Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The FDP parliamentary group insists on the legally secure shooting of so-called problem wolves. The wolf must – albeit with a year-round closed season – finally be transferred to the hunting and wild animal law, demanded parliamentary group leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke on Wednesday in Stuttgart. Hunters should have the right to kill the strictly protected animals if they turn out to be problem animals, for example by raiding the sheep enclosure. There is concern that the interests of agriculture and livestock farming will get under the wheels. “The hurdles have to be lower for a wolf removal.”
“The fairy tale of the good wolf is over,” said the spokesman for nature conservation policy, Klaus Hoher. “There is no such thing as a good wolf.” The animals were constantly learning, jumping over wolf fences into enclosures, killing livestock “in bloodlust”. The wolf must be transferred to hunting law. “As soon as he starts getting the animals out of the chicken coop, the fun is over.” Rülke said that the FDP trusts the hunters, who are also animal rights activists.
There are dozens of wolf packs in Germany, and there are hundreds of individual animals across the country – and according to the latest counts, the number is increasing. In Baden-Württemberg, however, the number of stray regular guests had recently fallen again. As of May, only three wolves lived permanently in the southwest.
A wolf is considered sedentary if clear evidence can still be found after six months. If an animal becomes a regular guest, so to speak, a support area is designated in the region. There, special requirements apply to herd protection – it must be wolf-repellent. In return, the state in the development area reimburses almost all costs for the additional herd protection.
While conservationists are happy and see success in the fight against the extinction of animal species, the development is also causing great concern for livestock owners in Baden-Württemberg. Because the wolf has no natural enemies. According to the Forestry Research and Experimentation Institute (FVA), 13 attacks by wolves were proven in Baden-Württemberg last year, 42 animals were killed – mainly sheep and goats, but also a cow.
