The wolf - can herd protection work?

In 1998, a pair of wolves was sighted again for the first time since the wolves were exterminated about 150 years ago. Two years later, this pair raised pups for the first time on the Oberlausitz military training area. The foundation stone for the return of wolves to Germany had been laid. In the monitoring year 2019/20, there were now already 128 packs, 38 wolf pairs and nine lone wolves living in Germany (source: DBBW).

Unfortunately, not everyone is very happy about this. One reason is that a few wolves have learned to snatch farm animals.

In 2018, the wolf demonstrably killed 2,067 grazing animals, few of which were protected under the herd protection measures recommended by the government. Nevertheless, 2,067 animals sound a lot at first, but converted to the number of wolves living in Germany, this makes up less than 1% of the wolves real food, which has also been confirmed by faecal samples (source: Nabu).

Nevertheless, lately I have been hearing again and again from people that the wolf means the end of grazing livestock. But is the wolf really to blame for this, or is there perhaps a completely different reason?

If we look at the figures, the real reason is completely different: 
98% of the meat we consume in Germany comes from factory farming (source: GEO).
In Germany alone, we slaughter 763,000,000 farm animals (excluding fish) every year (source: Albert Schweitzer Foundation). Worldwide even 72,500,000,000 (fish excluded) (Source: Our World in Data). If we then look at the figures for how many wild animals we kill each year in hunting, the number 2,067 becomes very small. There are no less than 4,000,000 animals killed annually in Germany alone. (The exact figure for the 2018/19 hunting year is 4,003,851, source: German Hunting Association).

So it is not the wolf that has put an end to grazing livestock, but our insatiable consumption that has long since wiped out grazing livestock.
So if you're angry at the wolf that preys on the poor lambs, you'd better look at your own plate.

Livestock guardian dogs

Livestock guardian dogs are dogs that are specially bred to protect their pack under all circumstances and from everyone. But who is their pack? It can be sheep, goats, cows and even horses. The only important thing is that they are born and raised in the pack.

It is also important to keep dogs on a leash and not to make jerky movements. It is also best not to jog or cycle past, but to walk past in a relaxed manner. In Germany, livestock guardian dogs must be fenced in with the sheep herd, for example. They are not allowed to cross the fence. In Abruzzo, the dogs are not fenced in and can move freely. This is much better regulated in Germany.

Now, however, livestock guardian dogs are quite expensive. A trained guard dog costs about 3,500 euros, a puppy about 1,000 euros. (Source: giessener-allgemeine). A livestock guardian dog costs about 200 Euros per month (2,500 Euros per year) to maintain (source: Nabu). Moreover, one livestock guardian dog is not enough. Depending on the size of the herd, several dogs are needed. This all sounds like a lot at first, but in the meantime the state of Brandenburg, for example, covers the purchase and even the monthly maintenance costs.

Of course, livestock guardian dogs are not the only means against wolves, but they are the most effective. Electric fences also help very well if they are the right height, i.e. at least 90 cm, more likely 120 cm. 

A statistic from the year 2020 from the state of Brandenburg shows that only very few livestock farmers who were affected by a wolf attack complied with the herd protection measures (source: Brandenburg State Office for the Environment).

Nevertheless, there are of course farmers in Germany who accept the wolves and implement the herd protection measures recommended by the government. Some of them already use guard dogs in an exemplary way and have good experiences with them. Anita Emmert, for example. You can watch a short report from the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation HERE on YouTube.

Rethinking our diet

So before we start pointing the finger at the wolf, we should consider whether we are not to blame. Whether we shouldn't simply do a better job of protecting the herd and whether we shouldn't rethink our totally outdated diet. The fact is that our teeth and digestive system are made for plant food, unlike the wolf.

It has also been scientifically proven that consuming animal products significantly increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and even cancer (source: Süddeutsche Zeitung).

Even hunter-gatherers have fed on significantly more plant products than animal products, as new findings show.

The statement "but we have always done it this way", or "but you don't get full from vegetables" is therefore not true at all. The real reason why we feel fuller for longer when we eat meat is that our digestive system can process vegetable protein much better than animal protein. So we only feel fuller for longer because our body is struggling to process the meat.

If you want to learn more about plant-based diets and the animal suffering involved in livestock farming, I recommend two fantastic documentaries: 

Documentary on plant-based nutrition: The Game Changers

Documentary on animal suffering: Dominion

You want to do more for the wolf, but don't know how?

I hope I could help you with my tips and inspire you to change the world with small changes in your daily life. You can find another article of mine about the wolf in relation to the danger it poses, or doesn't pose, HERE.

You don't want to make these small changes in your daily life alone? Then share them with your family and friends.

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