Bad times for wolves, Europe wants to make them a less protected species. It is being debated in Strasbourg this Tuesday, December 3, with a meeting of the Berne Convention on Wildlife. While the species had almost disappeared, today we count more than 20,000 wolves in Europe. The European Union therefore proposes to review their status.
Concretely, it would be a question ofmake it easier to shoot wolves. For now, as a strictly protected species, wolves cannot be captured and usually put to death. There are still some exceptions, for example to defend yourself or your herd as a last resort. All with a maximum number of deaths per year: it was 209 for example in 2024, out of the thousand wolves present in France.
By degrading their status, Brussels would give more margin to States which could, for example authorize wolf hunting. It is anything but a solution, according to Denis Doublet, vice-president of the FERUS association. “There are no studies that show the benefit of shots,” he says.
For him, we can protect the herds differently. “There is no miracle solution. The solutions before shooting are the protection of the herds, a sufficiently high electric fence, the patou dogs, the human presence, and it works well,” he explains. Associations also fear that by changing the status of the wolf, we open a door to do the same thing with other strictly protected species, such as the bear or the lynx.
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France