The situation is not politically complicated. Most of the time, the representatives of the SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke are against it, while the CDU and CSU are in favour, as is the AfD. This was also the case a few days ago in the Bundestag. The fact that the AfD supports applications aimed at introducing wolf management and now allowing wolf hunting due to the extremely favourable conservation status of the species in accordance with the European Flora-Fauna-Habitats Directive does not discredit this demand. Sometimes you can't prevent the wrong people from sharing the right views.
It is enough to look at the corresponding practice in other European countries – such as France and Sweden. Despite the fact that the wolf enjoys the highest protection status, figures are set there that define the favorable conservation status of the wolf. It is debatable how useful it is to set this figure for individual countries rather than for Europe.
In view of the increasing threat to farm animals posed by specimens of the growing wolf populations that will soon spread throughout Germany, the pressure on politicians is increasing. The nature conservation associations are sticking to their one-sided positive attitude towards wolves, whose spread is perhaps their greatest prestige object of the past thirty years. They credit his return as a success of their efforts; those who do not believe that the wolf must continue to enjoy the highest protection status are among those who simply want to continue exploiting nature. But for those who celebrate the return of the largest predator as a symbolic step towards healing nature from the influences of its pest Homo sapiens, the wolf sponsorships, wolf tours and wolf lectures are intended.
One of the prominent wolf conservationists is the Austrian Kurt Kotrschal ("The Wolf and Us"), who runs a wolf research center. He writes that his relationship with wolves is not purely scientific, but "personal." But the fact that he is ridiculed as a "wolf smuggler" is quite wrong. But what should one call someone who describes the following scene in the introduction of the above-mentioned volume: "The big male Aragorn is in physical contact with me, the others, Kaspar, Shima and Tayanita, on the other hand, like to keep some distance while sleeping."
Kotrschal gains his findings from caged specimens, with which the researcher not only shares the nights. He educates himself for new generations of research objects: "But in order to raise wolf puppies to become trustworthy companions, one must (...) start hand rearing puppies around day ten, at least before they open their eyes and ears. And then it takes a few months of socially intensive hand rearing by humans." Swords to ploughshares, predators to cuddly toys? Apart from the question of how useful it is to wean a wild animal off its ferocity in captivity, the question arises as to what this form of research is supposed to say about wild wolves.
An expensive and not always effective piece of advice
But that's obviously not the point. Kotrschal's aura as a wolf whisperer serves the myth and supports the impression that the return of the wolf cannot be restricted by anything due to the superiority of the "smart, cooperative and adaptable" carnivores. Without calling the wolf evil as in "Little Red Riding Hood", one cannot help but wonder why the suffering of these animals, some of which die in agony, counts so little, in view of the thousands of lambs, sheep, ponies, foals, goats and calves torn by it. In order to receive even some financial compensation, crack reports and genetic analyses must be obtained.
But while man's relationship with wolves is mystified again and again, the farmers' losses never attain this emotional status. How they feel at the sight of the animals they look after with socially intensive hand rearing is rarely asked by the public. Pulling fences and buying herd guard dogs is then the expensive and not always effective advice. How the work with Maremma-Abruzzo Shepherds, Kangals or Pyrenean Mountain Dogs really looks like, next time.