Confederation and cantons should keep a sense of proportion when shooting wolves
Published: Wednesday, Nov 6th 2024, 11:30
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Animal and environmental protection organizations criticize the wolf policy of the federal government and individual cantons. The regulation is taking on the characteristics of pest control. The population and the law demand a sense of proportion.
According to the Wolf Switzerland group, WWF, Pro Natura and Bird Life Switzerland, the number of livestock kills also decreased in 2024, although the number of wolves increased. This trend had already begun before the massive wolf culls last winter. Nevertheless, many more wolves are currently being released for shooting. The federal government and individual cantons are decoupling themselves from the facts, the organizations wrote in a press release on Wednesday.
The fact is that the number of livestock kills by wolves has fallen for the third time in a row compared to the previous year. According to animal welfare and environmental organizations, the two cantons with the largest wolf populations, Graubünden and Valais, had 15 percent fewer bites this year at the end of October than at the same time last year and even 40 percent fewer bites than at the end of October 2022. In the canton of Glarus, there were only four bites.
This downward trend was already evident in the summer of 2023, i.e. before the "unrestrained" wolf culls began. The decline in damage while the wolf population is increasing is therefore primarily due to efforts to protect herds.
In contrast to the decrease in the number of livestock kills is the trend in wolf culls. Today, in certain cantons, every pack that has killed a single protected farm animal is approved for killing. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) has approved the complete elimination of a total of eight packs this winter, including the national park pack. Most of the other wolf packs are to have up to two thirds of their pups "shot away".
35,000 signatures for national park herd
The petition by nature conservation organizations for the preservation of the national park pack shows that the population also wants a sense of proportion when it comes to interventions in the wolf population. Within 14 days, over 35,000 people had called on the Graubünden government to refrain from killing the pack and to find alternatives.
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