Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to rapid population growth and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock.
The return and growth of the wolf population over the past three decades has emerged as a divisive issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm who popularized the specter of the big bad wolf.
The threat posed by roaming packs often pits left against right and far right, as well as the densely populated west against the more rural and former communist east, where the wolves are concentrated.
The bill, which animal protection groups had lobbied against, was passed in the Bundestag on Thursday with votes from the ruling coalition led by the center-right and the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has long called for killing wolves to protect farmers’ livelihoods.
Hermann Färber of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the coalition’s main party, told the chamber that a new balance was needed in the German ecosystem. “The suffering of grazing animals, which often die from the bloodlust of wolves, no longer has anything to do with animal welfare,” he said.
Deputies from the Greens and the far-left Linke party voted against the bill, which still needs to be approved by the upper house of the Bundesrat. It will be voted on at the end of this month.
The legislation would allow the 16 German states to allow wolf hunting from July to October in regions where the population of these animals is particularly dense. Wolves that have previously killed or attacked farm animals would be authorized to be shot regardless of their conservation status or the season.
The German law implements an amendment to EU law that allows exceptions to species protection.
That change came after a debate sparked in 2022 when a wolf killed a pony named Dolly belonging to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen near Hanover.
She pushed for a review of the wolf’s protection status soon after, and it was eventually downgraded.
The German Hunting Association welcomed the latest legislation. The Rural Agriculture Working Group, an agricultural sector lobby organisation, called it a small contribution to the protection of sheep, goats and calves after a significant increase in wolf attacks.
According to government statistics, in 2024 around 4,300 farm animals were killed or injured by wolves in Germany.
The Union for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity (Nabu), which calls itself Germany’s largest and oldest environmental association, urged regional states to block the legislation in the upper house.
“Species conservation in Germany should not be sacrificed for symbolic political action,” Nabu wolf expert Marie Neuwald said in a statement. Instead of culls, comprehensive herd protection is needed with subsidies for fences and herd protection dogs, he said.
The vote came three days before the southwestern region of Baden-Württemberg goes to the polls, the first of five German states that will hold elections this year.
The front-runner, the CDU’s Manuel Hagel, is an avid hunter and faces a tough challenge from former federal agriculture minister Cem Özdemir of the Greens and AfD candidate Markus Frohnmaier.
The state is barely affected by the problem, but Hagel has taken a hard line on wolves on the campaign trail, saying “shot and lead will help” with the dangers they pose.
The wolf was declared extinct in Germany in the 19th century, but has made a surprising comeback since 2000. An official study last year found 219 wolf packs across the country, 36 pairs and 14 individual animals. In Baden-Württemberg there were four lone wolves.
Herders are generally entitled to state compensation if wolves attack their flocks, but the bloody consequences of an ambush are described as traumatizing for people living near the grazing animals.
In rural regions, previous strict rules on wolf hunting had long been cited as a lack of conservation control, which the AfD exploited to win votes.
A 2022 study found a predictive link between wolf attacks and far-right voting behavior in affected regions of Germany.
