{"id":223324,"date":"2026-01-02T11:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223324\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T11:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:16:16","slug":"what-does-it-take-to-kill-a-wolf-italians-decry-huge-expense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223324\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it take to kill a wolf? Italians decry huge expense"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Italian council has been criticised for spending \u20ac50,000 on killing a wolf.<\/p>\n

Arno Kompatscher, governor of the German-speaking South Tyrol territory, ordered that two wolves be culled in July after 31 recorded attacks on grazing animals within two months in the Vinschgau Valley, near the Swiss and Austrian borders.<\/p>\n

In August, gamekeepers supported by surveillance helicopters slaughtered a 45kg male wolf found among a group of calves at an altitude of 2,800m, before a court intervened to prevent a second culling. It was the first time a wolf had been legally killed in the area for half a century.<\/p>\n

\"Overlooking<\/p>\n

The attacks were reported in Vinschgau valley, South Tyrol<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

After a freedom of information request the centre-right South Tyrolean People\u2019s Party (SVP), which governs the region, has revealed the operation required 27 helicopter flights, costing the taxpayer \u20ac25,511. Gamekeepers\u2019 wages took the total to \u20ac50,000.<\/p>\n

Animal rights campaigners criticised the expense. \u201cThis is a slap in the face to the people,\u201d Massimo Vitturi, head of wild animals at the Anti-Vivisection League, said. Stefano Fattor, a centre-left Democratic Party councillor, said the culling was \u201cideological\u201d, \u201cpopulist\u201d and a \u201cconcession to the SVP\u2019s rural wing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Farmers represent a significant share of the SVP\u2019s voter base, especially in South Tyrol\u2019s lush, agricultural valleys.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Rome has its wolves back. Now the battle is on to stop a cull<\/a><\/p>\n

Local wolf populations neared extinction in the mid-1900s but bounced back after they achieved a strictly protected status in 1971. South Tyrol recorded 35 wolves in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Vineyards<\/p>\n

The Texel Mountains, Vinschgau<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Their return has been accompanied by rising attacks on livestock: 42 were recorded in the grazing season of 2024 and the local authorities paid farmers \u20ac97,864 in damages the previous year.<\/p>\n

In June the EU downgraded wolf protection status from \u201cstrictly protected\u201d to \u201cprotected\u201d to give member states greater flexibility in managing populations. Italy<\/a> is due to do the same.<\/p>\n

At the time of the killing Luis Walcher, South Tyrol\u2019s agriculture chief, said: \u201cWolves have become an increasing threat to traditional alpine farming and, in some cases, to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitturi has argued, however, that preventive measures such as electric fences, guard dogs and the presence of shepherds are cheaper and more effective than culling. It was impossible to know whether the felled wolf had actually killed livestock, he said. \u201cTo be sure, you\u2019d need to catch it with ties, which is extremely difficult, and carry out DNA analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SVP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Italian council has been criticised for spending \u20ac50,000 on killing a wolf. Arno Kompatscher, governor of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-223324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}