Lower house votes in favour of polarising law after rapid increase in population and attack on grazing farm animals
Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to a rapidly growing population and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock.
The return and growth of the wolf population in the last three decades has emerged as a wedge issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm who popularised the spectre of the Big Bad Wolf.
The threat posed by roving packs often pits the left against the right and hard right, as well as the densely populated west against the more rural and former communist east where the wolves are concentrated.
The draft law, which animal protection groups had lobbied against, cleared the Bundestag on Thursday with votes from the centre-right led governing coalition and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, which has long called for the killing wolves to protect farmers’ livelihoods.
