Allegedly injured wolf in Valens SG was poached
Published: Tuesday, Nov 28th 2023, 11:50
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A wolf from the Calfeisental pack has been illegally shot in the canton of St. Gallen. The injured animal had to be shot by the gamekeeper. The canton filed charges against persons unknown.
The case occurred back in July 2023, when a woman from Valens SG reported a wolf in her garden to the police that was obviously too weak to escape. A gamekeeper then shot the suffering animal.
"Investigations have now shown that the wolf had previously been seriously injured by a shot and therefore had to be put down", the canton wrote in a statement on Tuesday. The carcass was then taken to the Institute of Fish and Wildlife Health at the University of Bern to find out what the wolf had contracted.
In addition to ammunition residue from the gamekeeper, metal splinters from another ammunition projectile were also found, explained Simon Meier, head of the Office for Nature, Hunting and Fishing, when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency.
These ammunition residues were very unlikely to have come from standard hunting ammunition, Meier continued. Most likely they would point to classic shooting range ammunition, which had penetrated the wolf's body but left behind small fragments.
Canton filed a complaint
The Office for Nature, Hunting and Fishing filed a complaint with the police. "The perpetrators have not yet been identified", according to the canton's statement.
According to Meier, the wolf is considered poached, as the cause that led to its release by the gamekeeper was due to an unauthorized shot. The cub, born in 2022, came from the Calfeisental pack.
On Tuesday, the federal government announced the authorization for various wolf packs to be shot. St. Gallen authorized the shooting of the entire Calfeisental pack, which killed 14 sheep in protected herds this year.
©Keystone/SDA
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