Animal welfare: EU countries give the Finale Green Light for more wolf shots

The EU member states have approved a change in the law that facilitates the shooting down of wolves to protect pastures. This reduces the protection status of the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected”, as the EU countries announced.

“The new status gives Member States more flexibility in the management of wolf populations,” said a message from the EU countries. “However, Member States must continue to ensure the favorable state of preservation of the wolf and can continue to list the wolf as a strictly protected species in their national legal regulations.”

Germany can legally facilitate kills

By adapting in the European Flora-Fauna Habitat Directive (FFH guideline), Germany can make it easier to shoot wolves under certain circumstances. “According to the coalition agreement, the Federal Government is currently examining how the EU Commission’s proposal to downgrade the protection status of wolf can be implemented in national law,” said a spokeswoman for the Federal Environment Ministry on request.

The responsible ministry left open when the changes in the law in Germany will come. Until then, the quick committee regulation could be used.

Farmers complain about increasing cracks

The discussion about the wolf is emotionally conducted. Cracks of farm animals such as sheep and cattle are piling up and, according to farmers, are a noticeable problem for grazing animals. Herd protection measures to defend wolves are therefore increasingly overcome. There are reports according to which wolves should even penetrate into stables.

The federal documentation and advice center on the subject of Wolf (DBBW) records an increase in killed and injured farm animals by the wolf over the past ten years by 2023. In 2023, 5,727 animals were demonstrably harmed, the majority of them.

According to the Federal Nature Conservation 2023/2024, there were a total of 209 confirmed Wolfs pack with a good 1,600 animals. The occurrence focuses on an area of ​​Saxony via Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Lower Saxony.

Criticism of animal rights activists

Animal rights activists recently criticized the change in protection status. They complain that there is no scientific basis for the advance. Farm animals such as sheep could be better protected without more kills. The farmers’ association, on the other hand, had described the step as more than overdue. Weiders should no longer be at the mercy of the “unchecked spread” of the wolf.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, the wolf will continue to remain a protected animal species in the future and will not be released for shooting. “Problematic wolves can be shot down more easily,” it said.