The Bundestag is discussing today the inclusion of wolves in the Federal Hunting Act. With the current draft, the cabinet not only wants to legalize the hunting of protected animals in Germany, but also to allow the targeted killing of wolf cubs. The German Animal Welfare Federation is appalled: instead of strengthening proven solutions for long-term coexistence, the government is relying on fearmongering rhetoric and symbolic politics. The shooting of young animals is ethically unacceptable.
"The way wolves are being treated shows how much fear has become a political currency. Although wolf numbers have recently stagnated and the number of grazing animals killed has fallen sharply, decision-makers are acting as if there were no alternative to shooting them. Those who act in this way are not solving complex problems – they are suppressing them and lying to the people they are supposed to support," criticizes James Brückner, head of the wildlife department at the German Animal Welfare Federation.
PROTECTING LOCAL NATURE MEANS TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Wolves have been well researched scientifically and, as part of the local forests and meadows in this country, also play an important role in a healthy ecosystem. Their return is a unique success story resulting from decades of conservation efforts. Brückner appeals to the government not to simply throw this away, but to focus on facts and expertise: “The protection of our native nature must not end where responsibility becomes complex or inconvenient.” He adds that it is alarming that neither applicable law nor ethical principles seem to play a role in the plans.
HUNTING WOLF PUPPIES
While the ministry's first draft bill still provided for a hunting season in fall and winter, the new bill now explicitly allows hunting between July and October. This follows demands by the German Hunting Association, which wants to “remove” – i.e., kill – young animals in particular, which are usually born in early May. Wolf cubs can leave their den for the first time after a few weeks and then playfully explore their immediate surroundings while waiting for the older family members to return. It is not until winter that young wolves themselves take a more active part in hunting. During the summer months, the cubs are still suckled by their mother and provided with food by the pack. It is precisely during this critical period that shooting is now to take place in future. The German Animal Welfare Association criticizes the plans: “For a hunting community that so often prides itself on its so-called hunting ethics, this project is particularly unobjectionable.”
