Status: 02.10.2021 1:25 p.m.
The wolf is under nature protection in Germany. But according to NABU, eleven animals have already been killed this year without legal permission. Conservationists see politics as part of the responsibility.
The Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) has complained about a growing number of illegal killing of wolves. With the discovery of three shot animals at the end of September in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a high has already been reached for the year 2021, said the environmental protection association. A total of eleven wolves were found this year that were killed without legal permission.
According to NABU, there were eight illegal killings in 2020, and nine each in 2019 and 2018. In addition, there is a presumably high number of unreported cases. “Each of these killings is a criminal offense and must be prosecuted,” said NABU department head Ralf Schulte. Conservationists would see politicians jointly responsible for kills without a permit. You have to focus on supporting livestock keepers in herd protection instead of discussing the hunt for wolves.
64 illegal killings since 2000
According to NABU, a total of 64 animals have been killed illegally since the wolf returned to Germany in 2000. Hardly any of these cases could have been cleared up. Because the federal states lack specialist offices for species protection crime. Not only wolves are affected, lynxes are also repeatedly found killed, as are a number of birds of prey.
According to the latest data from the Federal Documentation and Advice Center on the subject of wolves for the monitoring year 2019/20, 128 packs, 39 pairs of wolves and nine individual territorial animals were detected in Germany. In 2020, the agency registered 942 attacks by wolves on farm animals nationwide, most of them in Lower Saxony and Brandenburg.
Worries and fears must be taken seriously
The amount of funding from the federal states for herd protection measures was around 9.5 million euros last year, the amount of compensation payments was around 800,000 euros. The German Hunting Association calls for a change in the status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “conditionally protected”.
That doesn’t mean that every hunter is allowed to hunt wolves. The association strongly condemns the illegal killing of wolves, said a spokesman. “The authorities are asked to investigate the cases as fully as possible.” At the same time, worries and fears must be taken seriously.