German farmers, conservationists and politicians have met at a wolf summit to discuss the animal’s future amid concerns that its population is out of control.
The farmers’ union is calling for a relaxation of rules over when wolves, strictly protected under EU law, can be shot, after a series of highly publicised deadly attacks on farm animals.
It has said that people in rural areas are fearful for their lives as well as the lives of their animals, with many farmers expressing concern for their livelihoods.
Germany is home to an estimated 161 packs of wolves (of between eight to 12 animals each) according to the Federal Wolf Documentation and Advisory Office. A further 43 pairs and 21 individual animals were also registered.
Numbers have increased year on year since the wolf was placed under species protection in 1990, after it was considered to have more or less become extinct at the end of the 19th century.
The southern state of Bavaria has already taken its own decision to allow farmers to actively kill wolves where livestock is thought to be under particular threat.
Its leader, Markus Söder, visited an alpine village on Thursday that has reportedly been the scene of attacks on grazing animals, where he said the future of farming was in danger if wolf populations were not brought under control.
“I’ll say it quite clearly, the wolf does not belong here,” Söder told a gathering of farmers and their families in Oberaudorf. “We have introduced a new wolf bylaw … one breach is sufficient and the wolf can be removed from a region.”
His Christian Social Union (CSU) has said it would like to see the elimination of all wolves from Germany. Its larger sister party, the centre-right CDU, has called for hunting rights to be expanded to include wolves.
Harald Ebner, of the Greens party, head of the federal committee for environment and nature protection, said it would be wrong for such permission to be granted. “The quick call to arms is no solution and the perpetual appeal for wolf-free zones and quotas contravenes EU law and will bring no relief to keepers of grazing animals,” he said.
The environment minister, Steffi Lemke, also of the Greens, has argued for increasing protection both for grazing animals and wolves. “We cannot in good conscience, call for the protection of animals in African countries at the same time as saying here that it is not possible to protect the wolf,” she said
The farmers’ union in Brandenburg, northern Germany, home to the largest number of wolves in the country with an estimated 47 packs and 14 pairs, is calling for a quota that could be shot legally each year, drawing on wolf population control measures in Finland and Sweden.
Brandenburg permitted wolves to be shot in specifically defined cases in 2022, after a series of livestock killings. A male wolf was killed in March after 76 livestock deaths were attributed to it.
