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European Union Lowers Protection for Surging Wolf Populations Due to Danger to Farmers and Livestock

May 9, 2025

Surging wolf populations have become a real danger to rural areas in Europe.

While some scientists have decided that it’s a ‘great idea’ to bring back from extinction the big dire wolves of olden days, in the real life, the lupine packs present a real danger and a dividing issue in Europe.

The EU Parliament approved yesterday (8) plans to downgrade the protection status of wolves, because of their growing numbers and the increasing threat they pose to livestock.

Reuters reported:

“The changes – which European Union member states already approved last month – will lower wolves’ status in EU law to ‘protected’ from ‘strictly protected’, reflecting a change under the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

In practice, it will mean EU countries can allow wolf hunting, but they must still take steps to stop the animals becoming endangered, such as by limiting hunting seasons.”

Watch: In the Italian Abruzzo region, a group of three hungry wolves attack a lone dog (he escaped).

The Bern Convention has protected wolves since the late 70’s, and they could only be hunted or captured if they posed a serious (and immediate) threat to livestock or humans.

“’Farmers can now breathe a sigh of relief’, said lawmaker Herbert Dorfmann of the center-right European People’s Party. ‘It’s time to adapt to today’s reality. This means balancing our conservation efforts with protecting farmers’, he said.

Campaigners and some EU lawmakers have accused European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, whose own pony was killed by a wolf in 2022, of having a personal motivation for targeting wolves.”

Tough days ahead for surging European wolves.

Associated Press reported:

“Nearly two-thirds of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France voted to change wolves’ status from ‘strictly protected’ to ’protected’ in a vote of 371 to 162, with 37 abstentions.

[…] Tuesday’s vote was the final real hurdle before the measure becomes EU law. The change to the central Habitats Directive law will now likely be passed swiftly by the European Council and enter into force across the 27 member states.”

Watch: dog stands its ground against 6 charging wolves.

Populist and right-wing parties have long panned the protections as ideas by urban elites with little knowledge of rural life.

Farmers have suffered with attacks on livestock by surging packs of wolves roaming territories close to agricultural land.

“Experts and environmental groups estimate there could be up to 19,000 wolves across Europe, with large populations thought to roam in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain. After nearly being wiped out in the 20th century, their numbers are estimated to have grown by at least 25% over the last decade.”

Read more:

Scientists Achieve World’s First Animal ‘De-Extinction’ — Resurrect Dire Wolf Species Lost for 12,500 Years and Popularized on ‘Game of Thrones’

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