Germany moves to legalise wolf hunting in response to livestock ‘bloodlust’

Germany moves to legalise wolf hunting in response to livestock ‘bloodlust’ Lower house votes in favour of polarising law after rapid increase in population and attack on grazing farm animals Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to a rapidly growing population and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock. The return and growth of the wolf population in the last three decades has emerged as a wedge issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm who popularised the spectre of the Big Bad Wolf. The threat posed by roving packs often pits the left against the right and hard right, as well as the densely populated west against the more rural and former communist east where the wolves are concentrated. The draft law, which animal protection groups had lobbied against, cleared the Bundestag on Thursday with votes from the centre-right led governing coalition and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, which has long called for the killing wolves to protect farmers’ livelihoods. Hermann Färber of the Christian Democratic Union , the senior party in the coalition, told the chamber a new balance was needed in the German ecosystem. “The suffering of grazing animals, which are often killed in the bloodlust of wolves, no longer has anything to do with animal welfare,” he said. MPs from the Greens and the far-left Linke party voted against the bill, which must still pass the Bundesrat upper house. It is to vote later this month. The legislation would permit Germany’s 16 states to allow wolf hunting from July to October in regions where the population of the animals is particularly dense. Wolves found to have previously killed or attacked farm animals would be cleared to be shot regardless of their conservation status or the season. The German law implements an amendment to EU legislation allowing exceptions to species protection. That change came after a debate triggered in 2022 when a wolf killed a p...