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Faced with the return of the wolf, Austria draws its rifle
Traumatized by a wolf attack, Austrian Renate Pilz prefers to “stop raising sheep” rather than relive the same “nightmarish” night, a trend that prompts the authorities to take out the gun, to the great displeasure 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, so severely bitten that they had to be euthanized urgently. Having disappeared in the 19th century, the canine “strictly protected” in Europe by the Berne Convention is now listed in 23 EU countries where its rise is causing much controversy. passions.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 figure has increased to 104 this year.- “Wolf-free” zones -The subject invaded the tabloids of the Alpine country and social networks this summer, provoking anxious reactions.Loss of land value, cows that have become aggressive: a few kilometers from Arbesbach, Gerhard Fallent, whose herd was also attacked, never stops listing the serious nuisances caused according to him by the emergence of the predator. “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 dropped off students at home for a year following an incident. “We want our children to be able to go back to playing in the woods and find life as it was before in a place that also remains attractive to tourists”, says Mr Fallent. – Obsolete protection – He cites as examples several regions in the south and west where shootings authorised since 2022 have significantly reduced the number of attacks. In Carinthia in particular, it is considered that there is no other solution. “We have removed 13 wolves”, explains its vice-governor Martin Gruber. Putting up barriers? “Impossible” due to 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 to lower the level of protection, which he considers obsolete. In the fall of 2023, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also called for changing the status in the face of the “real danger” posed by the packs. Wildlife advocates, however, do not see it that way. Associations have attacked the decrees and in July, the European Court of Justice ruled that Austria did not have enough wolves to allow them to be killed en masse and had to put in place adequate measures. – Contes – 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 previously 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 thanks to protection”, starting to meet, explains 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 in Vienna, 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”, states 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.bg/anb/mba
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