As of: February 23, 2024, 4:49 p.m
By: Marc Schreib, Laura Forster
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According to initial results, the wolf is responsible for the sheep tear in Großhelferdorf two weeks ago.
Farmers not only live in worry, but also feel let down by politics.
© Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa
It is very likely that it was a wolf that killed the sheep near Aying.
The farmer is now considering giving up his breeding.
He demands: Politics should abolish the protection of predators.
Großhelferdorf – farmer Georg Niedermair prophesied it.
“This will soon affect us too,” he said almost four years ago in an interview with the Münchner Merkur about the killing of animals by wolves, which very likely became a reality two weeks ago in Großhelferdorf.
He already saw the rural idyll on Gut Spielberg, a hamlet in the municipality of Aying, where Niedermair keeps around 80 cattle and 30 sport horses, in danger in 2020 and took part in the “Lights against forgetting” campaign with three warning fires in his paddocks active wolf management demands from politicians.
When the farmer picked up his children from school on February 9th, he saw the dead sheep lying in the pasture in Großhelferdorf from his car.
After a short conversation with owner Michael Riesenberger, “the matter was clear” for Niedermair.
That was a wolf."
He might be right about that.
As reported, Riesenberger received a letter from the State Office for the Environment (LfU) stating that preliminary genetic testing revealed that it was very likely that a wolf had injured or killed the five sheep.
“The currently available evidence points to the involvement of a large predator,” writes the LfU upon request.
The large predators include wolves, bears and lynxes, according to the state office's website.
However, the LfU will only confirm whether a wolf actually attacked the animals in Aying once the investigations have been completed.
“From a political perspective, livestock farming is apparently no longer wanted”
For Riesenberger, the fear of wolves is now a constant companion.
As one of the few farmers in the area who still raises livestock on pasture, he is now considering giving up sheep farming and concentrating on horses.
“I believe that from a political point of view, livestock farming is no longer wanted or appreciated.” After all, every animal that has been hunted for centuries to protect people and the population is now more protected than its own agriculture.
On the one hand, there is a penalty if the stable is not littered correctly, keyword animal welfare, but on the other hand, the wolf is allowed to tear the sheep.
According to Riesenberger, wild animals are on the rise.
In Großhelferdorf the wolf, in Ismaning the beaver.
“We also have a business there.
If you get a permit to take such an animal, it will have multiplied five times.”
Wolf's crack a nightmare
Niedermair can understand that.
“You shouldn’t be surprised if grazing livestock farming declines and farmers switch to arable farming,” he says.
“You don’t have to worry about the wolf.” Niedermair’s animals are still in the stable, but in April they should go out into the meadows and paddocks.
He is expecting twelve foals this spring.
But horses are particularly at risk from wolves.
Since they are flight animals, they quickly panic.
“There is a lot of hope and decades of experience in the foals,” he says.
A wolf tear – a nightmare for the Niedermair family.
That's why he and other German farmers are calling for the protection of wolves to be lifted.
In addition, the predator should be included in hunting law.
Act correctly if you encounter a wolf
If you encounter a wolf, the State Office for the Environment recommends the following:
•Don't run away.
Back away slowly.
Don't run after the wolf.
•If you have a dog with you, keep it on a leash and close to you.
•If the wolf seems too close to you, draw attention to yourself.
Speak loudly, gesture or otherwise make yourself noticeable.
•Never feed wolves;
The animals otherwise learn very quickly to associate human presence with food and then actively seek proximity to people.
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