Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Baden-Württemberg has spent around ten million euros since 2018 on protecting livestock from wolf attacks. This was reported by the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” (Thursday), citing the Ministry of the Environment.
Because the country wants to adapt the previous protection concept, the costs are likely to increase. In addition to sheep, goats and young cattle, older animals should also be included, it said. The country wants to help cattle farmers more with the construction of wolf-proof fences. A pilot project with several companies is planned in the Black Forest.
So far, wolves have attacked eleven cattle in the southwest, the newspapers reported, citing figures from the Forestry Research and Experimental Institute in Freiburg. Eight of them died.
The FDP member of parliament Klaus Hoher told the newspapers: “The state government has concentrated one-sidedly on the protection of the wolf. The wolf is not threatened with extinction, but soon the grazing animals will.” The chairman of the Black Forest Bio-Weiderind producer association, Markus Kaiser, said: “The cattle farmers are nervous, the majority are talking about stopping when the wolf comes.”
In Baden-Württemberg, three wolves are considered settled, all of them males in the Black Forest. Two of them roam the south. A wolf is considered sedentary if clear evidence can be found after six months. For classification: A total of 161 wolf packs, 43 pairs and 21 sedentary individuals live in Germany.
A photo from a photo trap in the Schluchsee region recently made headlines because it shows two wolves. Experts suspect that it is a couple. That could produce offspring.
On Friday, the chairwoman of the Southern Black Forest Nature Park, the Lörrach District Administrator Marion Dammann (non-party) and the President of the Baden Agricultural Association, Bernhard Bolkart, want to provide information on the challenges of “herd protection for wolves”.
