The European Commission has unveiled its long-awaited draft law downgrading the protection status of wolves, which would make it easier for farmers in the European Union to shoot animals that menace their livestock.
The bill, which answers a long-standing demand of conservative lawmakers, proposes to amend the EU Habitats Directive, moving the wolf from the list of “strictly protected” to “protected” species.
That would lower the threshold for national authorities to grant derogations to kill animals deemed to pose a threat. It’s the culmination of a long campaign in which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose pet pony Dolly was killed by a wolf in 2022, played a leading role.
“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger especially for livestock,” von der Leyen said in a statement Friday.
