Leader dog killed instead of cub
Wolf advocates protest after a miss in the canton of Vaud
During a regulatory measure, the Waadtländer game guard mistakenly shot the leader of a pack instead of a young animal. The Wolf Switzerland group is now demanding consequences after such false launches had already occurred in other cantons.
Published: 40 minutes ago
In November, the Vaud gamekeeper mistakenly shot the leader of a pack instead of a young animal. In the picture a wolf in a zoo. (archive image)
The canton of Vaud confirmed on Monday that the leader of the Marchairuz pack had been shot down by mistake at the end of November. In October, the lead male was killed in the canton of Graubünden instead of a young wolf of the Moesola pack. In March, a wolf that had not been released for shooting was killed in Valais.
The Wolf Schweiz (GWS) group is protesting against these missed shots. The organization writes in a media release that these failed shots are illegal because animals other than those released for shooting were killed. She is considering legal action and is calling for a moratorium on killing wolves in the Jura Arc.
Killings of lead animals are far more serious than those of young animals. They could cause packs to break up. Killing a lead animal is therefore not a trifle, but a serious intervention in the population, emphasizes the GWS. Such is rightly only possible in exceptional cases, such as in the case of the Beverin pack, which had shown particularly problematic behavior.
According to the Wolf Switzerland group, there are only two wolf packs in the entire Jura arc, namely in the Marchairuz and Risoux areas. In both herds, leaders were killed in the fall of 2022. While the canton of Vaud mistakenly shot down the male leader of the Marchairuz pack with M95, the female leader of the Risoux pack was killed by the French authorities with F79.
The organization complains that the still vulnerable regional wolf population in the Jura is acutely endangered. She calls for an immediate cross-border moratorium on regulatory shootings in wolf packs until it is certain that the regional wolf population in the Jura can be preserved.
(SDA)