Fox Hunting: 10,000 Swiss Hunters Torment Canids
In Luxembourg, nature functions without fox hunting in a more ethical manner, and it is safer for the population. The fox has not been a huntable species there since 2015.
Around 10,000 amateur hunters in Switzerland torture, injure and kill over 20,000 of these fascinating wild animals every year, alongside crows, jays, magpies, domestic cats, ducks, badgers, etc.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with an area of 2,586.4 km², is roughly the same size as the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Zug, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Basel-Landschaft and Glarus combined.
Since 2015, around 7,000 mostly healthy red foxes have been shot pointlessly for pleasure in the above-mentioned cantons in Switzerland. The bottom line is that there are as many foxes today in both Luxembourg and these Swiss cantons as there were five years ago. The difference from Luxembourg is that the useless fox hunting in Switzerland has been accompanied by considerable animal cruelty.
Nature conservation organizations and authorities in Luxembourg have found no problems due to the fox hunting ban; there are no indications of an increase in the fox population, and the infection rate of foxes with fox tapeworm has even decreased since the hunting ban. While it had risen to 39.7% in 2014 under continued hunting, it was only 24.6% in 2017. There are quite obviously no valid arguments that speak for fox hunting and thus against the fox hunting ban.
Facts instead of hunters' tales or animal cruelty
Accordingly, every fox hunt in Switzerland is a clear violation of the Animal Protection Act because it lacks reasonable justification. For more than 30 years, there have been at least 18 wildlife biology studies (3) that prove: fox hunting does not regulate and is also unsuitable for disease control. On the contrary (4, 5)!
Anyone who still hunts foxes now does not hunt ethically (Animal cruelty in fox hunting).
Here we praise the Canton of Geneva with professional wildlife management without hobby hunters, but with upright game wardens. In Geneva, foxes, martens, badgers, etc. are also not regulated simply because it is hunting season and misguided individuals want to pursue a hobby. This is also reflected in the federal hunting statistics. Typical Swiss values like safety, animal protection and ethics are the guiding principles in Geneva.
For the IG Wild beim Wild it is counterproductive to give the cantons more powers in the hunting law as comes to vote on 17.5.2020 – on the contrary. They cannot handle the responsibility, are overwhelmed, are insufficiently trained as hobby hunters and decision-makers and they lie. Moreover, they already have enough carte blanche. Current examples include the head of the hunting and fisheries office in Canton Zurich, who recently introduced night hunting of foxes, claiming that foxes transmit rabies. As we know today, only animal-friendly vaccination baits could defeat terrestrial rabies – it has been considered eradicated in Switzerland since 1998 and in large parts of Europe!
The IG Wild beim Wild finds that these senseless massacres and this animal cruelty by recreational hunters in Switzerland throughout our entire habitat are outdated and demands a ban on all recreational hunting! The proportion of threatened species according to the UN is nowhere in the world as large as in Switzerland. It is naive to expect that hobby hunters will change anything about this. The healthy mindset and ethical hygiene are lacking for this.
«Recreational hunting is not necessary, but justified. One could also ask whether it makes sense to collect berries and mushrooms in the forest.»
Robert Brunold, President of the recreational hunters Graubünden