2023-08-29 09:08:00
This means that the requirements are – as in the Upper Austria valid since July 1st. Wolf Management Ordinance met – given to remove the animal within a ten-kilometer radius of Unterweißenbach (Freistadt district), informed Agrarian Minister Michaela Langer-Weninger (ÖVP).
In August, a wolf was sighted twice in Unterweißenbach within two weeks and was distressed. Most recently on August 26 at around 9:30 p.m. in a courtyard of an agricultural property, the state councilor said. “The second deterrent measure in Unterweißenbach shows us clearly: the wolf has lost its fear of humans. So anyone who downplays the approaches of the wolf in Unterweißenbach is playing with the safety of our citizens,” she said. Therefore, the animal was classified as a risk wolf for humans and the shooting was approved for the next four weeks.
Wolf am Dachstein cleared for shooting
Only last week, on August 21, a bad wolf was released for removal on the Dachstein following two wolf officers found nine dead and two injured sheep on the Dachstein plateau. The crack pattern was clear. Because of the high number of livestock killed, a second bad wolf is likely. DNA analyzes are currently being evaluated, and should the suspicion be confirmed, another shooting license can be expected, according to the state councilor’s office.
In any case, several Styrian sheep farmers drove their animals off the Dachstein plateau a month earlier than planned last weekend because of the many cracks, Gerhard Fallent from the “Wolf Stop” initiative confirmed corresponding media reports on Tuesday. He said around 200 Ramsau sheep were dead or missing on the plateau.
In the coming days, the farmers want to go up once more to continue looking for them. But last weekend alone, ten new sheep carcasses were found. However, if the DNA analyzes confirm wolf tears, the animal cannot currently be shot down on the Styrian side of the Dachstein because a corresponding ordinance is still being drafted. Fallent criticized that it was taking too long. In Lower Austria it would only have taken five weeks and Styria only had a “copying exercise” anyway due to several regulations in other federal states.
“We’ve known for two weeks that the wolves are up,” Fallent continued. This is not only proven by the sheep tears, but also by camera recordings. And there are at least two. Some of the farmers only returned to the valley with a third of their sheep last weekend. Roland Petersmann, for example, had found around 150 animals and came down with around 50 on Sunday, Fallent described.
The approximately 200 missing sheep have either already been torn down, or they have been chased to death by the wolves, or they are so stressed that they do not dare to come out of their cover even when the farmer calls to them and will probably not be found. The Styrian wolf ordinance has been in the works since spring. The summer should be over by the time a draft by the expert commission has gone through the public review and the ordinance comes into force following the deadline, the state of Styria said at the end of June.
1693302057
#Upper #Austria #releases #wolf #shot
