The latest farmer protest is turning out to be another one targeting European bureaucratic eco-activism that is hurting ranchers in Switzerland.
Farmers in Switzerland dumped the carcasses of sheep that were killed by wolves in front of a regional government building last weekend and demanded more action to control the predators’ numbers.
About a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthélemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay 12 carcasses in front of Lausanne’s Chateau Saint-Maire, the regional government headquarters, AFP reported.“These sheep were killed last night,” Eric Herb, a member of a Swiss association demanding the regulation of big predators, told the Keystone-ATS news agency.“It is really time to act. The breeders have played nice until now, but this time it was too much.”He said the protesters wanted to increase the pressure on the Vaud government environment minister, Vassilis Venizelos of the Green party.
This is a developing issue that is impacting not only Switzerland, but also other European nations and the United States, as wolves have in recent decades begun returning to areas from which they were exterminated. Switzerland now has 300 wolves roaming within its boundaries.
Since the first pack was spotted in the wealthy Alpine nation in 2012, the number of packs swelled to 32 last year, with around 300 individual wolves counted.Nature conservation groups have hailed the return as a sign of a healthier and more diverse ecosystem.But breeders and herders complain of attacks on livestock and have been ramping up demands to cull more wolves.Swiss authorities last year relaxed the rules for hunting the protected species, and decided to allow large preventative culls in the most affected cantons but swift legal actions put those plans partially on ice.
European eco-activists are getting worried that this trend is going to thwart their plans for “free-range” livestock ranching, as opposed to cattle and sheep farms where the animals are more contained. One case history shows clearly the flaming hoops the bureaucrats put up before a destructive wolf is allowed to be culled.
Europe needs its ranchers and shepherds. Extensive grazing can lower the huge carbon footprint of beef. Animals roaming freely across mountains need significantly less feed than those raised in farms, resulting in lower planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. They also keep forests clean of underbrush and help prevent forest fires. But the extensive grazing makes farm animals more vulnerable to wolves, and farmers think allowing for some hunting would allow them to continue this practice.At the moment, EU rules only allow for the hunting of individual animals proven to be very harmful to livestock. Many countries require a court order, making the process lengthy and bureaucratic. But wolves are intelligent predators that travel across huge areas of terrain, with some known to move across the entire continent. That makes catching them a difficult task.In the case of wolf GW950m, a local court issued a hunting permit only after DNA analysis proved it hadn’t just killed von der Leyen’s pony, but also at least 12 other sheep and cows in the area. The authorization expired in January before hunters could find it. The wolf remains alive.
We have our own issues related to an every-expanding wolf population within the United States.
A calf was attacked and killed in Colorado, wildlife officials said Wednesday, confirming the first gray wolf depredation since the animals’ reintroduction in the state last December.Wildlife officials received a report on Tuesday morning about a possible depredation incident involving a dead calf in Grand County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a news release. The agency confirmed after a field investigation that the calf’s wounds were consistent with a wolf attack and wolf tracks were also found nearby.”The results of this investigation indicated wounds consistent with wolf depredation,” wildlife manager Jeromy Huntington said in a statement Wednesday.
Minnesota legislators recently had a debate on the subject. One Republican senator had a novel idea on where to place trapped wolves, in response to eco-extremists who fail to appreciate how dangerous those predators can be.
The comment, from Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Alexandria, was met with laughter. Westrom was stating his objection to a DFL proposal to ban an open wolf season in Minnesota . The proposal was offered as an amendment to the omnibus environment policy bill.Republicans have been vocal about their support for a wolf hunting season but have hit a roadblock of DFL opposition.”How much further into the metro do we need to have the wolves come? Maybe we should establish trapping, a live trapping program, and start letting these become released in the backyards of these people that are in denial and then see how nice of pets they think they are. And we can put a fence around their backyard so they can stay,” Westrom said.
Wolves are not over-grown dogs. And while humans enjoy a prominent spot on top of the good chain, we can get bumped down a few level by hungry and sick animals who are habituated to our presence.
Between 2002 and 2020, researchers found 26 fatal attacks throughout the world, with the most (12) in Turkey. In Europe and North America, the researchers found evidence for 12 attacks (with 14 victims) of which two (both in North America) were fatal, across a period of 18 years. Rabies played a significant role in most of the attacks, with 78% of victims being rabid attacks, 67 were considered predatory attacks, and 42 were provoked/defensive attacks.To reduce the risk of wolf attacks on humans, the report suggests excluding wolves from food sources that are directly associated with humans, such as garbage dumps and landfills, and properly disposing of carcasses on farms.
It’s wonderful having these wolf populations return to the wild. However, office-bound bureaucrats can’t be the only ones offering input on how to balance predator populations against the needs of farmers and ranchers.
The Swiss farmers have a lot of work ahead of them….and American farmers will likely have to follow suit.
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