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European gray wolf (symbol photo)
Photo: Martin Wagner / imago images / Martin Wagner
In view of the increasing number of wolf packs in Germany, Farmer President Joachim Rukwied has spoken out in favor of a limitation.
"Anyone who wants to keep grazing animals in the future must say yes to stock management," Rukwied told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
"We must commit ourselves to a maximum number of wolves and wolf packs," emphasized Rukwied.
"Whatever is above that has to be taken out, otherwise grazing is history," he added.
From an agricultural point of view, there are already too many wolves in Germany.
"Animals are mutilated by wolves, they suffer an agonizing death," said the farm president.
"We must act here."
Wolves are under strict protection in Germany.
In Germany, the European requirements have been transferred to the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG).
The federal states are responsible for implementing the laws, and the federal government can support them in this.
According to the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), for example, Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) is aiming for an upper limit for wolves and is currently having a report clarifying how many animals are necessary for the preservation of the species.
The state government is also planning to include the wolf in the hunting law, which animal rights activists such as the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU) have criticized.
Example Lower Saxony: Dispute about wolf kills
There has been a heated debate about wolves in Germany for years.
In Lower Saxony, there has just been a so-called organ dispute before the state court in Bückeburg about the transparency of wolf shooting.
In the middle of the week, at the request of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, the State Court of Justice decided on the disclosure of the shooting permits of individual wolves, which had previously been kept top secret.
The state government must now provide essential information on the approved wolf shooting, wrote NABU Lower Saxony on Tuesday in a statement on the decision of the state court.
"A secrecy as before is unconstitutional," it says.
With financial support from the Friends of Free-Living Wolves and WWF Germany, NABU Lower Saxony had already filed a lawsuit in December 2021 with the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court against what it considered to be “unlawful wolf ordinances in Lower Saxony”.
The associations call on the state to "take species protection seriously and to redesign the ordinance for the protection of wolves in accordance with European law".
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According to the three associations, a policy that focuses on killing wolves has failed.
Because shooting leads "demonstrably only to a reduction in livestock tears if the wolf is eradicated again".
Since this is not an option for conservationists, they are calling for more investment in livestock protection.
Comprehensive herd protection has been proven to be the most effective means of preventing attacks on livestock.
Every year, NABU provides information on the number of wolves in Germany.
According to this, around 157 wolf packs, 27 pairs and 19 territorial individuals are currently living in Germany's wild environment.
jus/AFP