Wolf hunting bill clears Bundestag after rise in attacks

Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under new legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to a rapidly growing population and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock.

- Deborah Cole

The return of the wolf population in the last three decades has emerged as a wedge issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm, who popularised the spectre of the Big Bad Wolf.

The threat posed by roving packs of the animals often pits the left against the right and hard right, as well as the densely settled west against the more rural former communist east, where the wolves are concentrated.

The draft law, which animal protection groups had lobbied against, cleared the Bundestag yesterday with votes from the centre-right-led governing coalition and the far-right Alternative fiir Deutschland (AfD) party, which has long called for killing wolves to protect farmers’ livelihoods.