The culling of wolves in the EU
Sir, – I'm disappointed to learn that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs have voted to downgrade the protected status of wolves in the EU.
Despite all the evidence indicating a severe threat to the conservation status of wolves in Europe, the EU parliament has opted to allow these animals to be legally culled. Political interests and pressure from powerful lobby groups have trumped logic, science, and the increasingly urgent need to preserve biodiversity.
The vote amounts to an abandonment of the hard-won protection for wolves under the EU Habitats Directive and could potentially lead to the wolf's extinction Europe-wide. This retrograde step weakens the EU's flagship conservation law that was supposed to be a beacon to the world in the battle to conserve endangered species.
But perhaps I shouldn't be too surprised at the stance taken by FF and FG in Brussels. These two parties have refused to back a ban on hare coursing or fox hunting here in Ireland, or even to allow a free vote on them in the Dáil.
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Maybe it's just as well that there are no wolves in Ireland, because if we still had these wonderful creatures, clubs would undoubtedly be set up to torment and kill them for sport. We might even see them running for their lives in parks, with fans cheering or placing bets.
Oliver Cromwell, one of Ireland's deadliest foes, played a prominent role in the disappearance of wolves from this island. In 1652 he set bounties on them that resulted in widespread killing of the animals. They survived, just about, for another century, and the last recorded sighting of a grey wolf here was in 1786.
FF and FG have followed in Cromwell's draconian footsteps in giving the wolf a bad name. They should hang their heads in shame for joining in the attack on this much-maligned creature.
It's depicted in fairy tale lore as the 'Big Bad Wolf' and is the bugbear of many a horror movie, but in reality it plays a vital conservationist role in maintaining healthy ecosystems in the terrain it inhabits.
Unfortunately, party animals who put political self-interest before ecology are not yet on the endangered list! – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny
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