Another Valais wolf is shot
A wolf has killed 38 sheep in Valais. The canton now permits the cull.
Between 19 June and 8 August, a wolf killed 38 sheep in the Vallon de Réchy and the Val d'Anniviers.
State Councillor Jacques Melly has now ordered the cull. The wolf killed the sheep in an area where they were not protected, or only barely protected, against wolves.
According to a statement from the canton, the affected alpine pastures are not located in a livestock protection priority area. They were not classified as priorities for livestock protection. “We did not expect wolf attacks in this region,” says Valais hunting inspector Peter Scheibler. “The damage has now become too great — we have to act,” Scheibler adds. Short-term protective measures had not deterred the wolf sufficiently.
According to the canton's statement, the shooting permit is based on the provisions of the federal hunting legislation. The canton of Valais is issuing a shooting permit for the 10th time. The last time a wolf was legally shot in Valais was in 2013 in the Goms valley. The canton is now beginning to plan the cull, but the decision can still be challenged.
This is not the first wolf to lose its life on official orders: in June, the Uri authorities had already approved the shooting of a wolf. Since 1998, 15 dead wolves have been found in Switzerland. Eight of them were shot with a permit (Valais 7, Graubünden 1).
Two further wolves were poached (Valais 1, Graubünden 1) and one was shot by mistake (Graubünden 1). Three more wolves were hit by a train (one each in Bern, Zurich and Ticino), and in 1999 a wolf in the Simplon area allegedly went under a snowplough.
The number of livestock killed by wolves amounts to between 100 and 300 animals per year.
Update 16.8.2015
Calanda wolf run over in southern Germany.
A wolf was run over in June in Lahr, southern Germany. As has now become known, it came from a pack in the Calanda area near Chur.
The dead animal had been found in June alongside motorway 5. The last specimen previously recorded in southwestern Germany had been shot approximately 150 years ago.
Related dossiers and articles:
- Dossier: The Wolf in Europe
- Dossier: Livestock Protection in Switzerland
- Dossier: Hunting Laws and Regulation
- Dossier: Hunting Myths
- Wolf in Valais: Shooting permit unlawful
- Wolf shooting: WWF files complaint
- Template text: Species protection standards for wolf culls
