a complete change of course – but it is the first canton to take science seriously and draw concrete conclusions from it. Other cantons have simply defined away the question of scientific necessity. Zug has investigated it.
What the SWILD study shows
The key findings of the 25-page expert report by Dr Claudia Kistler and Dr Fabio Bontadina (SWILD, May 2026):
Population regulation: Current hunting is not coordinated across larger regions. Compensation mechanisms – higher fertility, better survival rates, immigration – offset losses. There is no solid evidence that recreational hunting sustainably reduces fox populations.
Rabies: Intensive hunting and den gassing failed to stop the rabies epidemic in the 1970s. Only the vaccination campaign starting in 1978 achieved herd immunity. Lethal methods can even accelerate the spread of disease, because hunted animals become more mobile.
Fox tapeworm: In a French study from the Nancy region (Comte et al. 2017), the prevalence of the fox tapeworm rose from 44 to 55 percent despite high hunting pressure – because young foxes filling the gaps carry a higher worm burden.
Livestock: Studies show that losses due to fox predation do not depend on fox density in the area – but on the quality of protective measures. Well-secured fences and guardian dogs are more effective than hunting.
Geneva: Since 1974, only a few problem animals have been killed by game wardens in the canton of Geneva. In the past two years, there have been no regulatory kills. The fox population has not exploded, and the disease situation is no worse than in other cantons.
Luxembourg: Since the fox hunting ban in 2015, the prevalence of the small fox tapeworm has dropped sharply – from around 40 percent to below 10 percent. The opposite of what hunting advocates had feared.
The full study is publicly accessible: Scientific Basis for Fox Hunting
Where to find the contact details
You can find the 80 members of the Zug cantonal parliament on the official list of members of the cantonal parliament. The canton does not publish personal email addresses there, but offers a contact form for each parliament member. General enquiries to the cantonal parliament are handled by the parliamentary service at parlamentsdienst.zug@zg.ch. You can also reach the parliamentary groups via the secretariats of the cantonal parties.
What has happened so far in the canton of Zug
📌 Canton of Zug: Authorities Curb Fox Hunting After Study
Following the SWILD report, the hunting commission decides to stop proactively promoting fox hunting.
🧠 Psychology of recreational hunting in the canton of Zug
What it means psychologically when a canton actually has the evidence examined instead of fending it off.
📌 Recreational Hunters as False Wildlife Experts
How Pascal Wolf submitted petitions against fox hunting in 12 cantons – and what the authorities made of them.
📌 Killed by the Million – for Nothing: New Study Exposes Hunters' Tall Tales
Study in “Biological Conservation”: kills reduce neither populations nor damage.
📌 France and the Fox: Hunting Myths Debunked
Hunting-free areas show that foxes regulate themselves.