Artificial earth facilities for hunting dog training are animal cruelty
Artificial earth facilities for hunting dog training are contrary to animal welfare. Foxes are kept in permanent fear of death and subjected to torment.
The German Animal Welfare Federation makes clear that the “use” of foxes in artificial earth facilities must be classified as contrary to animal welfare.
The facilities are used to train hunting dogs for earth dog hunting of foxes or badgers, which is likewise contrary to animal welfare. The animal welfare advocates’ criticism is prompted, on one hand, by the planned construction of a fox enclosure on the grounds of the zoo in Neunkirchen, Saarland, and the intended use of the foxes housed there in an artificial earth facility for recreational hunters.
On the other hand, a debate has also recently flared up in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) regarding fox hunting: on 20 August, animal and nature conservation organisations plan to protest in Olfen against the training of hunting dogs using live foxes, a practice carried out there by a local club. While the NRW state government issued a ban on earth dog hunting in 2015, it was immediately undermined by sweeping exemptions and was lifted across the board again in 2019.
When used in artificial earth facilities, one animal is trained or tested against another, and in earth dog hunting, one animal is set upon another. Both violate Section 3 of the Animal Welfare Act — particularly since earth dog hunting can hardly be described as “fair and ethical hunting practice”. This cruel practice frequently results in serious injuries caused by fights between fox and hunting dog. Hunting dogs also regularly meet their deaths inside fox burrows, something the hunting community prefers to keep quiet about.
James Brückner, Head of the Species Protection Division at the German Animal Welfare Federation
The German Animal Welfare Federation, in close alignment with its regional associations in Saarland and NRW, takes a clear stance against the animal-welfare-violating artificial earth facilities, in which the dog must track down the fox within an artificially constructed burrow featuring multiple tunnels and chambers. “Even when the fox and dog remain separated by a wire mesh, the procedure causes great stress for the foxes, which must also spend their entire lives confined to small enclosures," says Beatrice Speicher-Spengler, chairwoman of the German Animal Welfare Federation, Saarland State Association.
Regardless of the training methods being criticized, there is no ecological necessity and no valid reason to shoot foxes or other predators at all: The population regulates itself naturally, through diseases, the available food supply, and social structures that prevent excessive reproduction. “The threat to and decline of ground-nesting birds such as partridges and lapwings — which hunters use to justify fox hunting — is primarily due to the destruction of habitats and food sources through intensive agriculture and road and urban construction. The fox is simply being made a scapegoat”, says Christiane Schäfer, Vice President of the NRW State Animal Welfare Association.
Hunting is also pointless, since empty territories are usually quickly reoccupied by other foxes, according to animal welfare advocates. Also frequently overlooked is the important role foxes play in the ecosystem: they keep mouse populations in check — which are generally unwelcome not only in cities but also among farmers.
