Image: APA/dpa/Lino Mirgeler
It was the fourth corresponding order by the black-red state government since an amendment to the law passed in the state parliament, the third for East Tyrol. The regulation comes into force on June 1st and is valid for eight weeks, the country announced. A wolf can now be shot in 100 of 155 hunting areas in East Tyrol.
Eleven dead sheep found
Five hunting areas are overlapping covered by two regulations. Two wolves could be killed there, it was said. The current order came after eleven dead and around 30 missing sheep were recorded in the Prägraten pasture area in East Tyrol on the Pentecost weekend. With the new ordinance, the area in which “a wolf can be shot is expanded again and the chances that the hunters can actually kill the harmful animal or animals are increased,” explained the responsible deputy governor and agricultural councilor Josef Geisler (ÖVP ). The fourth shooting ordinance concerned the Ötztal. Both there and in East Tyrol, a wolf has now been confirmed several times by genetic test results, the state emphasized.
1,000 euros bounty
Meanwhile, in Tyrol, the approved shooting of problem wolves is apparently increasingly associated with a “bounty” or a bonus. After the municipality of Umhausen in Ötztal had already offered a kill bonus for a local wolf, according to media reports, this has now also happened in East Tyrol. In Prägraten, farmers offered 1,000 euros if a predator was killed.
The premium was decided by the local farmers’ council of Prägraten and the agricultural community of St. Andrä. The money was intended as an incentive for hunters and as a wake-up call to politics, it said. The shooter had been promised anonymity in order to prevent hostilities on the Internet, local farmer chairman Josef Kratz told ORF Tirol.
The wolf as a predator regularly causes emotions to run high in Tyrol, and the farmers complain about countless sheep being killed. Last February, the Tyrolean state parliament passed an amendment to the law that allows killing by decree and no longer by decision. Previous decisions had been overturned by the court several times after environmental protection organizations had successfully appealed them. The shooting ordinance now applies generally to a wolf – and not to a specific individual. There have been repeated calls in Tyrol for a reduction in the protection status of the predator at European level, for example from Governor Anton Mattle (ÖVP).
Bear tore sheep in the Lech Valley
In addition to the wolf, the bear is once again coming into focus in the state. The country also reported on Wednesday that a bear could be detected by DNA after sheep tears in Weißenbach im Lechtal in mid-May. However, there is currently no evidence that this is a bear that poses an increased risk to humans. Only in such a case do you have the opportunity to act immediately, Geisler said and at the same time said that he had no understanding why this was not the case with affected livestock. He therefore again urged the EU’s Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive (FFH) to be changed “as quickly as possible”.
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Source: Nachrichten
