Remove the raccoon from the invasive species list

For several years now, a sustained and malicious media smear campaign against raccoons has been taking place in Germany and increasingly in Switzerland as well.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild — 24 October 2021

The hobby hunters exploit this for their own interests in various ways.

Almost daily, one is confronted time and again with alarming stories about the “bad” raccoons that must be killed by any means available or even eradicated entirely. There is perhaps no species other than humans that spreads more diseases and threatens flora and fauna as a plague. And should raccoons and other animals be able to break into homes, the fault lies with the poorly maintained dwelling. The same applies to rubbish bins. The decline in lapwing and skylark populations is also primarily caused by lethal, chemical-industrial agriculture.

Even from the highly negative headlines alone, one can see how the media misleads the public, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Speciesism in practice

Non-native animals are considered unwanted and “worthless,” even though they too are no longer legally regarded as mere objects. Their right to life is denied to them by law on the basis of their origin and in the name of an ecological balance dictated by humans. This is speciesism in practice — meaning: through its attitude toward non-native animals, humanity once again demonstrates its conviction that, by virtue of its own species, it is superior to all others and may therefore treat them as it sees fit. This attitude is more than reprehensible and can no longer be tolerated.Raccoons too have a right to live.

I do not know a single scientist or hunting expert who seriously believes that hunting can keep these animals in check. We simply have to accept that the raccoon feels at home here and that we cannot regulate it. In that respect, we must come to terms with its presence.
Dr. Ulf Hohmann, wildlife biologist and raccoon expert

There are other possibilities for non-lethal measures for the population control of raccoons,as also provided for by the EU regulation, but these are not applied because therecreational hunters in Germany, invoking EU law, prefer to take action themselves.

This also because, on account of the supposedly “invasive” raccoon, trap hunting continues to be permitted by politicians and even financially supported.

Berlin: peaceful coexistence with raccoons

In the meantime, the Berlin city administration has become very active in wildlife management in the city, and particularly regarding raccoons, with anexemplary wildlife management approach. Berlin places particular emphasis on “on-site consultation”, both through a hotline and througha leaflet with tips on preventing raccoons from settling, and, if necessary, on deterrence.

The animal welfare officer of the city of Berlin, veterinarian Dr. Kathrin Herrmann, also advocates strongly for raccoons. “The raccoon is not a problem, even though the EU has placed it on the list of invasive species.»

Animal welfare officer: removal of the raccoon from the EU list:

A review and revision of the EU list of invasive alien species is scheduled every six years.Since the EU list entered into force on 3 August 2016, a binding review would have been possible in August 2022.

The lists and their effect

First, one must soberly acknowledge that these lists are presented as THE LIST of the most harmful species and those most dangerous tobiodiversity in Europe and in Switzerland, so that recreational hunters and the general public regard the listed animals as extremely harmful — and thus the very first justification is found to hunt them as intensively as possible and to eliminate or contain them at all costs.

These animals are regarded as “foreign”, “non-native”, “not belonging here” — labelled and disparaged accordingly.

In this context, it is essential to mention that the raccoon in Germany was considered “native” before 2016, as it met the definition of “native species” under the German Federal Nature Conservation Act until 2017: “A wild animal or plant species is also considered native if feral animals or plants of the species in question, or those naturalized through human influence, have sustained themselves in the wild within the country over several generations as a population without human assistance.»

Now, for the implementation of EU Regulation 1143/2014 into German law, the term “native species” in the Federal Nature Conservation Act was eliminated from 2017 onwards and replaced by “non-native/not non-native.”

The removal of the raccoon from the EU list would once again make the raccoon a “native” animal species in Germany, and it would therefore not need to be controlled or even eradicated, and would no longer be hunted so intensively.

The behaviour of the recreational hunters towards so-called “invasive species” (even though the EU does not prescribe their killing, but rather recommends the application of other non-lethal measures) is entirely evident from the development of hunting bag figures in Germany.

In the debate, actors close to the hunting lobby regularly claim that the raccoon is particularly problematic because it allegedly appears — or does not appear — on European “Top 100 lists of the worst invasive species,” in order to deliberately discredit or downplay it. Both approaches are misleading. While the European Environment Agency did compile a list of “100 of the worst” invasive species for Europe as part of the SEBI 2010 process, this was explicitly intended to raise public awareness and not for scientific prioritisation or legal assessment. The only legally binding instrument is the EU Union List of Invasive Alien Species. The repeated conflation of awareness lists and legal instruments by the hunting lobby is not a scientific argument, but a rhetorical device used to legitimise intensive hunting.

Recreational hunting drives reproduction

Indeed, particularly in the case of the so-called invasive animals — raccoon, raccoon dog, nutria, and Egyptian goose — a dramatic increase in the number of animals killed has been observed, especially since the EU list came into force in 2016.

The closed seasons for these “invasive animals” are being shortened or even abolished entirely. In some German federal states (e.g. in Bavaria) or also in Swiss cantons (e.g. Aargau, Zurich, Basel-Landschaft, Lucerne, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Thurgau or Zug) even eliminate the breeding and nesting seasons for raccoons entirely, in order to hunt these charming wild animals all year round and without any regard for the young animals that will die as a result of the killing of their parent animals. This is absolutely contrary to the Animal Welfare Act and common sense!

Raccoons have long since become established in Germany and Switzerland. Hobby hunting of these animals is contrary to animal welfare legislation and has so far shown no success, as vacated territories are immediately occupied by other raccoons. A species-appropriate and sustainable solution, by contrast, would be the castration/immunocontraception of these wild animals: A castrated raccoon continues to occupy a territory and thus leads to a population reduction that is compatible with animal welfare.

It has long been scientifically proven that hobby hunting of raccoons stimulates reproduction and, in addition, destroys age structures and social structures. The attempt to push back raccoon populations through hunting is now also considered hopeless and failed in Germany.

By potentially removing the raccoon from the lists of invasive species, the invasive raccoon would once again become a “normal, native animal species,” and as a result, raccoons would not be hunted as intensively, brutally, and cruelly.

In addition, the EU Commission recently took a position on this matter and confirmed in writing, that the capture of invasive species followed by their castration/sterilisation and subsequent release into their natural environment is a permissible method that can indeed be applied by the responsible national authorities within the framework of the management measures for implementing EU Regulation 1143/2014.

Added value: