Livestock kills despite herd protection: How is this possible?
Time and again, authorities and media report livestock kills on alpine pastures despite enhanced herd protection measures.
Weaknesses in herd protection
Long-term herd protection monitoring shows that when wolf attacks occur despite herd protection measures, the wolf has usually found a weak point at an arbitrary location. Only in the rarest of cases has it learned to deliberately circumvent well-implemented protective measures.
Implementing effective herd protection measures always entails additional effort, costs, and above all a learning process for livestock keepers within the core territory of wildlife. The state provides them with generous support in this regard.
Biomass completely out of balance
The biomass is completely out of balance. This means that humans (34%) and their livestock (65%), which are mostly raised under conditions not appropriate to the species, account for 99% compared to wildlife at just 1%!
| Resident population Switzerland 31.12.2022 | 8’815’400 (34 %) |
| Livestock: cattle, equines, sheep, goats, chickens, pigs — 9.5.2023 | 16’526’549 (65 %) |
| Wildlife: roe deer, red deer, chamois — 1.4.2021 | 265’585 (1 %) |
| Total | 25’607’534 (100 %) |
| Slaughter figures 31.12.2022 | 84’122’130 |
Around 200’000 sheep are transported to the mountains for a few months each year. Every year, thousands of sheep, goats, cows perish during the summer grazing season, also due to insufficient herding.
«Abandoning sheep grazing above the treeline could represent a major gain for biodiversity. Populations of many wild plants and insects such as butterflies could recover. This would also ease the problems livestock keepers face with the wolf.»
IG Wild beim Wild
Typical errors in herd protection
In the early years — that is, during the build-up phase of herd protection — mistakes are often still being made. In most cases, herds are managed in an insufficiently homogeneous manner, or too few livestock guardian dogs are deployed relative to the number of sheep and the size of the grazing area. Serious errors and deficiencies in fencing are also regularly observed.
Wolves observe carefully and repeatedly test, finding and exploiting every weakness in the protection system. Once the weaknesses are identified, they can usually be remedied with simple means.
That herd protection works and is feasible is demonstrated by all herders who, in some cases for years, have been implementing herd protection measures very successfully in the middle of wolf territory, explains chwolf.ch.
Regulation via young animals: Science works differently
Across Europe, the wolf is a strictly protected animal. The protection of wolves is not to be relaxed in Switzerland. This was decided by the electorate in autumn 2020.
It has long been established in the literature among experts worldwide that culling can have no “educational” effect on wolves. Science works differently! Such a dilettantish approach is closer to poaching than to expertise.
Dossier: Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics and the Limits of Hunting
Further articles
- Swiss meadows are losing biodiversity at an alarming rate
- When sheep, cattle and others occupy wildlife habitat
- Swiss animal protection organisation criticizes planned wolf culls as a threat to pack structures and herd protection
- In Graubünden, wolf incompetence runs rampant
- Val Fex: When the herd protection concept has more holes than the fence
- Culling instead of protection – Switzerland on the path to silent wolf extermination
- Communication failures at the Office for Hunting and Fishing in Graubünden
- Illegal wolf hunting in Switzerland
- Wolf cubs in Switzerland under crossfire
- Switzerland sells wolf massacre as a success
- Sloppiness in the office of Katrin Schneeberger
- Livestock grazing alters the soil, plants and insect populations
- The senseless hunt for wolves in Switzerland
- The truth about sheep mortality in Switzerland: causes and statistics
- Wolf culls in Switzerland: concern over party politician Albert Rösti
- Let us stop the destructive fury of the SVP
- Participation campaign: An appeal for change in Switzerland
- 200 environmental organisations from 6 continents call on the Swiss government: Stop the wolf cull
- Federal Councillor strongly criticized by wolf experts
- The consequences of controversial wolf management in Switzerland
- Wolf: Federal Councillor Rösti (SVP) circumvents law and order
- Es Burebüebli mahn i nit
- Are BAFU and the hunting authorities still operating responsibly?
- Federal Councillor Albert Rösti tramples the will of the people
- The consequences of controversial wolf management in Switzerland
- Too many sheep are harming biodiversity
- Agricultural use destroys alpine meadows
- Kills despite herd protection — how is that possible?
- The rotten apple in St. Gallen's hunting administration
- Pro Natura demands comprehensive strategy for summer sheep grazing
- According to Agridea study, herd protection with dogs works well
- Thanks to herd protection, wolves kill fewer livestock in Switzerland
- Farmers treat fields as dumping grounds
- Biomass of wildlife
- Of sheep farmers and vague authorities
- The double standards of wolf opponents
Interest group Wild beim Wild
The IG Wild beim Wild is a non-profit advocacy group committed to the sustainable and non-violent improvement of the human-animal relationship, with a specialisation in the legal aspects of wildlife protection. One of our main concerns is to introduce a contemporary and serious wildlife management system in the cultural landscape, modeled on the Canton of Geneva — without hobby hunters but with principled game wardens who truly deserve the title and act according to a code of honour. The monopoly on the use of force belongs in the hands of the state. The IG supports scientific methods of immunocontraception for wildlife.
