Herd Protection In Switzerland: What Works And What Fails

Since 2020, the Confederation has recorded sheep deaths: their number rose from around 40,000 (2021) to over 56,000 animals per year, mainly due to disease, parasites, weather and poor husbandry. According to Gruppe Wolf Schweiz, wolves account for just under 2 per cent of these (The truth about sheep mortality in Switzerland). And where herd protection is implemented, it works: in the Valais, the number of livestock killed fell from 401 (2023) to 341 (2024) and then to 318 (2025), while the number of attacks dropped from 112 to 81. The canton attributes this to the protection measures, as well as to fewer animals on the alpine pastures and shorter summering periods. In 2025, around CHF 3 million went into herd protection in the Valais. At the same time, the Valais hunting administration spent 13,390 working hours on wolf management and regulation; according to an estimate by Wild beim Wild, this cost taxpayers CHF 0.8 to just over CHF 1 million, around CHF 35,000 per wolf killed.

This dossier shows which herd protection measures work in Switzerland, why they are nevertheless inadequately implemented, and which interests lie behind the systematic underfunding. It draws on data from the FOEN, AGRIDEA, cantonal administrations and international research.

What awaits you here

• Overview of measures: Electric fences, night pens, livestock guardian dogs, shepherding, adapted grazing methods and their proven effectiveness.
• The Calanda pack: the proof that is ignored: 1,500 sheep, 37 kills in five years, consistent herd protection in Switzerland's area richest in wolves.
• Costs: killing vs. prevention: An estimated CHF 35,000 per wolf killed, CHF 3 million for herd protection in the Valais in 2025. What herd protection costs and why it is cheaper.
• Funding and responsibilities: FOEN, FOAG, cantonal programmes, programme agreements and the gaps in the system.
• Livestock guardian dogs: effectiveness and political instrumentalisation: How the recreational hunting lobby turns encounters with hikers into an argument against herd protection.
• The political failure: why herd protection remains underfunded: Valais priorities, cantonal resistance, the 2016 DJFW criticism and the role of the recreational hunting lobby.
• International role models: France, Italy, Spain, Norway and what Switzerland can learn from them.
• What would need to change: 6 demands for consistent herd protection as a prerequisite for wolf management.
• Argumentation guide: Answers to the most common objections to herd protection.
• Quick links: All relevant articles, dossiers and external sources.

Herd protection measures at a glance

Switzerland has a broad range of proven herd protection measures which, in combination, offer highly effective protection against wolf attacks. No single measure is sufficient, but the systematic use of several instruments demonstrably reduces livestock losses to a minimum.

Electric fences form the foundation of every modern herd protection concept. Wolf-proof fences (at least 90 cm high, with sufficient voltage and a wire close to the ground) prevent access to fenced pastures. What counts as a professionally installed herd protection fence is set out in Art. 10c of the Hunting Ordinance. Correctly installed and maintained, electric fences are among the most effective measures. The cost is roughly 3 to 5 francs per running metre, which makes them considerably cheaper than a single wolf kill.

Night enclosures protect the herd at its most vulnerable time: at night, when wolves are most active. Penning the animals overnight in a mobile or permanent enclosure, combined with an electric fence, drastically reduces livestock losses. On most affected alpine pastures this measure could be implemented, but in many cantons it is not consistently required.

Livestock guardian dogs are the most effective single instrument. Several hundred livestock guardian dogs are in use in Switzerland; in Graubünden alone there were around 400 in 2023, according to the cantonal advisory centre Plantahof. The Pastore Abruzzese (Maremmano) and Montagne des Pyrénées breeds are recognised by the Confederation. They live with the herd, detect predators early and drive them off by barking and displays of dominance. AGRIDEA and the herd protection specialist unit have documented their effectiveness for more than 20 years (According to an AGRIDEA study, herd protection with dogs works well).

Shepherding means the constant presence of a shepherd with the herd. Combined with dogs and fences, shepherding is the most effective of all measures. In many Swiss alpine regions, however, animals are still summered without a shepherd for cost reasons, leaving them unprotected, not only against wolves but also against disease, falls and bad weather.

Adapted grazing methods include the choice of suitable pastures, the avoidance of strip grazing and a timing of the alpine ascent adapted to local conditions. In some regions, switching from sheep to cattle farming (which are less at risk from wolves) can make sense. The combination of adapted grazing and herd protection measures is what 'coexistence' means in practice.

More on this: Alternatives to recreational hunting and Wildlife corridors and habitat connectivity

The Calanda pack: the evidence that is being ignored

The Calanda pack in Grisons has been the best-documented wolf pack in Switzerland since 2012 and provides the strongest empirical evidence of the effectiveness of herd protection. Around 1,500 sheep are summered within the pack's territory. In the first five years of its existence, the Calanda pack killed just 37 livestock animals, a rate far below what is usual in unprotected areas.

The reason is no coincidence: in the Calanda area, consistent investment was made in herd protection from the outset. Electric fences, night pens, livestock guardian dogs and adapted grazing were deployed systematically. Experience shows that where herd protection is implemented consistently, kills fall, even as the wolf population grows.

Nevertheless, the Calanda model is hardly ever held up as an example in the political debate. In Valais, where 27 wolves were killed in the 2025/26 regulation period alone, according to the Valais wolf report 2025 the hunting administration spent 13,390 working hours on wolf management and regulation. The Calanda pack proves what would be possible. Valais shows what is politically desired.

More on this: Wolf in Switzerland: facts, politics and the limits of hunting and Wolf: ecological function and political reality

Costs: kill vs. prevention

The cost calculation of the kill policy reveals a grotesque imbalance. For 2025, the canton of Valais reports 13,390 working hours for wolf management and regulation. Valued at a conservative 60 to 80 francs per hour, this amounts, according to Wild beim Wild's calculation, to between 0.8 and just over 1 million francs for the regulation of 27 wolves in the 2025/26 period, roughly 35,000 francs per wolf killed. The canton itself does not disclose this sum. By comparison: around 3 million francs flowed into herd protection measures on the Valais alpine pastures in 2025, of which 1.63 million came from the canton and the rest from the Confederation; the herd protection section of the cantonal agriculture department worked with 2.2 full-time posts (Canton of Valais, March 2026). For 2026, the canton has budgeted over 1.8 million francs, including 700,000 francs for assistant shepherds and 160,000 francs for keeping livestock guardian dogs.

What would consistent herd protection cost? The sums are manageable. A livestock guardian dog costs CHF 3,000 to 5,000 a year (food, vet, training). An electric fence for an average alpine pasture costs CHF 5,000 to 10,000 as an initial investment, with minimal upkeep thereafter. A shepherd for one alpine season costs CHF 15,000 to 25,000. For the cost of a single wolf killed, seven to ten livestock guardian dogs could be funded for a year.

At national level, the federal herd protection programme cost around CHF 3 million in 2020 (Federal Council, reply to an interpellation, 2021). Since then, the federal government has repeatedly granted additional funds, for example CHF 5.7 million for immediate measures in the 2022 alpine season and a further CHF 3 million in the 2024 budget. At the same time, in early 2024 it withdrew from funding the breeding and training programme for livestock guardian dogs, pointing instead to cantonal programmes. Instead of reliable, multi-year funding, there are supplementary credits from one season to the next. The question is: is Switzerland prepared to invest in protecting living animals, or does it prefer to spend taxpayers' money on killing predators?

More on this: Valais wolf balance sheet: figures of a massacre and Hunting laws and oversight: why self-supervision is not enough

Funding and responsibilities

Herd protection in Switzerland is funded and coordinated through the interplay of the federal government, the cantons and specialist bodies. The FOEN (Federal Office for the Environment) funds herd protection measures through programme agreements with the cantons. The FOAG (Federal Office for Agriculture) provides additional funds through summering contributions and structural improvement programmes. The KORA foundation runs the monitoring of predators. On behalf of the FOEN, AGRIDEA coordinates the herd protection unit, advises farmers and carries out the suitability testing of livestock guardian dogs. Since the revision that came into force on 1 February 2025, the federal government determines the reasonableness of herd protection measures, while the cantons now determine their feasibility (FOEN).

In practice, the picture is a federal patchwork: implementation lies with the cantons, and the differences are considerable. While Grisons shows with the Calanda model what is possible, Valais relies politically above all on kills, even though it invested around 3 million francs in herd protection in 2025. The programme agreements for 2025 to 2028 do provide for an increase in federal funding, but cantonal implementation remains voluntary. No canton is legally obliged to fund herd protection beyond a minimum.

The herd protection unit at AGRIDEA, which has provided advice, training and the placement of livestock guardian dogs for more than 20 years, is chronically underfunded. In many cantons its recommendations are treated as 'suggestions' rather than binding standards. As long as herd protection is not a binding precondition for kill permits, it remains politically optional and therefore structurally weak.

More on this: How hunting associations influence policy and the public and Hunter lobby in Switzerland: how influence works

Livestock guardian dogs: effectiveness and political instrumentalisation

Livestock guardian dogs are a central element of non-lethal wolf management. Several hundred dogs are in use in Switzerland, and demand exceeds supply (AGRIDEA). The dogs live with the herd all year round, are conditioned to protect the animals and drive off predators simply by their presence. Studies from Italy, France and the USA document protection rates of over 80 per cent when the dogs are properly trained and deployed.

In Switzerland, livestock guardian dogs occasionally cause conflicts with hikers: if a dog perceives a supposed threat to its herd, it may bark at walkers or block the path. The recreational hunting lobby systematically instrumentalises these incidents to portray livestock guardian dogs as 'dangerous' and 'unreasonable'. The reality: incidents do occur, but they remain rare and mostly minor. In Valais, the cantonal veterinary office recorded an average of around five incidents per year, mostly trivial cases such as scratches, bruises and small bite wounds; every case is investigated, and problem dogs are withdrawn from service. The incidents can be resolved through signage, information, dog training and adapted hiking trail routing.

Professional training is crucial: breeders and keepers train the dogs, AGRIDEA assesses their suitability on behalf of the FOEN, and only recognised livestock guardian dogs receive federal support. Training takes around two years and requires experience both with the dog breed and with the specific conditions of Swiss Alpine farming. The biggest bottleneck is not effectiveness but availability: there is a shortage of trained dogs and qualified breeders.

More on this: Hunting Dogs: Use, Suffering and Animal Welfare and Hunting myths: 12 claims you should scrutinise critically

The political failure: why herd protection remains underfunded

In Switzerland, herd protection does not fail because of technology, but because of politics. In Valais, the Department for Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife (DJFW) was already heavily criticised by the Audit Committee in 2016: weak leadership, outdated administration, structural shortcomings. The DJFW carries out wolf monitoring and organises regulation, while herd protection falls under the Department of Agriculture. The political weighting is nonetheless clear: herd protection is discussed, while kills are decided.

Christophe Darbellay, a Centre Party member of the Valais State Council and himself a recreational hunter, has made his canton's priorities unmistakably clear: the goal is to reduce the number of wolf packs from an estimated eleven to three (Christophe Darbellay's war on wolves). In this logic, herd protection appears as an obstacle rather than a solution, because effective herd protection would undermine the justification for kills.

The recreational hunting lobby has a strategic interest in portraying herd protection as 'inadequate'. If herd protection works, the main argument for wolf kills falls away. That is why, in parliamentary debate, isolated cases (a goat killed despite a fence, an incident involving a livestock guardian dog) are regularly blown up into systemic failure, while the systematic successes (Calanda, pilot alpine pastures) are ignored.

The lack of transparency in damage reports exacerbates the problem: in many cantons, wolf kills of livestock are reported without any documentation of whether, and which, herd protection measures were in place at the time. Without this data, a serious cost-benefit analysis is impossible, which benefits the pro-kill lobby.

More on this: The cultivated landscape as myth and Media and hunting topics

International role models

Herd protection is not a Swiss experiment, but established practice in numerous European countries.

France has been investing systematically in herd protection since the 1990s, particularly in the Alps and the Pyrenees. The national programme 'Plan National d’Actions Loup' funds livestock guardian dogs, fences, shepherding and emergency measures. More than 3,000 livestock guardian dogs are in use nationwide. Experience shows that where the measures are applied consistently, kills fall considerably.

Italy is the country of origin of the Maremmano-Abruzzese and has the longest tradition of using livestock guardian dogs. In Abruzzo, Liguria and Piedmont, herd protection measures have been supported by the state for decades. The local population has more experience of coexistence than any other region of Europe.

Spain relies on participatory approaches in the mountain regions of Cantabria and Asturias: local coexistence projects, in which farmers, nature conservation authorities and municipalities develop solutions together, show that acceptance is created not through kills but through participation.

Norway is a counter-example: despite massive kill programmes, the conflicts persist, because Norwegian sheep farming is largely based on unsupervised open-range grazing. Norway shows that kills without herd protection do not solve the problem but create a cycle of killing and renewed immigration.

More on this: The wolf in Europe: How politics and recreational hunting are undermining species protection and Hunting and biodiversity: Does hunting really protect nature?

What needs to change

• Herd protection as a binding prerequisite for kill permits: No kill without documented proof that all reasonable herd protection measures have been implemented and evaluated over at least one full grazing season. The revised Hunting Ordinance does name the prior implementation of reasonable herd protection measures as a prerequisite (Art. 10b to 10d JSV), but since February 2025 the cantons themselves have decided on feasibility.
• Reliable and significantly higher federal funding for herd protection: Instead of supplementary credits from season to season, a fixed, multi-year budget is needed, targeted at livestock guardian dogs, shepherding and fencing infrastructure. This would enable Switzerland to protect across the board rather than shoot.
• Independent damage documentation: Every kill report must mandatorily document whether, and which, herd protection measures were effective at the time of the incident. Without this data, any cost-benefit analysis remains worthless.
• National livestock guardian dog programme: The waiting lists for livestock guardian dogs are long, and since the Confederation withdrew from breeding support in 2024, breeding has become fragmented across the cantons. A breeding and training programme coordinated by the Confederation, with a target of 500 active dogs by 2030, would resolve the biggest bottleneck.
• Institutional separation of herd protection and recreational hunting: Herd protection advice and the assessment of whether a kill occurred despite protection belong in bodies that are not at the same time preparing kills. Those who submit kill applications must not themselves decide on the reasonableness of herd protection.
• Mandatory herd protection advice for summer grazing in wolf areas: Every alpine farm that summers its animals within a wolf perimeter must complete a consultation with the herd protection advisory service before the season. The consultation is free of charge and ends with a documented protection plan.

Template submissions: Template texts for hunting-critical motions and Template letter: Appeal for change in Switzerland

Talking points

“Herd protection does not work in steep alpine terrain.” The Calanda pack proves the opposite: 1,500 sheep, 37 kills in five years in one of the steepest areas in Switzerland. The claim has been repeated for years without ever defining the conditions under which herd protection is supposedly impossible. In truth, herd protection works wherever it is implemented consistently. The question is not whether it works, but whether there is a willingness to implement it.

“Herd protection is too expensive for mountain farming.” A livestock guardian dog costs 3,000 to 5,000 francs per year. According to Wild beim Wild's estimate, a wolf kill costs around 35,000 francs. The Valais wolf regulation in 2025 cost an estimated 0.8 to 1 million francs. That money could fund 200 to 300 livestock guardian dogs for a year. It is not herd protection that is too expensive, but the policy of killing.

“Livestock guardian dogs are dangerous for hikers.” Incidents do occur, but they are rare and mostly minor: in Valais, the veterinary office recorded an average of around five per year, predominantly trivial ones. Every case is investigated. Encounters with hikers can be resolved through signage, information campaigns and adapted trail routing. The recreational hunting lobby deliberately exploits these isolated cases to discredit herd protection as a whole.

“If herd protection were necessary, our ancestors would have done it too.” They did it. Livestock guardian dogs, shepherds and night pens were standard in the Alps for centuries, until the predators were exterminated. That Alpine farming abandoned these practices was a consequence of the extermination, not a sign that they were superfluous. The return of predators demands the return of herd protection.

“Damage caused by wolves is rising despite herd protection.” Kills are rising where there is no herd protection or where it is inadequate. In areas with consistent protection (Calanda, AGRIDEA project alpine pastures), kills remain at a low level. In Ticino, according to the canton, 98 per cent of the livestock killed in 2022 had no herd protection (Ticino: 98% of killed livestock unprotected by herd protection). And in Valais, the number of kills has been falling since 2023. Anyone who laments rising kills without asking about the level of herd protection is shifting the blame from the true cause.

Quick links

Articles on Wild beim Wild:

• Valais Wolf Report 2025/2026: Figures of a Massacre
• Christophe Darbellay's war on wolves: polemic against the facts
• Problem politicians instead of problem wolves
• 2026 wolf hunt halted: How courts are protecting the wolf
• Criminal complaint: Recreational hunter kills wolf (Puschlav)
• Illegal wolf hunting in Switzerland
• Wolf kills in Switzerland 2026/27: the running tally
• Dossier: Wolf in Switzerland
• Thanks to herd protection, wolves in Switzerland kill fewer livestock
• According to an AGRIDEA study, herd protection with dogs works well
• The truth about sheep mortality in Switzerland

Related dossiers:

• The golden jackal in Switzerland: A natural immigrant under political pressure
• The otter in Switzerland: Exterminated, returned and politically threatened
• Brown bear Switzerland: Returned and still unwelcome
• Wildcat Switzerland: Back, but threatened
• Lynx in Switzerland: Key Species and Political Subject of Controversy
• Fox Switzerland: the most hunted predator without a lobby
• Wolf: ecological function and political reality
• Wolf in Europe: Politics and recreational hunting versus species protection
• Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Kills and Politics
• Valais wolf balance sheet: figures of a massacre
• Fox hunting without facts: How JagdSchweiz invents problems
• Herd Protection In Switzerland: What Works And What Fails
• Regulate recreational hunters, not predators
• Self-regulation of wildlife populations: Scientific evidence from Geneva, the National Park and international comparison

sources

• Canton of Valais, Department of Agriculture (4 March 2026): Herd protection review 2025. Press release
• Canton of Valais (2026): Large predators, 2025/2026 review of wolf presence in Valais and its regulation
• FOEN: Herd protection (bafu.admin.ch); Hunting Ordinance (JSV, SR 922.01), Art. 10b to 10d
• AGRIDEA (2023): Annual report on herd protection in Switzerland 2022
• Federal Council (2021): Reply to the Ruppen interpellation on the costs of large predators
• FOEN (19 May 2022): Confederation grants CHF 5.7 million for herd protection. Press release

Our Standard

This dossier shows that herd protection is not a utopian demand from animal welfare campaigners, but a tried-and-tested, affordable and internationally proven practice. Those who call for kills before all herd protection measures have been exhausted are not acting in the interest of mountain farming, but in the interest of a recreational hunting lobby that needs the wolf as a justification for its own existence. The Calanda pack and the experience of France, Italy and Spain prove that coexistence with predators is possible when the political will is there.

If you know of any tips, data or accounts of experience regarding herd protection that belong in this dossier, write to us. We are especially looking for documentation from alpine farms that work successfully with herd protection.

More on the topic of recreational hunting: in our hunting dossier we bring together fact checks, analyses and background reports.