"Unlawful"

Conservationists criticize wolf shooting plans

The wolf in Salzburg is to be dealt with more easily. The state wants to allow preventive shooting.(Bild: Gerhard Schiel)

Conservationists vehemently criticize the state's wolf shooting plans - and are planning legal action . .  

Shooting wolves on suspicion - the current draft of the black-blue state government's future "wolf management" plan explicitly provides for this possibility. As reported, the stricter rules are to be adopted as early as April. The last confirmed wolf kill to date was in November last year.

The farming community welcomes the plans to shoot wolves. Fierce criticism comes from conservationists. They believe that serious herd protection is indeed possible. This is vehemently contradicted by state politicians. Even with the new regulations, the shooting of wolves would remain illegal under EU law, emphasize conservationists. "And they don't solve the problem of grazing livestock farmers either," said behavioral scientist and biologist Kurt Kotrschal recently. Lucas Ende from the Nature Conservation Association adds: "Preventive shooting will not allow farmers to sleep more soundly either." In any case, the Nature Conservation Association would like to consider legal action should the new state regulation actually come into force.

Just how legally complex the shooting of wolves can be was recently demonstrated in Vorarlberg. There, the provincial administrative court overturned a corresponding decision - even though the predator ran through a residential area in January.