A week ago I heard about a young woman that was out in the forest with her dog here in the north of Sweden. The dog was not on a leash because they were hunting hares. Suddenly the woman couldn’t hear the dog any longer and then the dog came running from the forest because a wolf chased it. The wolf bit the dog but fled when the woman screamed. The dog survived the attack; the woman took her to a veterinarian who took care of her wounds.

Wolf is a vulnerable species

I got upset when I heard this news because it was so much hate against the wolf. The hunter complained and said that she didn’t want wolves in the forest. And many of the comments to that article was pure hate against wolves; they want to kill them. There were about 415 wolves here during the winter 2014/2015 and the last winter, 2015/2016, it was about 340 wolves here. But even though that wolf is a vulnerable species here it doesn’t stop people from killing them. Why do people hate wolves?

The Counties Agency have recently discovered that there are two wolves in this area

And here in the north, the wolves aren’t allowed to live because the Lapps keep their reindeer here. I just read that the Counties Agency have recently discovered that there are two wolves in this area where the dog got attacked. It’s one female and one male, and they think that maybe they will start a family together. They have found urine from these wolves, and it has been sent for a DNA analysis, they will get the results from that next week. It depends on the result from that test if these poor wolves will get killed or not. They think it is more genetically valuable if the wolves come from the east, like Finland or Russia than if the wolves come from Scandinavia. Maybe they will kill the wolves if it turns out that they come from Scandinavia since they don’t allow wolves to live where the Lapps keep the reindeer.

What have wolves ever done to people?

I think it’s wrong to kill wolves. All wolves should be allowed to live. They have the same right to live just as you and I have. What have wolves ever done to people? Why do people hate wolves?

A special day

I will always remember a special day when I was 21 years old. I yawned when I opened the door and felt the chilly air against my face. It was quite dark, only the streetlight showed the way to the barn. Then I saw someone in the dark and I blinked. If I had been a cartoon figure a big question mark would have appeared above my head, because who on earth was out here walking about at five o’clock in the morning! As I walked down from our porch I smelled pipe tobacco and then I realized it was our closest neighbor. Still, I thought it was peculiar for him being out that time.

“I couldn’t sleep, that’s why I’m up so early.” A wide grin spread across his face. “I looked out through the kitchen window and then I saw a wolf” he exclaimed enthusiastically. “I could see it clearly under the streetlight, a big, grey, shaggy creature with a long tail. It went towards your house, I thought about calling you guys but I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Oh, you should have.” I was so excited. “We wouldn’t have minded at all!”

Then he pointed out the wolf tracks for me, and the blood rushed through my veins! My heart started pounding! I couldn’t stop smiling when I looked at the big paw prints in the snow.

I hurried to the barn to do my chores and tell my family all about it! Then my little sister and I pointed out the wolf tracks to our dogs who stuck their noses deep down in the tracks so they got covered by snow. We followed the wolf’s tracks around our house. Can you imagine! I was sleeping while a wolf passed outside my bedroom window! Oh, how I wish that I could have seen that! There were also tracks outside our barn and then it had gone back to the forest.

That morning I skipped breakfast because I was eager to follow the wolf tracks. The snow was deep so I wore snowshoes. I don’t think that I have ever smiled as widely as I did then! It was exciting walking in the forest where the wolf recently had been. Fancy that, I touched the same branches as the wolf had done. I was way beyond happy!

But of course, my happiness was dashed. For those who don’t know, I might mention that news travels fast in a little village! In the middle of the day people started gathering outside our house in order to look at the wolf tracks. A journalist even called our mother. I got mad at the people! They complained that I had let our dogs sniff in the tracks. They said that I should keep the dogs away from it so everyone could take a look. It made me furious hearing that! Nobody stopped them from going to look at the tracks in the forest.

Why do people hate wolves?

It seems to me that people get hysterical when they hear the word wolf. They wanted to see the tracks but grown men didn’t dare to follow them into the forest! Many of those who came to our home that day were hunters. I guess hunters only feel safe when they can hide behind a rifle. Maybe that’s why people hate wolves, they fear them.

But why are people afraid of wolves? The wolves have a great sense of hearing so they will be long gone before you will be able to see them. And yet, people hate them. It’s strange because people have no problem walking around in towns and there you run the risk that you will end up raped or killed, yet, people are afraid to walk in the forest. People fear wolves and almost every day you hear on the news that people have killed or beaten each other.

A healthy Swedish wolf has never killed a person

A healthy Swedish wolf has never killed a person but about 100 persons get murdered here every year. There are plenty of wolves in Canada, Russia, Romania and Latvia and the people there are almost not afraid at all of wolves. They don’t even understand the question. A ranger in Latvia asked a counter-question – “Are you afraid of foxes too?”