Fox massacres in Switzerland
The fox is a very illustrative (and tragic) example of how hobby hunters create problems themselves through their ignorance and compulsive need to control nature, exacerbating natural regulatory mechanisms.
Foxes are essential as mouse hunters for both agriculture and forestry and play a significant role in controlling "rodent-transmitted pathogens" such as hantaviruses or borrelia. For these reasons, we should see the fox for what it is – an important component of the ecosystem and an enrichment of our native fauna.
Research by IG Wild beim Wild at cantonal hunting and fishing offices brought remarkable facts to light. Only the canton of Lucerne maintains statistics on diseases in foxes, among other data. Of the 2,217 foxes senselessly shot in the canton of Lucerne in the 2018/19 hunting year, only 39 foxes had a disease (mange 32, distemper 1, other diseases 6). All other foxes were disposed of at taxpayers' expense.
In Switzerland, the cantons of Bern, Aargau, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Valais, Lucerne and Zurich stand out negatively with disproportionate hunting of foxes and badgers.
In the canton of Bern, according to federal hunting statistics, around one-fifth of all red foxes in Switzerland are shot, although experts see no sense in it.
Special culls in federal hunting statistics
Definition special cull: Shooting within protected areas or during closed season due to illness or injury. These culls were carried out by cantonal game wardens in protected areas or by hunting supervisors in hunting grounds.
In the canton of Bern, however, special culls are a kind of reward system for hobby hunters. 800 hunters in the canton of Bern who are specifically engaged in wildlife management receive annual special permits. The animal species released during this period from June 16 to August 31, such as carrion crows, rooks, jays, magpies, feral domestic cats, raccoons, raccoon dogs, foxes and badgers, are simply shot even though they have a closed season until August 31. Although these wildlife species should be protected at the cantonal level, 300 foxes and 371 badgers were shot with these special permits in 2018, for example. Even jays are not spared from the shooting frenzy of hobby hunters.
Conditions like in the darkest Middle Ages in Graubünden. According to a decision by the municipal council of Laax, a bounty of Fr. 40.– is paid for every fox and every badger killed by local hunters in the municipal territory of Laax during the low hunting season.
In a letter to all municipalities in the canton of Zurich (5) regarding the newly introduced night hunting of foxes and badgers, the controversial Urs Philipp from the Office for Hunting and Fishing claims that foxes transmit rabies, although the Swiss rabies center warns that hunting reduction of fox populations is not possible and hunting for rabies control is even counterproductive. As we know today, only animal-friendly vaccine baits could defeat terrestrial rabies – it has been considered eradicated in Switzerland since 1999 and in large parts of Europe!
For a full 5½ months, foxes are hunted in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden (4), according to federal hunting statistics – for badgers it's 6 months. With this stress and hunting pressure, one need not wonder why these animals become sick. Throughout Europe, the epicenter of fox tapeworm reports has been in eastern Switzerland for years! Although our hobby hunters always claim they ensure healthy wildlife populations.
In the canton of Solothurn (6), 658 mostly healthy foxes and 222 badgers were killed in the 2018 hunting season without scientific basis or wildlife biological expertise by militant hobby hunters.
According to modern science, fox hunting is ecologically, economically and epidemiologically senseless – indeed even counterproductive! Fundamentally, lightly hunted fox populations also produce fewer offspring.
IG Wild beim Wild believes that these senseless massacres and animal cruelty in our entire habitat are not contemporary and demands a ban on all low hunting!