Germany: Alliance Demands Closure of Scandal-Ridden Earth Dog Trial Facility

The earth dog trial facility in Lemgo-Vossheide is the oldest of its kind in Germany. There, the vixens Lilli and Lotta are regularly used to train hunting dogs to be «predator-sharp» — a particularly cruel hunting practice that is banned in other European countries for good reason.

The Aktionsbündnis Fuchs, a nationwide initiative of 60 nature and animal welfare organizations, is demanding the immediate closure of the facility, which has recently attracted attention due to particularly scandalous conditions.

The earth dog trial facility currently houses the young vixens Lilli and Lotta in small enclosures that barely meet the minimum legal requirements, even though foxes in the wild inhabit large territories of more than 100 hectares. To train the hunting dogs, the timid vixens are placed in an artificial burrow system to be tracked down by the dog — even if the law requires them to be separated from the dog by a grate, the process is a terrible ordeal for these sensitive animals. The goal of the hobby hunters is to train hunting dogs for so-called earth hunting, in which foxes and badgers are driven by sharp hunting dogs out of their dens and in front of the guns of waiting hobby hunters.

Scandals at the Earth Dog Trial Facility

The earth dog trial facility in Lemgo-Vossheide in particular has repeatedly attracted attention due to especially scandalous conditions — its operators have been accused of failing to provide the foxes with water and food on a regular basis (Lippische Landeszeitung, March 23, 2018); in 2017, a fine was imposed on one of the facility’s handlers because he had used a heavily pregnant vixen in training operations.

Legal Experts and Veterinarians: Cruel and in Violation of Animal Welfare Law

An expert opinion commissioned by the district from renowned animal welfare law specialist Dr. Christoph Maisack concludes that the operation at the artificial earth constitutes "training for sharpness," which is prohibited under the Animal Welfare Act. The district veterinarian Dr. Heike Scharfenberg, who observed the training and testing operations in Lemgo-Vossheide, also reported that the foxes there were subjected to "considerable stress."

Massive Public Outrage

Public outrage over the cruel practice of training hunting dogs on live foxes is enormous: A report by the action alliance Aktionsbündnis Fuchs about a young female fox named Foxi, confined in an artificial earth in Brandenburg, reached nearly 150’000 people within just two days; a corresponding petition has so far been signed almost 90’000 times. In addition, the earth hunting practice itself is highly controversial: A veterinary expert opinion from Switzerland concludes that it must be rated as "severely cruel to animals."

Fox Hunting Is Pointless

Contrary to what hobby hunters claim, hobby hunting of foxes is by no means necessary: As a comprehensive collection of scientific studies shows, hunting foxes for the supposed protection of endangered species is futile. Moreover, hobby hunting even promotes the spread of wildlife diseases. The hobby hunting as population control fails demonstrably. More on the animal welfare problem of hobby hunting.