[Tonje]

Hello hello
After having lost this list some upgrades ago (I'm a PC nitwit), it is great to be able to respond to it again (thanks dear Per Olav for the "how to" explanation!).

About the wolf situation in Norway. It is actually not so simple. I thought I would go into some detail so you can see some of the issues involved, because not everything can be ascribed to "irrational wolf hatred from the ignorant". Also it would be interesting to see if some of you have any ideas in general because I think wolf issues may arise in Europe also. Did you follow the Tour de France this summer? One of the days they had to move the starting point because French Farmers had a protest rally at the original starting point. They were protesting against wolves - because the wolves were coming back to their region! Sounded dreadfully familiar to me..

I would like to correct some of the facts in the start of the discussion here. A wolfpack was exterminated by hunting with helicopter here several years ago - to massive protests. This year however 5 wolves were shot by giving hunting lisences to hunters. Actually 6 wolves were shot, one was shot by mistake - the alpha bitch in a protected wolf pack in the neigboring region. She had wandered across the border of the "allowed wolf sone" and was promptly shot. Again the hunting was to massive protests - people went to the hunting area following the hunters around, making lots of noise to scare the wolves away or just simply roaming around in the area so that the hunters would be afraid to risk shooting in case they hit a person. The whole place was crawling with people - hunters, protesters, police, the media - but to no avail.

About the wolf thing in Finnmark, I'm a bit at loss - I've not heard of any wolves in Finnmark (which is far far North in Norway). So I am thinking that maybe there has been a confusion of species due to language - that it is wolverine that is meant and not wolf. For many years I myself thought a wolverine was a female wolf, but that is not so! (Ah, the joy of the various languages' idiosyncracies!). The wolverine is the largest member of the family of minks, otters, stoats, matrens, ferrets etc - I think. Wolverines are an issue further North. They do prey on reindeer.

80 % of the Norwegian population want to have the large predators in Norwegian Fauna, that is the lynx, the brown bear, the wolf and the wolverine. Unfortunately the great majority of these 80 % live in the towns and suburbs and not in the rural areas where these predators actually are. People in the rural areas are fervently against (apart from the youngest - they also want to have the predators in our wild life). They say that it is all very well for the town people to be pro the predators, because they don't have to live with them. In my books that is a very valid point - it is so easy to have an opinion of something that does not affect one self!

When the wolf came back to Norway, people living in the wolf areas had no idea what that implied for their way of life. The wolf may be an efficient predator, but it certainly has no idea of humane euthanasia. Its slaughter of sheep isn't really slaughter - it is maiming. When the wolves attack sheep, they don't eat them - just rip out their innards, sometimes eating their udders, and just leave them. Many of the sheep survive but with severe suffering, and all have to be put down afterwards. The same goes for dogs. The wolves kill dogs,in general by slitting their abdomens (as with the sheep). This is of course terribly shocking. I have yet to see a picture of a wolfkilled dog that hasn't been killed by disembowling.

We have a house in a region where the wolf came back 8 - 10 years ago. In the garden to one of our neighbors there is a pathetic little grave. That is the grave of the hunting hound Lucy, the last dog to be killed by wolf here (all in all 7 dogs were killed before they realized that wolf and dog just didn't work). She was attacked appr 800 m from her house. Everyone around heard her screams, and the owner met her trying to crawl home. She was dragging her entrails after her, so he simply shot her to put her out of her misery. Since then no one here lets their dogs off leash(a part from us, but that depends on breed of dog - if it stays close to you or roams around. We are however definitely risking our dogs when we let them go, even though they in general never venture far way from us).

So that is one anti-wolf factor. The emotions involved in having a beloved dog killed in that manner. It takes time to accept that where the dogs previously could enjoy running free in the forest, far from people and cars or anyone getting annoyed by loose dogs, it is advisable and safest to keep dogs on leash.

The second anti-wolf factor is the sheep farmers. Having sheep is a way to make a living, it is a job. In Norway the traditional practise is to let the sheep go free in the forests and mountains for summer grazing. They are not guarded in any way, because there have not been predators here in Norway the last hundred - hundred and fifty years! We have severe rules for keeping dogs on leash in sheep districts. A loose dog can actually be shot on sight in sheep areas! From an animal welfare point of view this is a terrible practise (appr 130 000 sheep die each year from injuries, disease, accidents - and predators - but only a very low number can be associated with the wolf).

However, the sheep farmers economy depends on that way of keeping sheep. They can not afford to use shepherds, they can not afford to move the sheep each day between grazing area and safe pens during night because such moving causes the sheep to loose slaughter weight. The sheep breed itself is ill equipped to handle predator attacks, both physically and behaviorwise, eg they have low herding instinct and spread out over large areas (due to the meager grazing), they do not herd together and defend themselves when attacked but just run in wild panic.

The sheep farmer can not make another type of living of his land, because in those regions there is not soil or weather suited for growing things or really for keeping other livestock. This is also the preferred habitat for wolf. So when the wolves move in, sheep farming is actually impossible as it is done today. One could of course say, OK the sheep farmers need to move and get work another place. That is not simple. They can not sell their farms (that also icludes forests for timber) freely, because farms are regulated here in Norway. They can only sell their farm to someone who will continue with the farming/forestry, and they can only sell at a ridiculously low price. All their capital is sunk in the farm, so they are actually destitute if they give up the farm. As for getting work elsewhere. there is very little work to be got in these districts, they would have to move to the towns and work can be hard to come by.

So of course the sheep farmers fight against wolves (and actually bears, lynx and wolverines, but little attention is paid to these species by the media or rest of the public). They are fighting for their livelihood and that is understandable.

The third factor is wolf habituation, i.e. that they become less and less shy of human activity. Some farmers have tried keeping their sheep close to the house, but the wolves will still come and kill the sheep. Wolves have been known to come into the yard and kill the dog. In one instance a wolf pack killed 18 sheep only some hundred meters from the local school - during daytime. People have been told that wolves fear humans more than anything and will stay away from people - but of course that is a truth with modifications - the wolf is extremely intelligent and finds out that it can get at easy meals even in the vicinity of humans because the humans are not really that dangerous... When the wolves then behave in such a way, people become distrustful of the experts and fear for their children. They can see no reason why the wolf wouldn't one day try to kill a child. And one does not under any circumstance put one's child at risk. So far nothing is being done to fight the habituation effect, i.e. teaching the wolves to be scared of humans and their living quarters.

I personally fault the Norwegian authorities and the politicians. Norway has promised internationally to protect the wolf - and that I think is just a great scam! The politicians have found out a "great way" to keep both wolves and sheep farmers without having to solve the sheep farmers' issues - or actually giving much thought to formal procedures to reduce problems like habituation. They have determined regions in Norway that are to be "wolf sones" where the wolf is protected. In these regions people are not encouraged to keep sheep - for instance they are not recompensated for sheep killed by wolf as they are other places. In principle the wolf is protected in all of Norway, but people can apply for dispensation outside the predefined wolf sones. That is what happened in the last wolf hunt. The 5 wolves were living outside the wolf sone wherefore the authorities allowed the hunting! So the wolf is protected in Norway on paper- but in reality not!

You can send protest mails to the Minister of Environment here in Norway (don't know yet who that will be, we had election last Monday with a change of government) til kingdom come, but I don't think that will help at all. They are very used to it, having recieved such mails in enormous quantities for many years.. International pressure from other countries themselves, i.e. formal protests and threats of consequences in commerce, is the only thing that will help at the moment I think.

I find Norway's attitude in the wolf issue both shameful and disgusting. In the early seventies Norway was one of the countries that insisted that India protect its tigers. At that time I think tigers killed appr 1100 people in India, but Norway was adamnant that the tiger should be protected
anyway. The wolves here kill no one, and yet we don't really protect them - just pretend to. It would be better that Norway came straight out with a honest "No, we can't/don't really want to protect the wolf" and take the international consequences or really did protect the wolves.

However, I am actutally a bit optimistic regarding the wolf. In time I think things will be done. As mentioned above, the young people in the rural areas are pro wolf and they are the next generation farmers. They will probably not insist on the previous way of life, seeing other possibilities. If the authorities make those feasible, for instance by changing the economic legislation for farmers, that antiwolf argument can be buried. Also every time there is a new wolf hunt, the protests are still more vigorous and more serious. Last time the Swedish authorities protested, next time perhaps even more countries will protest! Sooner or later the authorities will knacker down and make the legislation necessary for the protection of wolf, also in such a way that people are not made destitute or fear for their children's lives.

Well, this is my point of view (and a lengthy one at that..). I should add this may not be Per Olav's point of view (I don't know) and perhaps I have some of the facts wrong (everything written out of memory) so I hope Per Olav will correct any mistakes!

regards
Tonje