The number of wolf attacks on farm animals has risen sharply nationwide. This reports the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" with reference to the damage report for the year 2017 of the competent documentation office of the federation (DBBW). As a result, the number of tears rose by nearly 66 percent year-on-year to 472 documented cases. The number of animals killed, injured or missing - mostly sheep - is estimated at 1667 - almost 55 percent more than in 2016.

Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) told the newspaper that they are campaigning for a moderate stock regulation of wolves. In recent weeks, several new attacks on farm animals have become known. The environment ministers in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein recently released a wolf for launch.

  • In the district of Pinneberg, there had been eight cracks since the end of November, in which animals overcame fences valid as wolf-proof fences. For six of the cases, the wolf is to be responsible with the code GW 924m.
  • In the middle of February, a wolf had killed a pony on a farm for Icelandic horses north of Hanover: Apparently a male with the identification GW 717m was responsible. For the shooting of the animal, the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment has granted a species protection exemption.

The facts about the wolf in Germany

Controversy over wolves in Germany on the shooting list

The report of the documentation center states that the shooting of wolves helps at most in the short term in special situations. "In order to keep the problems permanently as low as possible, it only helps to protect sheep and goats in the wolf area nationwide." The way of keeping livestock must be adapted again to the presence of wolves. "In the areas where the wolf has survived to this day, herds are guarded by shepherds and herdsmen as ever and kept in night pens during the darkness."

MIRROR ONLINE

In the monitoring year 2017/18, according to DBBW data, 73 packs, 30 wolf couples and some single wolves were detected in Germany. Most wolves live in Lusatia, especially in the border region between Brandenburg and Saxony, their distribution is concentrated in a band from the southeast to the northwest of Germany. Until wolves were exterminated by intensive hunting about 150 years ago, Germany was one of their natural habitat.