The prevention is needed

  1. Wolves will always live near us. Both in European Union and in Lithuania wolf is a protected species. The hunting of wolves is not forbidden, but limited in order to maintain a viable and stable population in the country.
  2. The hunting does not solve the depredation problem. In regions where wolves cause serious damage, the hunting may be more intensive and even carried out during the depredation season, i.e. in summer. However, it is not easy to hunt down exactly those wolves that cause the damage. And in place of the killed wolves new ones will come, which may be even more inclined to depredate on livestock.
  3. The compensation for damage does not repay all loss.  The compensation repays a part of market price of the lost animal, but does not cover all costs of animal raising, care, and effort. Even more, compensation might be paid not immediately after the incident but in a couple of months or even later. And the moral loss obviously is not covered by compensation.
  4. The compensation for damage will be paid only if preventive measures were used. In 2015 national legislature was amended with provision that compensations for wolf depredation on livestock are paid only if reasonable preventive measures were used, e.g. various fences, livestock guarding dogs.

The prevention is useful

  1. Prevention lowers the risk of lost investments. The protection lowers the possibility of animals falling prey to depredation and thus reduces the risk of losing the money and effort that were put into livestock breeding.
  2. Farming becomes more effective. Lower risk and more predictable farming outcomes increase the effectiveness of farming. Livestock protection measures are not cheap but they can be used for a long time, so the investment becomes relatively small.
  3. Farmer is in full control of the situation. Farmer protects his livestock and investments himself: he does not have to wait for favours from hunters, he does not depend on the changes of wolf population and he does not need to hope that the municipality will have resources for compensation in case of the damage.