Traumatized by a wolf attack, Austrian Renate Pilz would rather “stop raising sheep” than relive the same “nightmarish” night, a trend that has prompted authorities to take out their guns, much to the dismay of environmentalists.
Last year, “I lost two ewes and two lambs,” explains this energetic 55-year-old farmer whose stable is surrounded by forests in Arbesbach (north-east Austria), a region that has become the territory of four packs.
“It’s too much work, it’s no longer profitable and above all I don’t want to do it at all anymore,” she sighs, showing AFP photos of her bloodied animals, bitten so badly that they had to be euthanized urgently.
Having disappeared in the 19th century, the canid “strictly protected” in Europe by the Berne Convention is now listed in 23 EU countries where its growth arouses much passion.
In Austria, it has gradually made a comeback since 2009. Clearly at ease, it has increased its presence in recent years: from 80 individuals recorded in 2022, the number has increased to 104 this year.
– “Wolf-free” zones –
The subject invaded the tabloids of the Alpine country and social networks this summer, provoking reactions of anguish.
Loss of land value, cows that have become aggressive: a few kilometres from Arbesbach, Gerhard Fallent, whose herd was also attacked, goes on and on about the serious nuisances he believes the emergence of the predator has caused.
“These are family farms that are closing down,” denounces the sixty-year-old. He founded an association calling for the “massive regulation of wolf populations” wherever “people stay and work”, in landscapes that are “far from wild”, but on the contrary “shaped by pastoralism”.
School trips have even been cancelled, he laments, and the school bus has been dropping students off at home for a year following an incident.
“We want our children to be able to go back and play in the woods and get back to life as it was before in a place that remains attractive to tourists,” says Mr. Fallent.
– Obsolete protection –
He cites as an example several regions in the south and west where the shootings authorized since 2022 have significantly reduced the number of attacks.
In Carinthia in particular, it is considered that there is no other solution.
“We have culled 13 wolves,” explains its vice-governor Martin Gruber. Putting up barriers? “Impossible” because of the rugged topography. It would be “wasting public money,” he says.
He believes that with 20,300 individuals recorded last year in the EU, the species is not threatened, and he wants the level of protection to be lowered, which he considers obsolete.
In the fall of 2023, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also called for a change in the status in light of the “real danger” posed by the packs.
Wildlife activists, however, do not see it that way. Associations have challenged the decrees and in July, the European Court of Justice ruled that Austria did not have enough wolves to allow them to be killed on a massive scale and should implement adequate measures.
– Stories –
Especially since the country of 9.1 million inhabitants would be a special case. Located in the heart of Europe, it is a convergence ground for three hitherto isolated populations, originating from the Alps, the Balkans and the eastern plains.
“They managed to survive heavy hunting” a century or more ago “and are now spreading through protection,” starting to meet, says Marianne Heberlein, director of the Wolf Science Center.
In this place presented as unique in the world, two hours from Arbesbach, which depends on the University of Veterinary Medicine of Vienna, the researchers have 10 wolves and 13 dogs, which they can compare to understand the domestication process.
“We also familiarize the general public but in a neutral way, without embellishing” or giving the predator “a bad image”, says the scientist in the company of three wolf cubs playing in a pond sheltered from the sun.
The “fear of the wolf”, she recalls, “goes back a long way in history”: conflicts have always existed, feeding the “tales” told to children.
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