The lower house of the German parliament has approved a controversial law legalizing wolf hunting, following a rapid increase in the population and a sharp rise in attacks on farmed, grazing animals.
Wolf hunting will now be permitted in Germany, under legislation approved by the Lower House of the Bundestag, in response to the rapid growth in the population of this species and its “bloodlust” about cattle.
O population return and expansion of wolves in the last three decades have turned into a divisive issue in Germany, the country of the Brothers Grimm, who popularized the Big Bad Wolf fable, notes the .
The threat posed by wandering herds often opposes the left to the right and the extreme right, and invariably places them in opposing camps the westdensely populated, and the eastfrom former communist Germany — more rural and where wolves are more concentrated.
The proposed law, against which animal rights groups exerted pressurewas approved in the Bundestag on Thursday with the votes of the center-right government coalition, led by the Christian Democratic Union, and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which has long advocated the slaughter of wolves to protect farmers’ livelihoods.
Hermann Färber, of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the main party in the coalition, said in the plenary that a new balance was needed in the German ecosystem. “THE suffering of grazing animalswhich are often killed due to wolves’ bloodlust, has nothing to do with animal welfare anymore,” he said.
Os deputies from the Greens and the radical left party Die Linke voted against the diploma, which still has to pass the Bundesrat, the upper house. The vote is scheduled for the end of this month.
The legislation will allow the 16 German federal states authorize hunting to the wolf between July and October in regions where the population is particularly dense. The wolves that have already killed or attacked farmed animals may be slaughtered regardless of its conservation status or the time of year.
German law applies a change to European Union law which allows exceptions to the protection of species, which emerged after a debate sparked in 2022, when aA wolf killed a pony named Dollybelonging to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyennear Hanover.
Shortly afterwards, von der Leyen pushed for the classification to be revised of protection from the wolf, which would end up being aggravated.
The German Hunters’ Association welcomed the new legislation. The Working Group for Rural Agriculture, a pressure organization linked to the agricultural sector, says it is a small contribution to the protection of sheepgoats and calves, following a significant increase in wolf attacks.
Nearly 4300 farm animals were killed or injured by wolves in Germany in 2024, according to official statistics.
The Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu), which presents itself as Germany’s oldest and largest environmental association, called on the federal states to block legislation in the upper house.
“A Species conservation in Germany must not be sacrificed in the name of a symbolic political action”, said, in a statement, Nabu’s wolf specialist, Marie Neuwald. Instead of slaughters, he argued, comprehensive protection of herds would be necessary, with subsidies for fences and guard dogs.
O wolf was declared extinct in Germany in the 19th century, but has made a remarkable comeback since 2000. One published last year in DBBW identified 219 packs across the countryin addition to 36 couples and 14 isolated specimens. Baden-Württemberg had four lone wolves.
Pastors have, as a rule, right to state compensation if wolves attack their livestock, but the bloody scene left by an attack is described as traumatizing for those who live closely with grazing animals.
In rural regions, previously very restrictive rules on wolf hunting had long been noted as andexample of the excesses of conservationismsomething that the AfD used as an electoral banner.
One published in 2022 in PNAS found a predictive link between wolf attacks and far-right voting behavior in affected German regions.
