Dutch authorities can shoot “deviant” wolves that pose a danger to the public with paintballs, a court ruled on Wednesday, as debate rages in Europe over protecting the animals.
After a lengthy legal battle, the court in Utrecht, central Netherlands, judged that the behavior of some of the wolves in a national park was “a serious threat to public safety.”
One female wolf is not only unafraid when photographers move close to her, but also approaches cyclists and walkers on her own, the court said.
Photo: AFP
“The fact that the wolf seems to be less and less afraid of people does not mean that the animal can no longer become aggressive and bite,” the ruling said.
Other methods of scaring off wolves, such as shouting, are ineffective, and pepper spray was determined to be dangerous for the animals.
“There is no other satisfactory solution than shooting the wolf with a paintball gun and... it is necessary in the interest of public safety,” the court said.
The decision came as Europe grapples with its wolf population, which has bounced back from near-extinction.
The European Commission last month said that it wants to change their protected status — allowing them to be hunted — after data showed they pose a rising threat to livestock.
Brussels is asking EU member countries to revise the protection status for wolves, taking it from “strictly protected” to just “protected,” which would authorize the hunting of wolves under strict regulation.
The commission estimates there are about 20,300 wolves across the EU, and “damage to livestock has increased as the wolf population has grown.”
A commission study said wolves killed at least 65,000 heads of livestock in the EU each year: sheep and goats in 73 percent of cases, cattle in 19 percent, and horses and donkeys in 6 percent of cases.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lost her elderly pony Dolly in September last year to a wolf that crept into the pony’s enclosure on her family’s rural property in northern Germany.
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS