Petition: Stop year-round hunting of raccoons
Under the Federal Hunting Act, the raccoon can be hunted in Switzerland year-round and without any closed season as a non-native species.
Unlike for native species, the regulation does not provide for a closed season during which nursing mothers are spared. This means that even parent animals can be killed whose young are waiting in the burrow for food and can hardly survive without the mother.
The population remains small, yet the kill figures in the Federal Hunting Statistics are rising steeply: from 2 animals killed in 2020 to 13 (2021), 17 (2022) and already 44 in 2023, of which 35 in the canton of Basel-Landschaft alone. In the Basel region, raccoons are now caught in live traps and subsequently killed. The justification is always the same: the «wrong» origin.
It is precisely this logic that is professionally questionable. In Germany, where over 282’000 raccoons were killed in the 2024/2025 hunting year, the population continues to grow despite intensive hunting. The available evidence suggests that hobby hunting has no sustainable population effect here either: hunted populations show a higher proportion of reproductively capable females, and lethal losses are quickly compensated by increased offspring. More on this in the dossier «Raccoon Switzerland: killed for the wrong origin» as well as in the dossier «Neozoa and hunting in Switzerland».
That it can be done differently is shown by the raccoon project in Kassel: animals are caught, sterilised and released again, in an animal-welfare-compliant manner and without killing. According to EU Regulation 1143/2014, such population controls are expressly permitted. How raccoons can be kept away from settlement areas without lethal means is shown by our animal-friendly tips.
We call for an end to the year-round, closed-season-free hunting of the raccoon and for a switch to non-lethal, animal-welfare-compliant measures.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the cantonal hunting and fishing administrations
Dear members of the Conference for Forests, Wildlife and Landscape
Dear officials of the Federal Office for the Environment
I am writing to you because, under the Federal Act on Hunting, the raccoon may be hunted year-round and without any closed season in Switzerland as a non-native species, and because in my view this practice is neither compatible with animal welfare nor effective.
The raccoon did not reach Europe of its own accord. It was introduced from North America for the fur industry in the 1920s and 1930s and released into the wild. Its present-day presence is directly man-made. Pursuing it under the label «invasive» shifts responsibility for human actions onto the animal.
Year-round huntability with no closed season is problematic from an animal welfare perspective. As the regulation for neozoa provides for no closed season to protect nursing mothers, parent animals can also be killed while rearing their young. The offspring left behind in the den then have hardly any chance of survival. In addition, trap hunting is used in many places when hunting predators. Animal welfare specialist associations point out that live-trapping wild animals can cause considerable stress and suffering. In raccoons, the risk of a non-immediately-fatal injury is particularly high, because they reach for bait with their front paws.
According to the evidence available so far, the hunting does not achieve its stated aim. Long-term research indicates that raccoons respond to hunting pressure with increased reproduction. In hunted populations, the proportion of reproducing females is higher than in unhunted ones. The more animals are killed, the more young are born. In Germany, where over 282'000 raccoons were killed in the 2024/2025 hunting year, the population continues to grow despite intensive hunting.
The species-protection argument, too, rests on shaky foundations. I am not aware of any robust long-term evidence of a lasting impact of the raccoon on a native species. It feeds primarily on readily available food such as earthworms, insects, snails and fruit. The decline of threatened species is primarily due to human causes such as habitat loss and road traffic.
I call on you:
To refrain from the year-round hunting of the raccoon without a closed season, as long as, according to the evidence available so far, it neither sustainably reduces the population nor serves species protection.
Trap hunting of raccoons is to be prohibited, as it can cause avoidable animal suffering.
To promote non-lethal, animal-welfare-compliant measures, such as sterilisation programmes, prevention and animal-friendly deterrence in residential areas.
The responsibility for the presence of the raccoon there is to be placed where it belongs, with the humans who introduced it, and not with the animal.
Kind regards
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