Shoot, dig and shut up!

In Värmland, where I live, we house about 160 out of Sweden's 200 wolves. The first wolves were sighted in 1979 and they have been a hot topic for discussion ever since then. there are people out there willing to break laws in order to get rid of these animals. A well known saying in the woods is "Skjut, gräv,tig!" meaning: Shoot a wolf, bury it and keep your mouth shut. These people ted to blame everything on the wolves. But is it really the Big Bad Wolf hiding in our woods?

The first thing a wolf hater claims is that wolves kill sheep (raindeers if you're further up north). Yes they do. Wolves hunt in families. They can be 2-8 individuals in a family. Each family needs to hunt every third day which means that they come back to the dead animal one or two times before they hunt for a new meal. What happens when the family runs in to a heard of sheep is the same thing that happens to us at a Smörgåsbord. We get blinded by all the food and over fill the plate. The eye is hungrier than the stomach. The wolves kill more sheep than intended just because they're there and because they intend to come back. This would not happen if more farmers put up fences, specially constructed to keep predatory animals out or if they went back to keeping watch as they did a hundred years ago.

Another thing wolf haters like to blame wolves for is killing all the moose in the woods. Hunters complain that there aren't any animals left for them to shoot. What they keep forgetting is that the traditional moose hunt every autumn was once introduced because of the wolves being locally extinct in the area (by shooting). Therefore they had to keep the moose number on a steady level. This have been going on for a century,making it a tradition hunters won't give up easily. But, as I said in the first paragraph, wolves hunt every third day. This means that one family kills approximately 100 moose every year, and this is a high number since it postulates no other food is supplied in form of deers or sheep. Let's say there are around 10 families. Thenumber of killed moose would be maybe 1.000. it's a small number compared to the over 60.ooo moose shot by hunters. I would say there's enough to both parties, don't you? Another thing that speaks for the wolves is that they take the sick and weak animals whilst hunters kill the healthy, child producing ones.

Last, but not least, another reason for wanting the wolves dead is that they kill dogs and that they are dangerous to humans. Many editorial letters have been written about how parents don't dare to let their children play outside or let the dogs stay out because of the wolves. fact is that out of 1000 killed dogs the main part is killed by cars, then there are about 135 dogs shot by other hunters by mistake, and then we have about 50-70 dogs taken by wolves. This often happens when the dog comes in to a wolf's territory. If hunters would go back to the more traditional way of hunting - sit on stake-out - instead of hunt with dogs, this would not occur at all. When it comes to people being scared, I think we have read too much fairytales like Little Red Riding Hood. In 1821 there was ONE human killed by wolves. It was a child, weakened from famine who was taken. No other rapported casulties are known in Sweden.

As a conclusion I would like to say that predjudices are easily born and fed, but by knowing facts and serving it to anyone prejudgemental we can starve them to death. Instead of Shoot, dig and Shut up we could get a complex world where everyone, animal and human, have a place. The same thing goes for racist prejudges. Kill them too with facts. Make sure you are always well prepared and ready for discussion. i could give youa solid ground to stand on when it comes to that subject too.... but I guess that will have to wait 'til another time.