Video: Fox Cruelty at an Artificial Earth
Around 100 artificial earths still exist in Germany, including some in Bavaria. There, foxes are kept under inadequate conditions in tiny enclosures.
Several times a week, the animals are abused in underground tunnel systems in order to train “hunting dogs” for den hunting of foxes and badgers.
These facilities are usually hidden in inaccessible woodland areas. PETA today published a video from inside an artificial earth in Lemgo (North Rhine-Westphalia). The footage from 2018 was recently sent to the animal rights organisation and shows for the first time how a vixen repeatedly flinches in panic and mortal fear inside such a facility. This is the fate of an estimated 150 to 200 foxes in Germany, who are abused in a similar manner several times a week.
Last week, the animal rights organisation called on Hubert Aiwanger, the Bavarian State Minister for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, as well as 12 other state governments, to ban the operation of artificial earths by amending their respective state hunting laws.
"Artificial earths are true torture chambers for foxes. The constant fear of death in the underground tunnel systems and the inadequate keeping conditions drive many animals literally to the brink of madness," said Peter Höffken, specialist adviser at PETA. "Such animal-cruel facilities have no place in a modern society and must be banned by the state governments."
How cruel artificial earths really are
An artificial earth consists of a man-made tunnel system designed to replicate a fox’s den. In order to train “hunting dogs” for the exceedingly cruel den hunting to prepare them, they are repeatedly sent into the artificial tunnels and set upon the fox locked inside, which suffers in mortal terror. The animals are ultimately separated only by a grate or a slide. However, the fox does not know that the dog cannot reach it at any moment. The keeping conditions in the cage enclosures also cause the foxes tremendous suffering. Stereotypical behaviour such as pacing back and forth along the cage edge has been observed repeatedly. For the foxes — many of them wild-caught — lifelong confinement in tiny cages and the constant presence of dogs and humans causes incredible stress. The facilities are mostly operated by hunting-affiliated dog breeding clubs such as the Deutscher Teckelklub or the Deutscher Foxterrier-Verband.
Criticism of artificial earth trial facilities is growing
In principle, operating an artificial earth trial facility is not prohibited. However, through dozens of PETA criminal complaints, many of these facilities have been inspected for the first time by veterinary authorities over the past three years. The conditions found were in some cases so poor that foxes were rescued, facilities were closed, or at least conditions were imposed. For example, in 2022 a vixen was transferred from the artificial earth trial facility in Kasendorf (Bavaria) to a rescue station. The district court issued a penalty order against the “facility keeper.” An artificial earth trial facility in Pörnbach (Bavaria) was also closed. Subsequently, the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety issued “minimum animal welfare requirements for the operation of artificial earth trial facilities” for Bavarian veterinary offices in 2022, setting somewhat higher standards. The authors of the aforementioned minimum requirements argued, in a specialist article published in the magazine of the Tierärztliche Vereinigung für Tierschutz e.V., in favour of ending artificial earth trial facilities and below-ground hunting. In December 2023, a contribution appeared in the renowned legal specialist publication “Agrar- und Umweltrecht” in which the author elaborated on the criminal liability of artificial earth trial facility operators.
