Grey wolves killed in Hungary without punishment? – 18+
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The re-emergence of grey wolves in Hungary causes a lot of disputes between hunters and environmentalists. Since the predators hunt for wild game as their source of food, some hunters and livestock farmers regard them as pests because the wolves cause damages by killing valuable animals.
The root of the problem
Based on the information of the Bükk National Park, currently, there are wolf packs living in the Bükk Mountains, in Mátra and in the Tarnavidék protected area, Index reports.
According to the news outlet, the reason wolves have become more and more widespread and present in growing numbers in Hungary is forestation.
Forestation provides a better habitat for game animals that are prey to the grey wolves. Since the population of these animals grew, some wolves migrated back to the country.
However, while the wolves are highly protected animals, they can cause some serious problems indirectly. Game animals fleeing from the packs of wolves can enter urban areas. Deer and elk, for example, can be dangerous and even cause damage to the residents.
Additionally, last summer, 22 sheep have been killed by predators in Mátranovák which further worsened the reputation of wolves.
Nimród, a hunters’ magazine has recently shared that a wolf mauled and torn apart a wild male red deer near Mátranovák-Mátracserpuszta on 14 February.
The red deer entered an urban area which was reported by a local to the hunter’s association. However, by the time the hunters arrived, they could only find bloodstains. Thanks to a bloodhound, the hunters found the deer 1.5 kilometres away.
Unfortunately, the wolves started eating the male deer, thus it had to be put out of its misery.
Retaliation
Due to the aforementioned damages and complications the protected grey wolves can cause, it has been an open secret in the hunting society, that some people purposefully hunt grey wolves to stop them from killing the game they could sell to other hunters, RTL reported.
I wouldn’t call these people hunters, I would consider them criminals or poachers. It’s one thing to shoot wolves to protect livestock (ex: sheep), but it’s an entirely different matter to shoot wolves because they don’t want them to be killing deer or other game that they want to shoot.
To make things worse, they are using poison bait to try to kill the wolves. Thus, I wouldn’t even consider them hunters if they cannot even hunt properly (hunting is about tracking one’s prey and killing it humanly).
Thus, the weight of the law should be enforced.