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In Lower Saxony, wolves no longer only live in wild animal enclosures, but also in the wild
Photo: Swen Pförtner / dpa
The Union wants to enable stricter measures against wolves in Germany.
"In areas where effective herd protection cannot be implemented technically and at a reasonable cost, wolf-free zones (are) to be defined," says a motion that the CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader passed in the Bundestag on Monday evening.
It is available to the news portal t-online.
"These include, above all, the grazed coastal and high-water dykes as well as the alpine regions."
Wolves are protected in Europe and have been spreading again in Germany for several years.
What pleases conservationists is criticized by many shepherds and other animal keepers.
Again and again animals are killed, even if they graze behind fences.
For a long time, only wolves that repeatedly overcame such protective fences and tore animals could be released for shooting.
In 2019, the SPD and the Union finally agreed on facilitating the shooting of wolves.
Apparently that's no longer enough for the Union.
Dealing with wolves has been an important campaign issue in the past.
Lower Saxony will elect a new state parliament in two weeks – and there have recently been more wolves settled there too.
CDU and CSU demand that "simplified options for legally secure wolf removal" should be created.
This means that wolves can also be shot if they cannot be identified beyond doubt as attacking animals.
For example, "uniform criteria for the removal of wolves are to be defined together with the federal states, a population-preserving target population of wolves is to be defined and the administrative effort involved in removing wolves is to be reduced".
Both measures should be part of a "wolf stock management" as it is already practiced in countries like Sweden.
The Union is also in favor of regularly collecting and publishing the costs incurred by wolves in Germany and simplifying compensation procedures for the owners of dead livestock.
"The romantic transfiguration of the wolf must be ended," said the environmental policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Anja Weisgerber (CSU), to "t-online".
»People in certain rural regions in Germany no longer feel safe, so something has to be done quickly.« The previous preventive measures did not show the desired success.
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