Roughly translated by TWIN Observer
STOCKHOLM / TT
There will be no license hunting wolves this winter. Today the Administrative Court in Stockholm decided to suspend the planned hunt in February.
“Good. Great. We are very pleased with the court’s decision,” says SSNC chairman Mikael Karlsson. “We anticipated that it would be like this, because the decision to stop last year’s hunt is still before a judicial appeal court.
He points out that hunting wolves, both licensed and hunting protectively, was stopped in a Swedish court on three occasions in recent years. The licensed hunt that was stopped in 2013 is since then a case at the administrative court, and it is possible that this year’s stay will also end up there if the Environmental Protection Agency appeals the court’s decision.
“Moreover, the EU has long opposed the government’s attempt to bring about hunting. Yet the government persists with new attempts again and again,” says Karlsson.
For the government, the decision is a setback, since the Hunters Association has long pushed the issue.
Environment Minister Lena Ek (C), would not comment on the administrative court’s decision. Her press secretary Erik Bratt Hall says that the minister can not go back and comment on an ongoing process in a Swedish court.
“This is an appeal by the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision and it is up to the EPA to determine how the management should go,” he says.
Last fall, the Government presented its predator bill which proposed that all it takes is 170-270 individual wolves for a favorable wolf population. Today there are about 400 wolves.