Wolves are less deadly than pet dogs, rewilding advocate claims

Campaigner says portrayal of predators as ‘terrifying creatures’ is false and they should be reintroduced

WOLVES are less dangerous than pet dogs and should be reintroduced in Britain, a rewilding campaigner has said.

Historically, wolves have been portrayed as “terrifying creatures” but Derek Gow says that is a false picture – and many more people are killed worldwide by domestic dogs.

There were 16 fatal dog attacks in England and Wales last year, and police recorded more than 30,000 offences of an out-of-control dog causing injury.

Concerns over dangerous dogs led to XL bullies being banned by the Government at the beginning of this year, following a spate of attacks. Mr Gow has written a book titled Hunt for the Shadow Wolf: The Lost History of Wolves in Britain in which he challenges some of the myths about the wild animal.

Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival, he highlighted that sheep farmers are opposed to the reintroduction of wolves despite domestic dogs killing thousands of sheep in Britain each year.

Last week Minette Batters, the former president of the National Farmers Union, said apex predators such as wolves and lynx would be a danger to the public and pets, and a threat to livestock.

She pointed to the experience of Europe, which has boosted its wolf population to around 17,000 individuals that kill 65,000 farm animals, mainly sheep, every year. “We couldn’t entertain the idea on any level of reintroducing wolves,” she said.

Last year the Government ruled out the reintroduction of wolves and lynx. Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary at the time, told the National Farmers Union conference: “I don’t want farmers to constantly worry about these issues.”

However, Mr Gow argued that humans could live alongside wolves, even in urban areas. “They are not an animal of wilderness. If we were not an island they would be here already. In the end, they’d find their way into Richmond Park and hunt the deer there. They’d raid your bins,” he said.

“They do attack humans – a study recently done by the Norwegian Institute of Nature Management looked over a 25-year period at wolf attacks worldwide. Most of them occurred in India, some in eastern European countries. They found 25 examples of wolves attacking and killing people. Most were in India.”

He acknowledged that wolves would kill a lot of sheep but claimed that this should not be seen as a disaster, adding that sheep cause environmental damage by clearing.

Mr Gow’s comments come after Ben Goldsmith, a former adviser to the environment department, said last week that “the return of native lynx and wolves would be the ideal solution” to reducing the UK’S rapidly increasing deer population, which is believed to be at its highest for 1,000 years.

Without any natural predators, the deer can cause devastation to crops, as well as damage to woodland and newly planted trees.

Mr Gow said wolves would be better than human beings at controlling Britain’s deer population.

“Every year there are 74,000 accidents with deer on the roads, within the region of 40 fatalities. And it’s not going to get any better. People say, ‘Oh, we have to kill more, we have to eat more venison,’ but it hasn’t happened so far. We’re not very good deer hunters.

“We need to look at what naturally would control that population of deer.”