EU Commissioner: Wolf remains strictly protected
Despite the increasing spread of wolves across Europe, the EU Commission has no intention of changing the predator's special protected status. «The wolf is still an endangered species in large parts of the European Union,» said EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan. Targeted hunting of the animals to reduce their population therefore remains prohibited. CSU Minister Schmidt called for a weakening of the protected status Federal Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt
Despite the increasing spread of wolves across Europe, the EU Commission has no intention of changing the predator's special protected status. «The wolf is still an endangered species in large parts of the European Union,» said EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan. Targeted hunting of the animals to reduce their population therefore remains prohibited.
CSU Minister called for a weakening of the protected status
Federal Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt (CSU) had written a letter to the EU Commission requesting a change to the strict protected status. This would make it easier to hunt the animal.
The environmental organisation WWF criticised Schmidt's proposal. Anyone calling for culls and wolf population caps is deflecting from the real, structural problems faced by, for example, sheep farmers — problems that require genuine solutions, said Moritz Klose, wildlife policy officer at WWF Germany. Instead, more thought should be given to how herds grazing outdoors can be better protected. According to the organisation, outdoor livestock farming is healthier and more ecologically sound and should therefore be supported. Klose is therefore calling for «quick, unbureaucratic compensation payments for animals that have been killed.» Likewise, recreational hunting as a means of population control is not supported by scientific evidence.
Culling permitted in individual cases
Hogan stated that the EU Commission was aware that the spread of wolves was associated with problems. However, he pointed out that better protection of grazing animals was being financially supported. Furthermore, he noted that the current regulations already permit targeted individual culling of wolves where it serves “population management” and does not endanger the survival of the species.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
