The Tale of the Fox / Book Presentation

About a fairy tale that contains more truth than one might expect from a fairy tale.

Almost everyone knows them — the tales of the cunning fox. As a rule, the predator comes off quite well in them. With his book, Mario Natale presents a modern-day fox tale in which he takes up the horror stories and outright lies circulating in the media from conservative hunting circles about the fox, which pursue an opposing goal: falsehoods, such as claims about alleged health risks posed by the fox, are intended to provide arguments for the controversial practice of hunting.

Commentary on this book by Adrian Leverkuehn:

In this book, Mario Natale — a recognized expert on forestry and hunting — skilfully exposes the myths and lies of hunters. The hunters’ primary concern is to kill animals. Foxes are hunted mercilessly and without closed seasons, out of pure pleasure in killing. In order to legitimise the senseless and mass shooting of foxes, an arrogant hunting lobby spreads tales of «rabies», the «fox tapeworm», or the «dangerous Reynard the Fox». «What we cannot legitimise (ethically) is simply legalised» — as Nicolas Chamfort said over 200 years ago. The ethically indefensible mass killing of animals is simply legalised, thereby justifying the bloody hobby of a small minority that treacherously lies in wait for helpless, defenceless animals in the forest in order to murder them with malice aforethought — or more often: merely to wound them and leave them gravely injured. For the fun of killing! Incomprehensible! What a perversion!

Excerpt:

Once upon a time …
a cunning fox had an enemy: the treacherous hunter. It always gave this hunter great pleasure to shoot foxes dead. Why he did it and why he felt this pleasure, he himself did not know. It was simply the way things were, and he never gave any thought to whether what he was doing was right. The laws permitted it, after all. One day, the treacherous hunter grew deeply afraid that he might someday no longer be allowed to shoot foxes dead. For it had come to pass that foxes no longer fell ill with a terrible disease: rabies. People had previously been very greatly afraid of this disease.

As long as this disease existed, the treacherous hunter had many people on his side, and no one questioned the purpose when he killed a fox. But because hunting did not effectively combat rabies, and all people continued to live in great fear of the disease despite the many foxes that had been killed, even the hunter himself and his hunting companions eventually helped to fight the disease with medicine. For they too feared it themselves.

But when no more foxes fell ill, someone eventually asked the treacherous hunter why he continued to shoot foxes dead. He suddenly had no answer to this, and he began to think that perhaps he had made a mistake. Perhaps it would have been better had he not helped combat rabies. The treacherous hunter grew furious and longed for the old times to return. But since they did not return, he hatched a devious plan. People were to be made afraid of the fox once again. Then everyone would once more demand that he shoot the foxes dead, and the uncomfortable questions about the purpose of the killing would cease.

At this time, it came to pass that simultaneously with the disappearance of rabies, the climate in the land grew ever warmer. This led to far more mice, rats, and other food sources for the fox. Furthermore, foxes ventured more boldly into villages and towns. There they could now show themselves without immediately being subjected to a great hunt, for people no longer feared the dangerous rabies. Some people even took such a liking to the foxes that they formed friendships with them. The foxes were visibly thriving during this time. None of this pleased the treacherous hunter in the slightest.

So he invented the claim that a terrible new disease had suddenly broken out among foxes. This disease, he said, was far more dangerous than rabies. One could fall ill simply because foxes existed at all. No contact with a fox was necessary, since the risk of infection lurked everywhere. And since there were now far more foxes than before, humanity faced a grave danger.

In truth, a disease known as "fox tapeworm" did exist at that time. However, it had been around for a very long time, and only very rarely did anyone actually fall ill from it. In most cases, those who did contract it had been infected by their own dogs or cats, which also transmitted the disease. But nobody knew this, and so once again people became deeply afraid of the fox. The cunning hunter was pleased. For now he could once again devote himself undisturbed to the senseless killing of foxes — and even be celebrated as a saviour of humanity in the process. And so he lived happily and contentedly for a long time.

But one day, people noticed that this disease too was not being combated at all through hunting. So they asked the cunning hunter why he and his hunting companions were not helping to fight the new disease effectively with medicine, as had once worked so well in the case of rabies. The cunning hunter, however, remembered how miserable he had been when he suddenly could no longer find a justification for shooting foxes dead. After all, he still feared that hunting foxes might one day be entirely prohibited by new laws. He did not want to make that mistake again. It would be far better, he thought, if people lived in fear of the fox forever and ever, so that he could continue as before. And so he claimed that this would not work. The disease could not be combated in any way other than by killing foxes.

The fox recognized this cunning deception and became very sad about it. He had wanted to continue living near humans, because it afforded him certain advantages. And as long as the hens were protected from him, there were ultimately no problems. Under no circumstances did the fox want to give up his proximity to humans, for he knew that there were also many good people. So he resolved upon a clever plan. He too wanted to win people over — but unlike the treacherous hunter, by telling them the truth, namely ………….

Interview with the author Mario Natale:

Mr. Natale, your fairy tale about the cunning fox and the treacherous hunter is rather strong stuff. Who has upset you so?

Natale: Essentially no one. My concern is to portray the situation of the fox, which I consider no longer in keeping with the times. But my aim was not to take revenge for anything. I chose a form I have used on several occasions before, sometimes in letters to the editor: I take on the voice of an animal and write as that animal. In the book, I want to speak on behalf of the fox.

Who is the treacherous hunter from the fairy tale in real life? Or does he not exist at all?

Natale: The treacherous hunter exists. The treacherous person exists too. But fundamentally, what I am examining here is hunting as it is still demanded by hunters today — for instance, calls to abolish the closed season, hunting of fox cubs, which is frowned upon with other species: with the fox, it is considered legitimate. I do regard that as treacherous. The treacherous hunter in my fairy tale stands for the treacherous hunting of the fox.

Do you know what you are talking about?

Natale: I come from that hunting world myself. Back then, my professional gamekeeper training brought me into fox hunting. I know very well what I am talking about. When you have once come upon a fox earth that was freshly gassed — with gas cartridges — and you open up the burrow entrance and the smell of CS gas hits you – then you know what you are talking about.

Why does the public debate about hunting so often ignite over the fox?

Natale: I assume that the fox plays a key role in hunters' efforts to maintain old traditions. If society ever realizes that fox hunting makes no sense and no longer wants it, then society will also begin to reflect on other aspects of hunting. This could lead to restrictions.

But why always the fox first?

Natale: Because the fox is the easiest case in which the pointlessness of hunting can be demonstrated, at least from an animal welfare perspective. With deer, foresters claim they eat up the forest; wild boar plough up the fields; wildlife often causes various kinds of damage. But the fox? Very few people still keep chickens. There is actually no objective justification for fox hunting. In the end, the fox is only a problem for hunters themselves. That is why animal welfare advocates are targeting a ban on fox hunting. It is purely a sport hunt. And this is precisely the point at which hunters know they must defend their enjoyment of hunting.

And what about tapeworm and rabies?

Natale: Neither rabies nor fox tapeworm have so far been combated through hunting. There is simply no evidence that any disease could be controlled through hunting.

Hunters often justify hunting foxes on the grounds that the animals would otherwise reproduce too rapidly — that the world would be overrun with foxes. Is that really so wrong?

Natale: The world has long been full of foxes. Foxes reproduce, like other predators, in accordance with their food supply. That is precisely why urban foxes exist. In my view, hunters do not regulate any wildlife population whatsoever. The large numbers of wild boar confirm this as well. The effect of hunting is rather that animals keep away from areas where hunting takes place — they are displaced. Naturally, this means that wildlife damage in those areas does not occur.

How does such a polarizing book sit with your role as a forester?

Natale: Very comfortably, because my professional understanding holds that my responsibility does not lie solely in producing certain quantities of timber, but in taking general responsibility for nature and therefore also for animals. That conflicts may arise with people who think differently is something that can never be ruled out.

Back to the book once more. For whom and why did you write it?

Natale: I hope that it reaches beyond the circle of people who don't actually need to read this book, out into society. Because my goal is to depict the situation of fox hunting so that society can form an opinion.

The Author

Mario Natale is a qualified engineer in forestry and a municipal district forester in Saarland. Through his training as a professional hunter, he became acquainted with fox hunting — and has since become convinced of its pointlessness.

“The fox is only a problem for hunters,” he said in an interview with the Saarbrücker Zeitung (11.12.2012). “If society ever recognises that fox hunting makes no sense and no longer wants it, then society will also begin to reconsider other aspects of hunting.”

The Book

With his book “Das Märchen vom Fuchs” (“The Fox Fairy Tale”), Mario Natale presents a contemporary fairy tale in which he takes up and refutes the horror stories and lies spread in the media by hunting circles about the fox.

Mario Natale: Das Märchen vom Fuchs
40 pages · 19 black-and-white illustrations
Hardcover · Format 21 x 21 cm
Geistkirch Verlag, Saarbrücken 2012
ISBN 978-3-938889-21-3
Price: 12.80 Euro

Dossiers: Fox in Switzerland: Most-hunted predator without a lobby | Fox hunting without facts: How JagdSchweiz invents problems