In Baden-Württemberg, a wolf is to be legally shot again after 180 years. The Green Environment Minister is helping Cem Özdemir in the election campaign.
The election campaign in the southwest could soon claim its first victim. This week, Environment Minister Thekla Walker (Greens) granted the “Hornisgrinde wolf” permission to be shot. The wolf, officially named GW2672, would be the first of its kind to be legally hunted in Baden-Württemberg in 180 years.
The loner from the northern Black Forest (the Hornisgrinde is the highest mountain there) had repeatedly come close to people in the popular hiking and winter sports area in the northern Black Forest. Walker thus intervenes robustly in an election campaign debate. Because Green Party lead candidate Cem Özdemir had been under pressure from his challenger Manuel Hagel promised several times in the state election campaign to meet the demands of farmers and hunters and to include wolves in hunting law. Agriculture Minister Peter Hauk from the CDU and the FDP see this as the only way to legally remove wolves that prey on livestock, for example. Walker had previously emphasized that only that Federal hunting law needs to be changed.
With the special permit, it now shows that the shooting of dangerous wolves is possible even without this change. But the timing is delicate: the minister issued the approval one day before a state parliament debate on an FDP draft law on hunting law. In addition, the permit is only valid until March 10th, shortly after the state election. FDP leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke comments: “The wolf GW2672 will go down in history as the sacrificial lamb for Özdemir’s election campaign.”
The suspicion that the shooting was solely for the purpose of the election campaign was expressed by the hunting association, which actually welcomed the decision. The timing is “very surprising,” they say. After all, the wolf’s unusual behavior has been known since May 2024.
However, the timing is related to the mating season, as Green wolf expert Markus Rösler explains. The lone wolf from the Hornisgrinde is “just a poor pig,” says a dog owner who met him on SWR. In search of a partner, the wolf approaches dogs and humans – an almost hopeless search, as only four wolves currently live in the Black Forest.
From an expert perspective, this behavior makes him a problem wolf. The Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation also supports the shooting in order to avoid dangerous situations. Cell phone videos show the wolf chasing dog walkers over a long period of time. The ministry explains that a live catch has not yet been achieved. That’s why Walker is now releasing it for firing – and thereby defusing a sensitive election campaign issue for the Green Party’s top candidate.
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