A wolf at the Iberian Wolf Center in northwestern Spain.
Photographer: Maria Contreras Coll/BloombergHungry Wolves Threaten Europe’s Climate Agenda
Protecting the predator is a part of the bloc’s 1 trillion-euro bid to make the continent climate neutral by 2050, but some farmers and politicians want to make it easier to hunt the animal attacking their flocks.
Juan Manuel Berguio’s cows suffered 25 wolf attacks that decimated the herd he breeds on the green hills outside the medieval city of Ávila, in central Spain. That was in 2019. Since then, he’s tried everything to keep them away, from GPS trackers to mastiff dogs, trail cameras to special fences. But he says he’s still losing animals.
“Wolves jump over walls and fences without even touching them, and they’re not scared of anything,” says Berguio as he braves the freezing rain on a February afternoon to guide his cows across the fields, calling each by name. “Over here we’re seeing attacks on a daily basis.”