Police criticised for discrepancies in granting wolf hunting permits

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Finnish police have come under increasing criticism for inconsistencies in granting permits to shoot wolves.
      Tapani Veistola, a special expert of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, says that there are considerable differences in how easily permits for eliminating bothersome wolves are granted in different parts of Finland.
      "Last winter police granted long-term and geographically very extensive permits to shoot wolves sometimes over the telephone, and probably without giving any consideration to alternative solutions", Veistola says.
     
One such case was in Köyliö in the west of Finland, where police granted a wolf hunting permit that was valid over a period of several weeks in January and February. Veistola says that narrower limits should be placed on such permits.
      In Mynämäki, in the southwest, questions were raised when police refused to grant a permit to shoot a wolf that had been killing cows. At the same time in North Karelia police allowed hunters to shoot wolves that had killed heifers and sheep.
     
Police inspector Timo Ajaste of the National Police Board insists that police units in different parts of the country interpret the rules according to the same criteria.
      Ajaste says that the Police Board sent police units a letter in May going through the criteria for granting hunting permits for wolves. However, detailed guidelines cannot be given because the various cases differ from each other, and involve a variety of factors.
     
Wolves are a protected species in Finland. Shooting them is permitted only if doing so would prevent significant damage to reindeer, for instance, or if a wolf that acts in an abnormal fashion is considered a danger to people.


See also:
  Reindeer herders shun large-predator tourism in Lapland (29.5.2012)

Links:
  The fearsome wolf (7.4.2010)

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