The debate about wolves in Saxony does not stop. Their number has also increased in 2022. According to a current overview, there are currently 31 wolf packs, four wolf pairs and one individual animal in the Free State. Is that too many?
Dresden (dpa/sn) – In view of the growing number of wolves in Saxony, the CDU and AfD have spoken out in favor of changing the protection status of the predator and being able to hunt it with it. The number of wolf packs is increasing and with it the number of wolf kills, argued Sören Voigt, parliamentary manager of the CDU parliamentary group, on Wednesday in Dresden. The problem cannot be contained with protective measures alone, there is a conflict between the protective status of the wolf and the grazing of animals.
“We can only resolve this conflict if the wolf is managed as a normal wild animal, i.e. can also be shot,” emphasized Voigt. In the meantime, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has spoken of questioning the status of the wolf. The Saxon Agriculture and Environment Minister Wolfram Günther (CDU) should make representations in Brussels. The CDU has requested a debate on the topic in the state parliament for this Friday.
AfD faction leader Jörg Urban blamed the CDU for the settlement of the wolf because it had the Ministry for the Environment and Agriculture in its hands for a long time. Livestock farmers and hunters viewed the settlement critically from the outset, but the CDU pushed through against critical voices. Urban pointed out that the AfD had always advocated regulation of wolf populations. “That has always been our line.” The government should seek advice from scientists on how many packs the country can tolerate.
On the other hand, representatives of the Left, Greens and SPD saw no reason to shake the protected status of the wolf. Left faction leader Rico Gebhardt accused the Union of developing a fear scenario. Greens domestic politician Valentin Lippmann saw the task of state politics as financially supporting protective measures for livestock farmers. “We have to keep our feet on the ground in this whole debate.” Perhaps the CDU should “not read too much Little Red Riding Hood”. There are sufficient instruments to protect against the consequences of wolf attacks.
For the SPD, the change in protection status is only an option as a last resort, said their parliamentary director Sabine Friedel. However, we are far from having reached that point. It is about organizing coexistence between wolves and humans adequately, preventing wolf attacks on grazing animals and compensating the owners.
The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the Federal Documentation and Advice Center on the subject of wolves (DBBW) recently updated the numbers on wolf populations in Germany. A total of 31 packs, four pairs of wolves and one individual animal were reported for Saxony in the observation year 2021/2022. The year before there had been 29 packs.
