(and this is clearly all it takes to de-list an endangered/protected species – an attack on a powerful politicians’ pet)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/25/eu-vote-hunting-wolves-conservation/

25 September 2024 5:33pm BST

Predators were once virtually extinct in Europe, but thanks to conservation efforts their numbers have rebounded

Wolves face being hunted in greater numbers after the European Union voted to downgrade their protected status.

The European Commission’s proposal, backed by a qualified majority of EU ambassadors, would allow greater flexibility in organising hunts by downgrading the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected”.

Ministers will meet to formally vote on the proposal on Thursday, with only Ireland and Spain expected to vote against it, diplomatic sources said. Other member states are expected to abstain.

Wolves were virtually extinct in Europe a century ago but, thanks in part to EU conservation efforts, numbers have rebounded, with more than 1,000 of the predators in some countries.

Amid a backlash against the burden of EU green rules triggered by the cost of living crisis, farmers have complained that rising numbers of the predators are endangering their livestock.

However, conservationists have criticised the “outrageous move” to ease the hunting restrictions.

Hunting of problem wolves is already allowed under exceptions to the EU protections. Limited legal wolf hunting is carried out in Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, but it could now become more widespread.

The vote comes after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s favourite horse, Dolly, was killed by a wolf in September 2022 at her home in Germany.

Ursula Von Der Leyen with her pony ‘Dolly’ who was killed by a wolf Credit: Instagram

The keen equestrian and mother-of-seven said her family was “horribly distressed” by the loss of the 30-year-old horse at the lower Saxony compound.

The culprit was identified through DNA evidence as a wolf known as GW950m. But a permit to kill it expired before it could be hunted down, meaning it could still be at large.

The keen equestrian and mother-of-seven said her family was “horribly distressed” by the loss of the 30-year-old horse at the lower Saxony compound.

The culprit was identified through DNA evidence as a wolf known as GW950m. But a permit to kill it expired before it could be hunted down, meaning it could still be at large.

Brussels was forced to deny that Mrs von der Leyen had intervened in the permit process to take revenge for the death of Dolly. The permit was applied for before the horse was killed.

The Eurogroup for Animals said wolf populations had increased but had not reached “favourable” conservation status, as it decried a move that “seriously jeopardises the conservation efforts of the past decade and prioritises politics over science”.

‘Long-overdue’

“Wolves are our allies, not our enemies and it is crucial to protect them,” said Léa Badoz, of the Eurogroup for Animals. More than 300,000 EU citizens had signed a petition to stop wolf hunting.

“This is a very outrageous move and shows that member states are ignoring their citizens’ calls and science,” she said. “We urge the other parties to the Bern Convention to reject this proposal.”

Centre-Right MEPs from Mrs von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), which campaigned to loosen the protections before June’s EU-wide elections, said the decision was the start of a “long-overdue process” to bring wolf populations under control. 

“As these populations grow, their conservation status must evolve too,” said Alexander Bernhuber, an EPP member of the European Parliament’s environment committee.

Italy was among the most vocal countries demanding protections be weakened. The wolf was pushed to the verge of extinction in Italy by the 1970s, when the population dipped to just 100 individuals. Numbers are now estimated to be about 3,300.

“It is a step forward that fills us with satisfaction,” Paolo Borchia, an Italian MEP from the Right-wing League party, said on Wednesday. “It is unacceptable that it took years to come to terms with a situation that is clear for everyone to see.”