YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Citing increased livestock killings, the Armenian government announced on Thursday financial rewards for wolf hunting across the country.
The government said hunters will receive 100,000 drams ($275) for every grey wolf shot by them. The payments will be carried out by the Ministry of Environment Protection.
The ministry will receive 10 million drams in government funding for that purpose, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s office said in a statement issued after a weekly cabinet meeting.
Sarkisian told ministers that a similar reward scheme introduced in Nagorno-Karabakh against the predators several years has proved highly effective.
The extraordinary measure followed a spate of wolf attacks on sheep and cattle herds in various regions of Armenia. In one such incident, 14 sheep were found slaughtered at a village barn in the southern Ararat province last December.
Another attack reported in the northern Lori province in September left 10 sheep dead and more than two dozen others wounded.
The government statement said that Armenia’s wolf population has grown “drastically” in recent years but did not give any numbers. Nor it did estimate the overall material damage inflicted on herdsmen.
Ruben Khachatrian, director of the non-governmental Fund for Wildlife Protection, criticized the government measure, while admitting that wolves have become a greater threat in recent years.
“One reason is the growth of uncontrolled poaching, the illegal killing of mammals which represent food for the wolves, so they have become more aggressive, looking for food in villages and attacking horses, cows and sheep,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
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OK! How about hunting rewards to bring down the Mafioso-style corrupt, monopolistic, high-ranking government officials and their shady business associates.
Sure, log the forests and kill of the wolf’s prey…the expect the wolf to eat what – the local khorovatz???
In Armenia they don’t need a reason to kill anything that moves, they just shoot and shoot if they can not shoot animals they shoot people…… I have seen hunters there and its not hunting its a slaughter house pure and simple…
dont let this happen the wolf needs to live too its his homeland too find other means compensate the farmer for his loss.do not kill the wolves you willregret it later think well
OK! How about hunting rewards to bring to justice, the Mafioso-style corrupt, monopolistic, high-ranking government officials and their shady business associates operating in Armenia.
Leave the wolves alone I could suggest a lot of other things we can kill that would be beneficial for this country.
I think these wolves need to be protected or relocated in special (enclosed) areas. At any rate these wolves do less harmful the the government wolves right.
Has the Armenian government heard of electronic telemetry?. Tracking the wolf packs through satellite tags will prove beneficial for both sheep farmers and the wolves. It will be an excellent management tool.
What a backwards country. This is the 21st century. There are other ways of accomplishing this. The more I read articles in Asbarez, the less I feel like ever returning to Armenia, which is sad. Maybe Armenia is more a place in my head and in legend, than a real place that I want to physically go to.
the wolf is the symbol of turkish nationalism. i LOVE this idea.