Europe: Highest Protection for Wolves
The Council of Europe is currently not prepared to relax the protection of wolves. The body has postponed a corresponding motion by Switzerland, wishing to await the results of a study expected next year.
The Council of Europe is currently not prepared to relax the protection of the wolf The body has postponed a corresponding motion by Switzerland, wishing to await the results of a study expected next year.
A new attempt by Switzerland to downgrade the level of wolf protection under the Bern Convention on species conservation failed on Friday, as a spokesperson for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg announced. The committee responsible for monitoring the species conservation convention decided to postpone the vote.
The population is growing
Switzerland has been trying for years to loosen the protection provisions for wolves. According to a survey, there are currently around 17’000 wolves living in the wild across Europe. Between 30 and 40 wolves live in the Swiss Alps.
In Germany, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) estimates the population at around 60 packs. Farmers and exploiters of livestock as well as recreational hunters have been mobilising against the presence of predators for years. More on the hunting law and on biodiversity.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. 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.
