Wildlife

180 hunters kill one Wolf pack in Norway

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On New Years Eve 2019, the Ministry of Climate and the Environment allowed the shooting of all the wolves of a wolf pack in the Letjenna area. At the same time, the Ministry prevented the real possibility of judicial review by publishing the decision at the last moment before the start of the hunt, so that it became impossible to request for temporary injunction.

Four of the six wolves in the Letjennareviret in Elverum in Hedmark were shot on January 1st 2020, which was also the first day of the license hunt.

At midnight on January 1st, around 30 hunters started setting up 17 km of flag lines to ring the wolves in, and by 12 o’clock on 1 January, four wolves were killed. The hunters knew the location of the wolf pack since all lead wolves are radio collared.

The hunters told the Norwegian newspaper VG that that they had been planning for the hunt for 2 and a half months beforehand. He specified that the wolves want to avoid the flag line and the hunters entered the confined area where the wolves were located and then pushed them towards the edge of the ring where the hunters were ready to shoot them. Around 180 hunters participated in the hunt.

NOAH, the Norwegian NGO, reacts to the fact that there is no real opportunity to save the wolf pack within the zone by legal action:

NOAH immediately asked the Ministry to stop the hunt, because we want to take out temporary injunction. If the Ministry does not do so, they will prevent the democratic possibility of having the legality of the decision tried before the wolves are shot. NOAH will then proceed with legal action because we now see that a dangerous precedent for shooting in the wolf zone is created without the requirements of the law being met.

Siri Martinsen
Head of NOAH

Time and again, NOAH has reminded politicians that the population target itself cannot justify the killing wolves, since there is no such legal basis in the Nature Diversity Act.

This highly problematic practice started with the shooting of the Slettås wolf pack last year. The state went beyond the boundaries set by the Nature Diversity Act and the Bern Convention. Decision on the shooting of the Letjenna pack show that the state now arbitrarily condemns entire wolf families to death simply because they are wolves. The Ministry has justified the shooting of yet another wolf family within the wolf zone by the need to “alleviate conflict” – without considering the side of the conflict that wants stronger protection of wild animals. It is neither a secret that the government aims to keep the wolf population at a politically determined level that is equivalent to maintaining the wolf in Norway at a critically endangered status. This is very alarming, especially when the government allows killing wolves in an area where the wolf should take precedence over other interests. It is the political game of power that requires wolf blood.

Siri Martinsen
Head of NOAH

NOAH will go to court with a request to review the legality of the current decision on the shooting Letjenna-wolves in the wolf zone and also the decision from last year concerning Slettås-pack, regardless of whether we are given the opportunity to halt the hunt by interim injunction – which now looks questionable.

This information is from the Press Release of NOAH.

36 thoughts on “180 hunters kill one Wolf pack in Norway

  • For certain animals those who mate for life like wolves and some other birds and animals hunting can be doubly destructive

  • It proves that the evil animal agriculture and hunters rule the governments !! So many pathetic excuses but it always comes down to power and money!!!

  • Hi,

    the main issue in the UK and Scotland is the overabundance of deer. There are two ways to regulate them. Massive hunting to reduce their numbers so natural reforestation can take place or reintroduction of predators. The decision is one society must take. The real concern is that the UK without its forests will be even more severe impact by the climate crisis than regions that have forests.

  • Sheep farming has for centuries declared war on large predators on a global scale, the Thylacine in Australia is a classic example. In this day and age sheep should be easily and comprehensively protected and not allowed to roam free to make them easy prey for predators. It seems this age old hatred has not gone away in Norway a supposed advanced and civilised country. I have been to Norway four times over the years and was amazed that sheep were literally put into forests etc. with no supervision or protection. I don`t know if this practise still goes on but a nation as rich as this, through its oil revenue, cannot protect a few wolves is truly shocking. My own country is lets hope planning to reintroduce wolves in a few years time although seeing what goes on in Norway makes me wonder if there is any point. Sheep are one of the most destructive creatures on the environment and should have been reduced years ago. So Norway grow up.

  • When a country have a minister of Climate and the Environment with such a character, it’s all here about a political class of that same country, seriously, classifying it as a third world is a undeserved praise

  • “They had a tracker on the lead wolf …. and then trapped them!” Yes, Sue, it’s called the Judas Wolf in Canada, where they perpetrate the same barbaric practice. We humans can’t sink much lower than that.

  • Why would anyone want to do something so barbaric and evil as that

  • It’s evil ….. how can they even call it a hunt? They had a tracker on the lead wolf …. and then trapped them! It was a slaughter by people not fit to call themselves human! It breaks your heart! Why why why?

  • Wolves can coexist with Livestock and do not need to be killed if LivestockProtection is implemented.

  • Looking at the culling of the 4 wolves in a regional and historical context I remember that the previous Ministers of the environment have gone to great efforts to block all attempts to hunt wolves in the rural East of Norway. All applications for permission to cull wolf flocks have been extremely well documented with the carcasses of wolf killed sheep,lambs,calves, heifers, moose, and dogs. and these are in fact the livelihood for rural grassland farmers. Wolves in Norway are not stationery animals, they wander across county borders, in and out of zones which are designated for grazing livestock, and across the border to Sweden. In the south East counties there is a stream of young males wandering in from territories in Sweden, and there is a constant pressure on the moose and grazing livestock. Please note that there is no real danger of Norway and Sweden eliminating all the 500 -600 wolves which have been registered in the wild carnivore database. Check out the facts on rovvilt.no where all known individuals are registered.

  • Wolves are intelligent, social animals, in many respects similar to humans. Killing a wolf is as morally wrong as killing a human being. Unfortunately, wolves are not protected enough by legislation in most countries. In my opinion, the solution is to educate people (especially children) about wolves and to pressure governments to protect them. Good luck to NOAH in its legal battle with the Norwegian government.

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