Valais: Special permit for further wolf culls?
Valais is examining special permits for further wolf culls. Animal welfare organisations fear an escalation of the culling policy.
The cantonal government wrote a corresponding letter to the Federal Council this week, it was announced at a press conference of the cantonal government on 20 May 2022 in Sion.
In it, the federal government is called upon to«issue an emergency ordinance enabling the canton to regulate the overpopulation of wolves for six months in coordination with the Federal Office for the Environment».
«We would, in consultation with the Federal Office for the Environment, determine a number of wolves that we could shoot before attacks occur», said State Councillor Frédéric Favre. The canton also demands a simplification of administrative procedures and compensation for breeders for all animals that cannot be found following a proven wolf attack, minus natural losses.
50 to 70 wolves
According to estimates from the Valais cantonal office for hunting, fishing and wildlife, there are currently 50 to 70 wolves in Valais. Some of them are members of the four observed packs. Since 2018, the number of individuals present in the area has more than doubled.
In 2021, wolves killed 336 of the approximately 40’000 animals driven up to the alpine pastures. This means that fewer than 0.9 percent of all Valais livestock fell victim to the wolf. When asked whether this percentage was too high, State Councillor Christophe Darbellay replied:«That depends on what one is prepared to accept.»
In 2020, over 240’000 sheep in Switzerland were sent to slaughter by their owners.
The two State Councillors spoke of a «monumental challenge for breeders and cantonal services, who no longer know which way to turn». The wolf had lost all fear and was jumping fences of more than one metre in height. Mountain farming was at risk, and Valais had four times as many wolves as the national average.
In the canton of Valais, numerous livestock kills have been occurring again since April. This year, a total of 84 livestock have already been killed, even though the alpine grazing season has only just begun. The canton's figures show that most of the animals killed were not protected by herd protection measures – although in some cases the opposite is claimed. All kills occurred in well-known, long-established wolf territories, primarily in pack territories. The shooting of individual animals, as demanded by politicians and wolf opponents, is unlawful in pack territories.
A single wolf recently killed 28 sheep in the municipalities of Ergisch and Unterbäch. The predator was shot unlawfully by the Valais wildlife wardens on the morning of Friday, 20 May 2022.
Dossier: The Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics, and the Limits of Hunting
More on the subject of recreational hunting: 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.
