Sweden started a big wolf hunt on Monday. Of the 460 now living in the country, hunters will be able to kill 75 within the next month. Animal rights activists are protesting the decision, saying it puts the animal’s survival at risk.
The British newspaper The Guardian 200 hunters followed on Monday who started hunting with dogs. It is the biggest wolf hunt in Sweden since the reintroduction of hunting licenses for the animals in 2010. From midnight to sunset, hunters will travel through forests across Sweden over the next month.
“Hunting is absolutely necessary to curb the increase in wolf numbers,” Gunnar Glöersen of the Swedish Hunting Association told Swedish newspaper. SVT extension. “The wolf population is the largest we’ve had in modern times.”
Animal rights activists find it incomprehensible that Sweden has given permission for hunting. According to them, wolves are very important in the food chain and for biodiversity.
“Killing a quarter of the population through hunting has negative consequences for animals and nature,” said Marie Stegard, chair of the anti-hunting group Jaktkritikerna. “It’s disastrous for the entire ecosystem.”
According to Swedish channel SVT, activists tried to disrupt the start of the hunt on Monday. She failed to do it. The transmitter writes that 10 wolves have now been killed on the hunting grounds. As of 2010, a total of 203 wolves are said to have been killed in other hunts.
