Farmers should be allowed to shoot wolves that cause “serious agricultural damage,” Germany’s Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said in an interview. She aims to change the laws that are protecting the predators.
Germany’s Greens slammed Schulze’s statements as a far-reaching attack on environmental protection that would pave the way to culling other protected animals.
“Her ‘Lex Wolf’ will soon be followed by a ‘Lex Beaver’ and ‘Lex River Otter,'” Greens representative Steffi Lemke told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland.
Wolves had become extinct in Germany in the early 20th century and only emigrated back from Poland around the year 2000, thanks to nature conservation efforts. Their population is climbing and currently includes 73 wolf packs of between 3 and 11 animals, according to statistics provided by federal officials. However, Germany’s Federal Office for Environmental Protection said there was not enough data to estimate the predators’ total population. Unofficial estimates vary from several hundred to around 1,000 specimens.
