Who’s afraid of Europe’s big, bad wolves? Farmers, mostly, and also arguably the most powerful woman in Europe, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is warning the continent about the threat they pose.
Wolves, thanks to years of efforts at conservation, are back and often in places they haven’t been in ages. The wolf population in Europe has surged to nearly 20,000, partly as a result of the EU Habitats Directive, a 1992 policy that set out to protect the four-legged predator and other indigenous European wildlife. In Belgium, wolves recently returned after a century-long absence. In Scandinavia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway have granted hunters permission to cull small numbers. Similarly in France, the government this week released its National Wolf Plan, mildly relaxing laws protecting them.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, this month launched a bid to potentially slash wolf populations in response to growing pressure from an alliance of key conservative interest groups across the continent—farmers and people who have animals that get eaten by wolves.
“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans,” von der Leyen said in early September. “I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary.”
If wolves are running wild today, they are all over European folklore. In Roman mythology, the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were raised by a she-wolf. The monstrous wolf Fenrir, who killed Odin, is a key figure in the Norse tale of good versus evil, known as Ragnarok. The wolf is an antagonist in children’s fables, whether about the structural integrity of housing in “The Three Little Pigs” or intergenerational stresses in “Little Red Riding Hood” or the repercussions for a boy who peddled “fake news” in “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” In the late 18th century, parts of Europe were in a panic about the Beast of Gévaudan, a legendary man-eating wolf-like creature marauding through France.
![A statue of a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus of Roman mythology is silhouetted against Rome's Capitoline Hill at sunset. The outlines of buildings are seen in the background.]()
A statue of a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus of Roman mythology is silhouetted against Rome's Capitoline Hill at sunset. The outlines of buildings are seen in the background.A statue of a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, who in Roman mythology founded Rome, is silhouetted against Rome’s Capitoline Hill circa 1965.DAVID LEES/GETTY IMAGES
The EU’s recent move to address growing wolf populations is a significant change in tone from October 2021, when the bloc named the wolf an “integral part” of Europe’s biodiversity. Then again, last September, von der Leyen, a former German defense minister and member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, lost her pony Dolly to a wolf attack near Hannover. A subsequent council order to shoot the male wolf, which had killed other animals in the area, expired in January.
But politicians had their dander up. In November 2022, the European Parliament passed a motion calling for the downgrading of protections for the wolf. The nonbinding motion was driven by the group of conservative European parties known as the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest and most powerful alliance in Parliament and von der Leyen’s political home.
Not everybody is lancing with wolves. Biodiversity experts such as Bruna Campos, a senior policy manager at EuroNatur, a German conservation NGO, disagree. “Wolves in Europe pose no threat to humans,” she said. “They do sometimes attack livestock, but there are already several known methods to massively reduce this threat,” she added, suggesting nonlethal techniques such as better fencing and random blasts of colorful light, noise, or motion.
For conservationists, the booming wolf population is a success story, not a scapegoat for struggling farmers.
In some ways, Europe’s wolf debacle is a familiar man-versus-nature conflict witnessed across the globe as natural habitats shrink and farmers, ranchers, and herders encroach evermore. From Alaska to Arizona, many U.S. states face increased bear attacks, while parts of Africa, such as Kenya, see pastoralists kill endangered lions to protect their livestock. In India, endangered Asian elephants kill around 500 people every year amid growing tensions with farmers and locals.
![The body of a female wolf rests in the snow after a hunt in Sweden. Evergreen trees covered in snow are behind the field of snow and a directional sign is seen at right pointing the distance to a nearby town.]()
The body of a female wolf rests in the snow after a hunt in Sweden. Evergreen trees covered in snow are behind the field of snow and a directional sign is seen at right pointing the distance to a nearby town.The body of a female wolf rests in the snow after being killed by hunters near Kristinehamn, Sweden, on Jan. 2, 2010. OLIVIER MORIN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
In Europe, though, the farmers have backup. Copa-Cogeca, the lobby group for European farmers that spends millions of euros every year to shape EU agricultural policy, welcomed Parliament’s lupine announcement as a means to combat the “tragedies occurring in our countryside.” The group did not respond to requests for further comment.
The need for a “strategic dialogue” on agriculture was a key pillar in von der Leyen’s State of the Union address on Sept. 13, where she specifically praised farmers, thanking them “for providing us with food day after day.”
With elections looming in less than a year, and with farmers up in arms and conservatives fearful they’ll lose seats to the far right, many argue that the cry about wolves is just cynical politics.
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This is how it works. In the village in Germany where I lived the local big farmer was also the local jager (hunter/forester) and on top of that also the burgermeister. This is a typical situation with farmers being hunters or heavily associated with hunters and hunting. Come election time these hunters-farmers are very vocal and if you disagree with what they say you are an idiot, do not know what you are talking about and it can get to the point of threats.
The local farmer/hunter can have some local clout in persuading others to vote or they can contribute to the local politicians campaign fund box or pocket. Let's not pretend that all politicians are squeaky clean and only interested in doing what is good for "the people". Political jobs come with a lot of free meals, high pay and many other benefits including the opportunity of high paid jobs in companies or industries later on.
France was once described by old English 'sportsmen' as "rabidly anti-wolf" and in the 1980s a French naturalist told me "nothing has changed. The French still see wolves as animals that need wiping out" (I covered the history of wolves in France, etc in The Red Paper 2022: Canids). We know that "relaxing" the hunting of wolves in France does not mean much since wolves have been killed there without halt (or prosecution) -as with Spain where they were recently declared wiped out. Extinct -yet protected:
https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-age-of-extinction-wolves-declared.html
And I even reported on Sweden's shameful destruction of its wolf population:
https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2023/05/sweden-needs-to-hang-its-head-in-shame.html
The US, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway have literally declared a war against wolves.
https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-us-finland-sweden-switzerland-and.html
The situation in the US is pure dumb assery and a lot of the wolf killing is based on corruption in the system which ignores national and state laws. Almost black comedy comes in the form of US states panicking because they are obliged by law to "re-introduce" wolves (which will end up being killed) because other states won't let them have any of theirs (hunters would be up in arms and think of the loss of revenue from pals who hunt and donate funds).
Europe via its EU Commission should be what it was set up to be: a shining example to the world of wildlife conservation and rebuilding the environment. Instead it has a leader who (tragically) had her horse killed by a wolf and has now declared the wolf population "a problem" and actively urges local authorities to take action. To wipe them out in other words.
This is why I have gone from advocating returning wolves to the UK and Ireland to standing firmly against it. The UKs record on killing protected species (quarter of a million badgers killed over bovine TB with no science behind the cull) and everything but humans blamed for hedgehogs heading for extinction level. Wild cats are still being caught in inhumane traps, shot, clubbed and poisoned in Scotland and the defence of "I thought it was a hybrid -we can kill those" wore thin 40 years ago (the European wild cat being introduced to the UK to replace the extinct UK wild cats will not be safe -there is already talk amongst hunting groups about who will get the first wild cat). Even the UK fox population is in crisis because of snaring, shooting, poisoning and much worse -and cars kill many thousands each year and the attitude is that they are "just foxes".
Will the public in the United States call for all the killing of wolves and coyotes to stop? NO. So long as they have pizza, beer and TV why worry about wildlife?
Will people in Europe who were at one time considered championing wildlife and the environment do anything? I really doubt it because they have allowed the killing to continue over the decades. Will the people in the UK do anything? My response to that is hysterical laughter. Not even UK museums give a true and honest historical account of our wildlife that humans wiped out.
There are good people out there but they do not get the support they need from the public and the push-back on politicians, especially in a pro-hunt UK government, does not exist. Even the Green Party in the UK talks more about business and industry development -the environment is an aside it uses when convenient. We will see foxes and badgers become extinct in the UK by the 2030s. Will the hedgehog survive (do not believe all the "they are recovering in numbers" bull-shit)?
Again; what are YOU going to do? We are The Red Island and Europe through its shenanigans are overseeing the wiping out of wolves again and then they will suddenly find that the jackals are now a "problem" and they will be wiped out. The poster child for this in Europe will be Ursula von der Leyen so she'll probably be happy to see here name in the history books with the caption "Successfully pushed for wolves in Europe to be wiped out". Other countries for their own reason will follow Germany and France and we can see the words "Wolves now extinct" all over a map of Western Europe.
With the question: "Why did wolves become extinct again in Europe?" there will be the answer: "Because the public sat on their fat asses and did nothing"
