Danish MP rejects wolf breeding zones and backs shooting pair
Friday 21st August 2026 on 20:30 in
Denmark
A Danish MP has rejected proposals to create no-go zones around wolf breeding sites, saying people should not be barred from areas where wolves raise their young, DR reports.
Kim Edberg Andersen, the Danish Democrats’ animal welfare spokesperson, was responding to calls from several organisations for breeding zones where people would not be allowed to go.
The proposals followed an incident in which a jogger was frightened by a wolf that showed its teeth while protecting a pup in Bunken Klitplantage, a dune plantation.
“I have heard many foolish proposals, and this is one of them,” Edberg Andersen said. “Here, people are being told that wolves have first right, and that we Jutlanders cannot be here.”
Following the incident, the Danish Nature Agency recommended that people avoid Bunken Klitplantage.
Edberg Andersen said creating breeding zones would go too far, arguing that the number of wolves is increasing and that many such zones could eventually be needed.
“Then I suppose the next step will be that we are deported to Funen,” he said. “And heaven forbid if a wolf moves to Funen, because then we will all have to go to Zealand.”
Instead of giving wolves more space in nature, Edberg Andersen said it should be possible to shoot wolf pairs in some circumstances.
He said Nature and Animal Welfare Minister Christian Rabjerg Madsen should work to persuade the European Parliament to amend the wolf directive so that wolves are not protected as they are now.
After that, the wolf population should be counted and assessed to determine whether it is large enough not to be at risk of extinction, he said.
“If the population is favourable, then in the worst case it should also be possible to shoot the wolf pair in Bunken Klitplantage,” Edberg Andersen said.
Rabjerg Madsen declined to be interviewed about the proposal. In a written response, he said he would discuss whether people should be advised to avoid other places where wolves are breeding, in addition to Bunken Klitplantage.