Kurt sneaks into Congress. Again. And that includes loud arguments. The Lower House just activated the mechanism to eliminate the protection. Canis lupus In 2021, he reversed the measure, making it an untouchable species for hunters across the country. There is still a long administrative road and an even longer debate to remove this armor from the herds, but the process is already underway. And the arguments are on the table.

The big question currently at the top of the debate outside and within Congress is: What is the status of the wolf on the peninsula today? So what effect does it have?

Kurt to Congress. If the wolf is news, not in the science and nature sections, but in the pages of political history, it is thanks to PP. On Tuesday, the popular party managed to get a proposal to reduce wolf protection considered. They did this thanks to their own votes and the support of Vox, PNV and Junts, which gave them a majority of 180 votes, enough for the Chamber to review the status of the packages.

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But… What does he suggest? His proposal aims to “adapt the protection of the species to the current conservation situation”; This means, in his view, removing the species from the List of Wild Species under the Special Protection Regime (Lespre). The man responsible for defending the initiative was Asturian MP Silverio Argüelles, who warned of the effects of “over-protection” of herds on livestock farmers and even the production of products such as Cabrales cheese.

“Against the ropes”. This expression again belongs to Argüelles. The popular MP warned during his speech that the level of protection the wolf currently enjoys in northern Spain has left livestock farmers in a complex situation, with the loss of cattle and a marked decline in Cabrales leaving them “against the ropes”. producing. He even complained that a 17-year-old shepherd from Picos de Europa in Cangas de Onís had to climb a tree to escape wolves that attacked his goats a few weeks ago.

In the draft submitted to the Congress, the PP insists on the same idea and speaks of “the increasing number of attacks”, the “difficulty of living together” with farm animals and, above all, in his opinion, “the increase in the wolf population”. make it “necessary to maintain such stringent protective measures.”

The PP MP even revealed some figures: an average of 35 attacks every day, the loss of more than 14,000 animals in 2023 and a notable increase in the number of herds, from 312 in 2014 to over 400 last year. He omitted this last one without giving further references or explaining his source.

We’re going back to 2021. To understand the PP movement, we first need to remember the change that the wolf went through at the legislative level in Spain just three years ago. as you remember CountryIn February 2021, the State Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Commission approved the list of specially protected species, allowing the wolf to be included in Lespre. The decision was made at the request of environmental organization Ascel and without sparking controversy or political outrage.

In fact, the vote of the State Commission was carried out minimally and without the support of the autonomous communities with the largest number of animals. In Castilla y León, they warned at the time that “ceasing to manage wolf populations by hunting” would cause “enormous harm” to the country’s livestock farmers.

A few months later, in September, the BOE issued an order from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Canis lupus From that moment on, it ceased to be a species hunted throughout the country. Until then, wolves were protected south of the Duero River, where they could only be hunted under very specific conditions. It was in the north where the 2021 ministerial order represented a significant change. You can hunt there.

“Without scientific support”. They have already harshly criticized the PP proposal from the WF organization, an initiative aimed at removing the wolf from Lespre and reducing its protection level in most of the country where it lives, with the clear purpose: “Let” it be hunted again and can be easily killed. “All this without any public participation or scientific validation or support.”

The organization goes further and challenges the data provided by PP to support its own initiative. WWF assures that although the herds have been in Lespre since 2021, the Iberian populations “have not grown significantly” and they still face serious genetic problems from inbreeding, which was promoted by the decline of their population in the 20th century. century. The environmental group also warns that there is no “strict census” in Spain.

“The increase is remarkable”. WWF is not the only one pointing to the figures included in PP’s arguments. Juan Carlos Blanco, an expert on the species, recently noted: Country He said the wolf had not even been to Lerspe for three years: “Perhaps the density has increased slightly because it is not hunted, but the distribution area of ​​the breeding population is almost the same as it was ten years ago. The increase is barely perceptible.”

There are also studies confirming that the majority of wolves’ diet, at least in and around Guadarrama National Park, consists of wild ungulates such as roe deer and wild boar. Domestic catch is about 20%.

Livestock farmers should be careful. Not everyone sees the situation of the wolf on the peninsula and its impact on the agricultural sector in the same way. The main associations of farmers and ranchers warned the Europa Press agency that they would be careful and push for the measure promoted by the PP in order to move forward and not be stuck in Congress as in the past. “This situation had to break somewhere,” says COAG’s Gaspar Anabitarte.

The difficulty of coexistence between wolves, livestock and even humans is not unique to Spain. The Netherlands provided a good example, where the Dutch authorities even allowed them to shoot paintballs to keep them away. It has also been suggested that at the European level, the protection of the wolf should be reviewed and the wolf should be changed from “strict protection” status to just “protected” status.

Picture | Wikipedia (Arturo de Frias Marques)

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