"First the cow goes, then the guest": Politicians at Tegernsee call for the wolf to be shot down - fire letter to Söder

Created: 07/22/2022, 22:29

By: Christina Jachert-Maier, Gerti Reichl

The wolf is probably also on the move in the valley, to the concern of farmers and alpine farmers.

© DPA

Farmers in Gmund demand backing from the municipality when dealing with the wolf.

And they demand the shooting.

Gmund -

Because it is highly topical after the recent incidents involving a wolf, the topic had subsequently found a place on the agenda.

The two CSU councilors Johann Huber and Josef Berghammer demanded the “active support of the municipality and the municipal councils for the local alpine farmers and farmers in the Tegernsee Valley in dealing with the wolf”.

Because they tend the valley with their animals and preserve the typical cultural landscape, they need the active support of politicians and municipalities to protect their animals from wolves.

They demanded that the wolf be released to be shot.

Wolf am Tegernsee: Not a total kill, but a deletion from the red list

"It's really burning," Huber, himself a farmer, substantiated the application.

The wolf, which is adapting more and more, is by no means shy and is mutating into a "hybrid wolf", is not threatened with extinction, he argued.

According to Huber, he did not call for the “total shooting”, but rather for the species to be removed from the Red List of endangered species.

the farmers need support, so you have to put pressure on politicians, "otherwise I see bad for agriculture".

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Mayor Alfons Besel (FWG) understood the concerns, but also recalled that the district mayors had already written a resolution to Environment Minister Faithr.

Herd protection measures such as fences or dogs would not work in his eyes.

Besel stated: "The wolf has no place here."

Read here: This is how the event in Miesbach on the subject of wolves went.

Martina Ettstaller (CSU) and Florian Floßmann (FWG) thought so too.

"Whether it's a wolf or a bear, the district should now be behind the issue," demanded Floßmann and admitted that he now had a queasy feeling when he was alone in the forest.

Josef Berghammer (CSU) warned: The wolf is changing its hunting strategy, "it is adapting more and more." If farmers no longer drive their cattle to the pastures, the cultural landscape will be destroyed.

"And that's bad." Berghammer added: "Then we don't need a tourism boss anymore, because nobody comes anymore." Korbinian Kohler, CSU councilor and hotelier, was also in favor of the launch with regard to tourism.

"I'm glad for any danger that's gone."

Debate about the wolf: Green Councilor considers shooting "absurd"

Laura Wagner (Greens) was the only one who swerved from the front against the wolf, although she also expressed understanding for the farmers.

With regard to the diversity of species in nature, she sees herself in conflict, Wagner admitted.

However, she does not understand why the "second of shock" is currently so great.

"Yes, local politics must help farmers, but shooting down is absurd."

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In the end, she alone voted against the motion, which was endorsed by the panel.

How the support for alpine farmers and farmers should look like in concrete terms was still open.

Rottach-Egern writes to Söder: "First the cow goes, then the guest"

The Rottach municipal council had already backed the alpine farmers with a unanimous decision in its June meeting when it came to the wolf issue.

On behalf of the committee, Mayor Christian Köck (CSU) has now sent a personal letter to Prime Minister Markus Söder.

"First the cow goes, then the guest goes," says the letter that Köck read at the meeting on Tuesday evening.

In it, Köck vividly describes the threat posed by wolves to alpine and pasture farming and tourism.

The mayors of the district had already sent a letter to Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr in March, Köck reminds: "Unfortunately, so far we have not received an answer from the ministry, let alone a reaction." The fact is that the federal government together with the EU is laying the groundwork have to ask

Since this can hardly be achieved from the municipal level, the municipality of Rottach-Egern is calling on the Bavarian state government to take action and put pressure on the responsible authorities.

The alpine farmers waited for a signal from "higher politics".

The best solution is the designation of wolf-free protection zones, explains Köck.

The suggestion to provide alpine pastures with fences to protect livestock, on the other hand, is a purely theoretical approach that cannot be implemented in practice due to the topography in the pre-Alpine region.

"It makes a difference whether wolves in packs, for example in Lusatia, eke out an existence on abandoned military training areas and practically do not disturb anyone, or whether they are now causing more and more regular damage in the populated Alpine region, which is intensively used for agriculture and tourism",

Koeck makes it clear.

It is important to preserve the small-structured mountain agriculture.

With the existence of wolves, this is simply impossible in the foothills of the Alps.

The mayor received applause for the letter in the boardroom. 

You can find more current news from the district of Miesbach and the Tegernsee region at Merkur.de/Tegernsee.