Howls of protest as farmers told to tolerate the wolf in the fold

DEMANDS by Italian farmers for the country’s burgeoning wolf population to be culled have been rejected by the government, with a newly launched management plan insisting that man and beast can coexist.

After months of debate, the coalition has come up with a scheme that rejects the shooting, poisoning or trapping of wolves.

Instead, farmers of sheep, goats and other livestock will have to adopt measures to mitigate the risk of their flocks being attacked, such as installing electric fences and using guard dogs.

Protected by law since 1971, wolves are thriving in Italy. There are an estimated 1,580 living in the Apennines, the mountains that run through the length of Italy, while the population in the Alps has more than doubled since 2015, from 130 to nearly 300 animals.

Italy has 10 per cent of the wolf population of Europe, excluding Russia.

The wolf management plan puts forward 22 “mitigation measures” for reducing wolf attacks on livestock.

Flocks can be protected at night with electric tape fencing or with speciallybred dogs – in Italy a large white breed called the Maremma is widespread, while in France shepherds often use the Pyrenean mountain dog.

Farmers who do lose animals to wolf attacks are compensated by the authorities. Sergio Costa, the environment minister, said: “We don’t need culling, but a strategy of management. Coexistence with the wolf is possible.”

The plan was welcomed by conservation groups. “In the Seventies, the wolf was at risk of extinction in Italy but it is now considered to be a species worth protecting,” Isabella Pratesi, from WWF Italy, said.

But the decision was criticised by Coldiretti, the national farmers’ association, which said: “We need to look after the thousands of sheep and goats that are torn to pieces, the cattle that have their throats ripped out.”