Swiss authorities gave the green light on Friday to shoot two young wolves in the Grisons region. Wolves have a protected status in Switzerland, but when they kill a certain amount of farm animals, authorities can decide to have a few members of a wolfpack killed.
Local authorities said they had to make the decision to kill the two young wolves after the so-called Beverin wolfpack attacked a grown cow so badly on Wednesday that the animal had to be euthanised. A few days before, the wolfpack killed another mother cow in the area.
Animal farmers are angered by the protected status of more than 100 wolves in Switzerland, who attack goats, sheep and cows.
Swiss federal law specifies that wolves can only be shot after they have attacked a certain number of farm animals and their pack has had offspring, which applied in this case.
In 2020, Swiss voters decided not to relax restrictions on shooting wolves in a referendum. The referendum showed the difference between urban voters who want to protect wildlife and rural voters who have to put up with the wolves.
