The debate about wolves in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen continues: Now the sheep farmers are sounding the alarm and demanding protection zones for their animals.
District – Less the bear, not the lynx, but the wolf is multiplying in the Alpine region and is thus becoming an increasing threat to the local alpine economy.
District administrator Anton Speer (free voters) has therefore already gone on the offensive and has submitted an application to the government of Upper Bavaria to remove wolves.
The sheep keepers are sounding the alarm: like the Farchanter Hans Hibler, chairman of the Werdenfelser Bergschaf breeders, Joseph Grasegger from the Bavarian Sheep Keepers Association, the farmer Anton Hornsteiner and the board member of the Werdenfelser breeders, Benedikt Egner, see this gradual development critically.
There are probably around 7,000 sheep kept across the county.
A good 2500 of them spend the summer time on the local alpine pastures and thus contribute to the preservation of the cultural landscape.
Until now.
The question now arises for pet owners as to whether what has been taken for granted up to now will still apply in the near future.
The reasons: the wolf and the previous damage that the predator has demonstrably caused.
It should have been 36 pieces last year.
That's why the people of Garmisch, for example, took their animals early from the Alm after the cracks in mid-August.
Hornsteiner experienced the whole thing up close: sheep were disturbed
Hornsteiner experienced the whole thing up close.
One of his sheep was noticeably disturbed.
A closer look revealed the spots left by a predator with its paws under the long wool.
But a vet did a good job and the mountain sheep survived.
Things will soon get serious again for the sheep farmers.
"Because it's always in the first or second week of May that we get horrified because of the uncertainty," says Anton Hornsteiner.
It has been proven that there are wolves in the area.
The "Jonas'n-Toni", who runs the Uschala-Hof in the district of Garmisch with his family, puts it clearly: "On the one hand, we need effective protection, and removals are also part of it." And he points out another important one point attentive.
“Hardly anyone thinks about the physical strain on the assigned shepherds.
They have a herd in their care, because they want to return the animals entrusted to them to their owners after the Almzeit.
"We want to set an example with this," says the farmer.
"It's not about the money for us, it's about the fundamentals." The compensation is correct in principle, he says.
But he calls for significantly more action from politicians in Germany and the EU for the interests of farmers who have dedicated themselves to livestock farming.
Therefore those affected and associations are demanding the designation of special protection zones for pastoralism.
Farmer sees dark times ahead for sheep farming
Joseph Grasegger, farmer in the Partenkirchen district and head of the local pasture cooperative, sees dark times ahead for sheep farming.
"I consider the wolf to be a noble animal and also appropriate for uninhabited expanses, such as those found in Siberia.
But in Europe we have an immense immigration of wolves from all directions - that will explode," warns Grasegger.
He also suspects a large number of hybrids, i.e. wolf-dog hybrids, which could be immigrating from Italy.
And he does not hold back with criticism of wolf advocates in densely populated western Europe.
“These people have no idea, they don't know the local conditions with pronounced tourism and our hilly alpine pastures traversed by ditches.
In ten to twelve years, the population jump will then have a significant impact,”
he warns.
"Then our culture is on the brink - after all, sheep farming in Bavaria is also considered an intangible cultural heritage!"
Hans Hibler junior from Farchant is also harsh on the ideas of the wolf advocates.
"It's always our fault, we're supposed to fence in, which isn't even possible given the many kilometers and the geological conditions," he explains.
"Fences, livestock guard dogs, stables, always the same thing - but that doesn't work," emphasizes Hornsteiner.
Hibler clears up another fairy tale: "It is always said that the wolf is threatened with extinction, it is more the mountain sheep breed that is affected!" Benedikt Egner puts it in a nutshell: "There are solutions, this is emphasized again and again, me but don't see them!"
"It will soon be all or nothing," fears Grasegger, who sees traditional alpine farming at risk.
"Because many small farmers, Partenkirchen alone has 56 sheep farmers, some with small stocks, will then give up gradually due to the uncertainty and cracks." mz