Sweden's wolf hunt for the year began on Saturday, with nine wolves out of the allotted annual quota of 20 shot by 1pm, as protesters set off fireworks at a hunting area in Dalarna.
After threats from activists who posed for bloody images imitating dead hunters, Swedish police have been called in to protect hunters participating in the country's controversial wolf hunt, which begins this weekend.
Despite looming legal action from the European Commission and complaints about the size of the quota, 6,500 Swedish hunters are set to go after 20 wolves in Sweden's second annual wolf hunt.
The European Commission has issued a new challenge to Sweden's wolf hunt policy, with the EU environment commissioner warning the government against letting the hunt begin before it receives answers to its questions.
The European Commission wants to know the scientific basis behind Sweden's controversial licensed wolf hunt in January and is pressing the government for a comprehensive and detailed response.
Almost half of the public officials working with wild animal control in the five counties that permit wolf hunting have received death threats or other forms of harassment, according to a report by the Sveriges Radio Kaliber programme.
The government on Thursday ordered the Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) to prepare for the active import of foreign wolves into Sweden from the east.
Sweden’s environment minister Andreas Carlgren continued to defend the country’s recent government-sanctioned wolf hunt despite a lack of evidence supporting part of the minister’s justification for the cull.
An entire pack of wolves has been liquidated at a Swedish wildlife park after escaping from their sanctuary. The incident occurred just days after a controversial nationwide hunt to cull wolves.
Sweden's first wolf hunt in 45 years came to an end on Tuesday after hunters met their quota of 27 kills in just four days, as ecologists blasted the hunt as rushed and cruel and slammed the government's decision to allow the cull.
After the Swedish environmental authority issued permits for 10 percent of Sweden's entire wolf population to be killed, hunters shot dead more than 20 wolves on Saturday, according to local media estimates.
Swedish authorities have broken with a 45-year tradition and given the all clear for hunters to kill a total of 27 wolves next year in a bid to control the country's burgeoning lupine population.
Hunters in Sweden will be allowed to take aim at wolves for the first time in 45 years following a Riksdag decision to control the predators’ population, wildlife officials said on Wednesday.
Kaj Sjunesson, a sheep farmer from outside Strängnäs in central Sweden, has been cleared of suspicions that he may have broken hunting laws when he shot a runaway wolf in April. The public prosecutor has decided not to proceed with a preliminary investigation.
Over a month after its escape from Kolmården wildlife park, a young male wolf was finally found and shot dead beside a sheep pasture outside Strägnäs on Monday. Staff from Kolmården have identified the animal.
