Dear Friendly,

 

The best option just no w is to contact the Swedish environmental ministrer by mail and explain your thoughts. (andreas.carlgren@environmental.ministry.se).

 

An other option is to contact the Swedish embassy in Brussels to explain what you think.

 

Of the 27 wolves which have been shot, five were alfa individuals, of which two were a alfa-pair with 4-6 eight months old pups, which are now on their own. Normally, a pup do not 

leave their paprents before 10 months old. This risk has been put forward to the government, but they did not take any account of this when writing the regulations of the wolf hunt.

 

Below is a summary of the background and what happenend.

 

THE WOLF HUNT IN SWEDEN 2010

 

Summary 

In autumn 2009 the Swedish Government has decided that a maximum of 210 wolves should be allowed to live in Sweden and has allowed killing 27 wolves in a license hunt. As a result the population was decimated in January 2010. In addition a yet unspecified number of ”problem” wolves can be eliminated during 2010 to reduce damage to domestic animals, as every year in Sweden. WWF Sweden has protested strongly against the decimation hunt as it is not in accordance with the EU legal regulations (Habitat and Species Directive) and the Swedish subpopulation is highly vulnerable due inbreeding. 

 

WWF Sweden and two other nature conservation organisations will meet the EU commission next week for a meeting and explain the situation. We are also writing a complaint to the European Court, we are working on the text now.

 

Background 

The Swedish Parliament voted on the 21st October 2009 in favour for a Large Carnivore bill put forward by the government which suggested that a larger hunt of wolves should start in 2010. The first one for almost 50 years. The bill has also opened the possibility for a hunt of wolverine and for lowering the number of lynx in Sweden by hunting. The government decided that there should be no more than 210 wolves in Sweden, but there should be 20 reproductive pairs, which means 200-210 individuals. In addition, up to 20 wolves with ”fresh blood” from the Finnish/Russian subpopulation can be introduced into the reproduction in Sweden in order to restock the inbred population. The restocking could be done either by moving wolves which have migrated from Finland into northern Sweden, and/or moving specimens from Finland, Russia or from one of the Baltic States. The governmental bill which was passed have the introduction of new wolves in to the reproduction as equal important as the hunt itself, but they do not guarantee that it will happen – only that up to 20 can be introduced until 2014.

 

In mid December 2009 the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) announced that 27 wolves could be shot during the license hunt. The hunt started on the 2nd of December 2010 and more than 12 000 hunters had registered to participated in the hunt of 27 individuals. The hunt was allowed to be carried out in five large areas, and all individuals were allowed to be killed within that area, with the exception of one protective area where no hunting was allowed while a specially genetic important individual is reproducing there. There was no connection between the hunt and problem animals (either killing domestic animals or being seriously inbred).

 

WWF Sweden and other nature conservation organisations protested against the license hunting decision, while the number of wolves in Sweden is relatively low (only 22-23 reproductive pairs that are comparable to about 230-240 animals). The conservation status for the Swedish wolf population is critically endangered according to the official Swedish Red-list. 

 

The Swedish wolf population is heavily inbred and thus even more vulnerable. Most of the breeding pairs are more related to each other than full siblings. The reason being that the Scandinavian wolf population was almost exterminated in the 1970th. The first breeding took place again in early 1980th when two individuals managed to migrate from the Finnish/Russian population to the middle part of Sweden. The population slowly increased but based on only two individuals, siblings started to breed with each other. In early 1990th a third individual arrived to Sweden and today’s population is based on these three individuals. However, in 2008 a fourth wolf came from the Finnish/Russian population that is now part of the reproduction. 

 

In Sweden a hunt is allowed to remove specific individual wolves which repeatedly kill domestic animals (e.g. sheep or dogs). This has worked very well so far. The number of wolves in Sweden is very low compared to many other countries with wolves in Europe considering that only few people live in Sweden as well as that large suitable habitats for wolves are in plenty and give a very good and healthy prey supply. 

 

Bad shootings during the hunt

The majority of the 27 wolves were killed during the first day. The atmosphere was very bad during the hunt because there were many hunting teams that wanted to kill a wolf before the quota was full. This meant that many hunters shot at wolves without much control. An unacceptable amount of wolves were injured before being killed, and many more wolves were shot at without being hit. More than 25% of the wolves were shot before being killed at a later stage. Yesterday (7th January, 2010) 27 wolves had been killed, still one to go. One wolf was shot over the quota in one area.

 

One of the major reasons the hunt came about was to get acceptance by the hunters for the large carnivores in Sweden. Instead, it seems that villages in the countryside has been split into two sides – for and against wolf hunt. But the majority is for wolves. The government is now receiving lots of mail which is critical to the Swedish Government.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Tom Arnbom, large carnivore expert

Världsnaturfonden WWF

Ulriksdals Slott

170 81 Solna

Sweden

Bonjour,



Tout notre soutien au CPN Brabant dans son dépôt de plainte.
Tenez-nous au courant.

association Le Klan du Loup

SVEZIA - CACCIA AL LUPO


Dopo ben 45 anni,

il Parlamento svedese ha deciso di definire un piano di controllo del lupo, specie in aumento in gran parte del continente europeo. Il provvedimento stabilisce il prelievo per un periodo limitato (fino al 15 febbraio in sette regioni) e solo per 27 esemplari, in modo da raggiungere quota 210, la popolazione massima stimata secondo i rilevamenti effettuati in ottobre. I cacciatori che prenderanno parte alle battute, secondo le disposizioni approvate, dovranno comunicare ogni abbattimento alle autorità regionali, le quali sono proposte a conteggiare la quota del prelievo. Il motivo asserito della decisione è quello di limitare il pericolo di attacchi dei lupi nei pressi dei centri abitati agli animali domestici ed agli allevamenti. Il WWF ha presentato una protesta formale alla Commissione Europea denunciando la violazione della legislazione comunitaria, la quale considera questa specie ancora a rischio d'estinzione.
Secondo l'associazione la Svezia non presenta particolari differenze con gli altri paesi europei rispetto alla consistenza del lupo

Source: LAC Liguria, 7 gennaio.

Lettres au Ministre de l'Environnement de suède
et à l'Ambassade de Suède à Bruxelles. 

CONNAISSANCE ET PROTECTION DE LA NATURE DU BRABANT 
17, rue du Charme - Bruxelles 1190 

Bruxelles, vendredi 8 janvier 2010 

objet : Chasse à loup en Suède. 

Monsieur le Ministre, 

Qu'il me soit permis de vous écrire pour annoncer ma désapprobation au sujet des meurtres de 27 loups et plus. 

Selon mes l'informations certains loups (alphas) ont été tués et d'autres  des loups ont été blessés. 

Je vous signal ce que mon association a déposé une plainte près  de la Commission européenne contre ces massacres. 

C'est une violation de la Directive l'habitat .

J'ose espérer que votre pays respectera cette directive. 

Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le ministre, mes salutations de distinguées. 

Le Président

 

Hello again,


Please help us help the wolf by using the link below:
http://www.wwf.se/insamlingsportal/show.php?id=1276458
Thanks in advance four your support.


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