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Wolf shot in southern Sweden after sheep attack

A wolf was shot near the city of Lund in southern Sweden on Sunday, after it was discovered by a farmer while attacking a sheep.

Published: 27 June 2022 09:59 CEST

Wolf shot in southern Sweden after sheep attack

A wolf pair spotted in Linderöåsen near Kristianstad in Skåne. Photo: Länstyrelsen Skåne

The animal, a female weighing 34kg, was shot according to a paragraph in Sweden’s hunting law which allows livestock owners to shoot predators if they find them attacking their animals.

“The farmer fired off a warning shot to discourage further attacks, but that did not help, and so a deadly shot was then fired,” Tom Espgård, the hunter appointed to oversee the hunting of predatory animals in Skåne, told the TT newswire.

On Wednesday a wolf was spotted in nearby Ljungbyhed, and on Saturday, six sheep were found dead in a suspected wolf attack in Röstånga, another village in Svalöv municipality. Skåne’s county council will not confirm whether the wolf that was shot is the same wolf suspected of the attack in Röstånga.

Espgård said that the shooting had been done “very properly”. “As a livestock owner, you have the right to protect your animals,” he said.

The vast majority of Sweden’s wolves — about 400 out of a total of 480 — live in central Sweden, but wolves have been spotted with increasing frequency in Skåne, Sweden’s most southerly county, in recent years.

Sweden’s government in May said it would allow hunters to kill as many as half of the country’s wolves in the licensed wolf hunt this year, a decision which has been criticised by animal rights groups.

READ ALSO: Why is Sweden planning to cull half its wolf population?

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Greta Thunberg in London court after climate demonstration arrest

The 20-year-old activist – a key face of the movement to fight climate change – was among 26 people charged at the October 17th demonstration in the British capital.

Inside Westminster Magistrates Court, Thunberg, who was mobbed by photographers and camera crews as she arrived, giggled with other defendants as she waited for the hearing to start.

She spoke only to confirm her name, age and correspondence address, and to enter a plea of not guilty.

Four other defendants appearing alongside her also pleaded not guilty.

They were given unconditional bail until an expected two-day trial that the court was told would start at City of London Magistrates’ Court on February 1st.

Climate protesters Greenpeace and Fossil Free London campaigners earlier stood outside the court with banners proclaiming “Oily money out” and “Make polluters pay”.

A 28-year-old charity worker from Fossil Free London who gave her name only as Josie told AFP she was there to show solidarity with those arrested.

Last month’s meeting involved oil executives and others for discussions about making “lots of money out of destroying our future”, she added.

The demonstration saw several hundred rally outside a major London hotel, blocking all entrances to the venue.

Message

Maja Darlington, a campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said the group’s activists joined the demonstration to send “a clear and peaceful message” to the oil bosses.

Before her arrest, Thunberg had criticised “closed door” agreements between politicians and representatives of the oil and gas industry.

London police said they imposed “conditions to prevent disruption to the public” at the protest, which were then breached, prompting the arrests.

Thunberg was put in a police van outside the Energy Intelligence Forum.

She has since come under fire for wearing a black and white Palestinian scarf and urging a “ceasefire now” during a climate protest in Amsterdam.

Her speech at the event on Sunday was interrupted by a man who tried to snatch a microphone from her, saying he had come for a climate protest, not to hear her other views.

After he was removed by security officers, Thunberg began chanting, along with the crowd, “no climate justice on occupied land”.

Thunberg, who started the so-called “School Strike for Climate” movement as a teenager, was fined by a court in Sweden in October.

That was imposed after she was convicted of having resisted arrest during a July protest that blocked traffic.

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