The Wolf At The Gate
Why Europe’s “Rewilding” Push Has Farmers Howling for Common Sense
A Wolf Problem Europe Pretended Didn’t Exist
For decades, the European Union has celebrated the wolf’s triumphant return as a conservation miracle. Once nearly wiped out, the grey wolf (Canis lupus) has reclaimed more than half of Europe’s countryside — prowling through France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and even the lowlands of Belgium. By 2023, the EU counted roughly 20,300 wolves, nearly double the number from a decade earlier.
It’s a remarkable comeback story — but not everyone’s clapping.
Ask any shepherd in the French Alps or a cattle rancher in the Pyrenees, and you’ll hear a different kind of story: shredded lambs, frightened herds, sleepless nights, and a sense that urban policymakers care more about apex predators than the people who feed the continent.
That tension just hit a boiling point. In June 2025, the European Union officially downgraded wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected” under the Habitats Directive — a bureaucratic phrase that means member states now have more freedom to manage or kill wolves when they threaten livestock. France didn’t wait long to act: by September, President Macron’s government announced that any livestock farmer could shoot a wolf defending their animals — without prior permission.
Environmental groups called it “an open season.”
Farmers called it “finally, a lifeline.”
Wolves vs. the People Who Feed Europe
Let’s start with reality. Wolves kill livestock — a lot of livestock. EU data estimate over 65,000 farm animals are killed by wolves every year across member states. In some Alpine valleys, it’s so bad that shepherds abandon night pastures altogether.
In France alone, official reports logged more than 12,000 livestock deaths in 2023, mostly sheep and goats. And those are just the confirmed kills — unconfirmed or scavenged carcasses never make it to the books. Compensation programs exist, but farmers say they’re bureaucratic nightmares: endless forms, late payments, and compensation that doesn’t cover the psychological toll or the loss of breeding genetics built over generations.
One farmer in the Alpes-Maritimes summed it up bluntly in an interview with Le Monde:
“They tell us to coexist. But it’s not coexistence when I bury 40 lambs in a week.”
Meanwhile, city-based activists post poetic pictures of wolves on Instagram, hashtagged #rewilding and #returntonature — rarely considering that rural families are footing the ecological bill.
What “Protected” Really Means
Under the old rules, wolves were “strictly protected.” That meant even harassing one — intentionally or not — could land a farmer in court. Only special permits allowed lethal control, often after repeated attacks and lengthy environmental reviews.
Now, with wolves merely “protected,” governments have more flexibility. They can authorize culling to prevent damage to livestock or public safety — the same logic already used for wild boar or deer in many regions.
Critics say it’s a step backward for biodiversity.
Farmers say it’s just reality catching up with them.
France Leads the Charge
France’s Wolf Plan 2024–2029 already allowed up to 19% of the national wolf population — roughly 1,000 animals — to be culled each year under government authorization. But that didn’t stop the attacks.
So, in September 2025, the government dropped a bombshell: farmers would now be able to shoot first and declare later. If a wolf attacks or threatens livestock, a farmer can defend their herd without waiting for official approval — a major shift from permit-based control to declaration-based action.
The move was met with applause from rural communities and outrage from environmental groups, who called it “a violation of international commitments.” But France isn’t alone. Italy, Germany, and parts of Eastern Europe have also pushed for easier management, arguing that strict protection was never meant to create chaos in rural economies.
The Real-World Challenges of “Coexistence”
Conservationists often say, “Just protect your herd.” Easy words — but harder on the ground.
Here’s what that “coexistence” actually looks like for a mountain shepherd:
Electric fencing around remote pastures, requiring hours to install and maintain.
Livestock guardian dogs, which eat, bark, and sometimes attack hikers.
Night corralling, forcing shepherds to sleep in mountain huts away from their families for months.
And still, wolves jump fences, slip through gaps, or attack during daylight when flocks are spread thin.
Each measure costs money — thousands of euros per season — often more than small producers can afford, even with partial subsidies.
A 2024 audit by the French Court of Accounts found that the cost of wolf coexistence programs exceeded €45 million annually, yet livestock losses kept rising. The government pays compensation, yes, but the paperwork and verification processes are so slow that many farmers say it’s easier to eat the loss than file another form.
As one mountain herder told France24:
“We are not against wolves. We are against being ignored.”
The Science Behind the Politics
Scientists agree that Europe’s wolves are no longer on the brink of extinction. But conservationists warn that population recovery doesn’t mean the species is safe everywhere. Wolves thrive in the Alps and Carpathians, but remain scarce in parts of the Balkans and Iberian Peninsula.
Still, the EU’s top environment agency acknowledges that the wolf population has stabilized at a “favorable conservation status” in most regions. Translation: the species is doing fine.
That makes the strict-protection model increasingly hard to defend — politically and practically. In rural France, patience with “rewilding experiments” has run out. Local mayors have joined farmers in calling the wolf “a symbol of urban arrogance,” imposed on them by people who’ve never lost a ewe in their life.
Wolves, Rewilding, and the Urban-Rural Divide
At its heart, this isn’t just about wolves — it’s about who gets to decide how land is used and who bears the cost of those decisions.
To conservationists in Brussels, the wolf is a triumph of ecological restoration.
To shepherds in Haute-Savoie, it’s a bureaucratic curse disguised as progress.
Rewilding advocates argue that apex predators bring balance to ecosystems — controlling deer, restoring vegetation, and even boosting tourism. But farmers argue that Europe’s “rewilding” projects are often imposed on inhabited landscapes where people still depend on livestock for a living.
“Rewilding” may sound poetic in policy papers, but for those living it, it can mean the opposite — de-civilizing the countryside, stripping working people of agency over their land.
It’s not exactly a Free-For-All
The European Union insists that the downgrade from “strictly protected” to “protected” does not mean a free-for-all. Member states must still ensure the wolf’s survival and report population data regularly.
But farmers are skeptical. They’ve watched regulators tighten the screws for years — on emissions, animal welfare, land use — while expecting them to smile when a wolf kills half a season’s income.
Now, they finally have some breathing room.
The real test will be whether new rules restore balance or deepen division. If lethal control becomes excessive, conservationists will scream “massacre.” If it’s too restrictive, farmers will call it “green tyranny.”
Either way, the EU has opened the door to a conversation long overdue — one that admits what rural Europe has known for years: you can’t protect both wolves and livelihoods without protecting common sense first.
Yanasa TV’s Take
The wolf’s comeback is a beautiful thing.
But so is a shepherd’s way of life.
Europe needs both — yet it keeps acting like it has to pick sides. And that’s the real tragedy here. The people defending their flocks aren’t villains. They’re the caretakers of the very landscapes rewilders want to save.
If policymakers want coexistence, they need to start by listening — not lecturing — to the men and women who’ve lived with nature their entire lives. Because out there, where the fences meet the forest, coexistence isn’t an idea. It’s survival.