European Union president pushes culling wolves after losing her pony

Wolf comeback from extirpation revives fear of the Big Bad Wolf

BRUSSELS––September 25, 2024 dawned as a bad day for wolves in Europe even before the European Union provisionally authorized downlisting wolves from “strictly protected” to just “protected” status under the Council of Europe Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife & Natural Habitats,  also known as the Bern Convention.

Hours before the vote,  at approximately 6:00 a.m.,  a car killed three young wolves on a provincial road near Otterlo in the Veluwe region of the central Netherlands.

Wolves had not been seen in the Netherlands since 1869 when one appeared in 2013.  Wolves in 2019 were born in the Netherlands for the first time in 150 years.

Netherlands now has more wolves than Norway

Now the Netherlands has from 104 to 124 wolves.

“There are 11 wolf packs and several lone wolves,  one of whom caused panic in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug area in summer,”  Associated Press reported on August 1,  2024.  “In 2021 there was just one pack,  in 2022 four,  and last year nine.  At least 55 wolf cubs were born in 2024.”

The panic ensued after a wolf knocked a child down in a forest park near Austerlitz,  two weeks after a girl walking her dog encountered a wolf––possibly the same wolf––in a wooded park outside Leusden.

Both locations are close to Utrecht,  the fourth largest city in the Netherlands.

“Opens the door to wolf culling”

The vote to downgrade protection of wolves was ratified on the morning of September 26,  2924.

“The European Union will support the proposal as a unified block for the last vote scheduled to take place in December,”  BirdLife Europe explained in an emailed media release.

“This shift opens the door to wolf culling as a false solution to livestock depredation, which runs counter to Europe’s commitment to safeguard and restore biodiversity,”  BirdLife Europe said,  somewhat surprisingly emerging as perhaps the most influential and vocal defender of European wolves.

“The decision went through after Germany unexpectedly changed its position from abstention to support at the last minute,”  BirdLife Europe mentioned.

“Personally motivated decisions”

“With this decision,”  BirdLife Europe continued,  “member states have chosen to ignore the call of over 300 civil society organizations and hundreds of thousands of people urging them to follow scientific recommendations and step up efforts to foster coexistence with large carnivores through preventive measures.”

“By adopting the European Commission’s proposal,”  BirdLife Europe charged on,  “member states are also endorsing personally motivated decisions that override scientific evidence,  allowing European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to use her political power for personal revenge against wolves and to please her farmer constituency.

Wolf allegedly killed European Union president’s pony

“Since her pony Dolly was tragically killed by a wolf ,”  BirdLife Europe alleged,  Ursula von der Leyen “has used her influence to change European Union legislation through backdoor deals.”

Dolly,  30,  was killed in an unprotected pasture on September 1,  2022 by a male wolf allegedly implicated in killing as many as 70 sheep,  horses,  cattle,  and goats.

BirdLife Europe called the recovery of wolves from near-extirpation “one of the European Union’s most notable wildlife conservation successes.”

Also signing on in opposition to downlisting wolves were representatives of the  World Wildlife fund,  EuroNatur,  Humane Society International,  International Fund for Animal Welfare,  Born Free Foundation,  European Environmental Bureau,  and ClientEarth.

European Commission gunning for wolves since December 2023

Wolves have been in the European Commission gunsights at least since December 2023.

“After centuries of hunting,”  explained Science in January 2024,   “only small and scattered populations of wolves survived in Europe by the 1970s,  but recent studies estimate some 20,000 animals now roam the continent.  The rebound,”  including about 1,500 wolves in 180 packs establishing themselves in Germany,  along with 140 packs in France,  and 2,000 wolves in Spain,  Science credited,  “is largely due to protections provided to wolves and other large carnivores under the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats,  a 40-year-old conservation agreement.

“As the number of wolves has increased,  however,  so has predation on domestic livestock. Every year wolves kill 65,000 farm animals,  mainly sheep, according to the European Commission.  Although this amounts to just 0.07% of the continent’s sheep,  farm groups across Europe have lobbied officials to weaken rules against killing wolves.”

460 wolves killed 340 sheep in Sweden

On December 20,  2023 the European Commission first proposed downlisting wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected,”  in order,  Science explained,  to allow European Union nations “to cull wolves at scale for the first time in four decades, although countries would still be obligated to ensure that wolves maintain a ‘favorable’ conservation status,”  meaning only that some survive and are reproducing.

Wolves were already under the gun in several European nations that are not European Union members,  notable Sweden and Norway.

Sweden in 2023 doubled the national hunting quota for wolves to 75,  after farmers complained that a wolf population estimated at about 460 had killed more than 340 sheep in 2021.

Hunters want to cut wolf population by two-thirds

Swedish hunters had killed only 203 wolves in the preceding 12 years,  but shot 54 in the first month of the 2023 wolf hunting season.

The Swedish parliament,  dominated by conservative political parties,  voted in 2022 to cap the national wolf population at 270,  only partially appeasing the Swedish Hunters Association,  which wants the wolf population capped at 150.

This is half as many as the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency estimates are necessary to avoid harmful inbreeding.

In neighboring Norway,  wrote Guardian environment reporter Helena Horton,   hunters killed nine wolves in just one day after the Norwegian court of appeals allowed a scheduled cull to proceed in a nominally protected area providing habitat to about 25 of the estimated national population of no more than 80.

The total Norwegian wolf quota was set at 51.

Since then the Norwegian wolf population is believed to have fallen to about 56.  Norwegian government policy is to allow the existence of no more than three breeding packs.

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