The demand for armed herdsmen sounds like a quick solution to the wolf conflict. But it poses more problems than opportunities.

September 25, 2025, 9:34 a.m., IG Wild editorial team at Wild

https://wildbeimwild.com/en/why-armed-herdsmen-are-the-wrong-way

The use of firearms in the steep, confusing terrain of the Alps is risky.

Herders are primarily livestock keepers, not trained gamekeepers or police officers. A weapon increases the risk of misfires, accidents, and misunderstandings – for humans, dogs, and wildlife alike.

Experience from France shows that defensive culling barely reduces the number of wolf attacks. Wolves are adaptable, and individual culling won’t solve the underlying problem. Only a well-combined herd protection program consisting of herding, dogs, fences, and adapted grazing management remains truly effective.

Allowing herders to use weapons themselves undermines the wolf’s protected status. The wolf is a protected species under international law. A de facto “right to shoot” weakens this protection and could destroy trust in government regulation.

Armed herders send a dangerous signal: Instead of resolving conflicts through prevention, planning, and coordination, they rely on confrontation. This promotes polarization and can further exacerbate the social conflict surrounding wolves.

The call for weapons is an expression of frustration, but not a sustainable approach. Livestock protection, prevention, professional gamekeepers, and fair compensation are more sensible in the long run, safer—and also compatible with species conservation .

It must be considered that the wolf is now widespread in parts of the cantons of Valais and Graubünden, as well as in the western Vaud Jura. In this situation, wolf populations regulate themselves through their territoriality: where one pack exists, no new one will settle. According to scientific research, a flattening of population growth can be expected there even without regulation.

The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) plans to present a report by 2025 to clarify the legal and practical conditions under which armed herders would be possible. The report will focus on issues of training, liability, monitoring, and animal welfare .

Added value:

• Wolf incompetence rages in Graubünden
• Val Fex: When the herd protection concept is more porous than the fence
• Shooting instead of protection – Switzerland on the way to silent wolf extermination
• Communication failure at the Graubünden Hunting and Fishing Office
• Illegal wolf hunting in Switzerland
• Wolf cubs in Switzerland under fire
• Switzerland sells massacre of wolves as success
• Sloppiness in Katrin Schneeberger’s office
• Grazing by livestock changes the soil, plants and insect populations
• The insane hunt for wolves in Switzerland
• The truth about sheep mortality in Switzerland: causes and statistics
• Wolf shootings in Switzerland: Concern about party politician Albert Rösti
• Let’s stop the SVP’s destructive rage
• Participation campaign: A call for change in Switzerland
• 200 environmental organizations from 6 continents call on the Swiss government: Stop the wolf shooting
• Federal Council is strongly criticized by wolf experts
• The consequences of controversial wolf management in Switzerland
• Wolf: Federal Councillor Rösti (SVP) circumvents law and order
• I don’t remember that Burebüebli
• Are the FOEN and the hunting administrations still working seriously?
• Federal Councillor Albert Rösti tramples on the will of the people
• The consequences of controversial wolf management in Switzerland
• Too many sheep harm biodiversity
• Agricultural use destroys alpine meadows
• Cracks despite herd protection, how is that possible?
• The rotten apple in the St. Gallen hunting administration
• Pro Natura calls for comprehensive strategy for sheep summering
• According to Agridea study, herd protection with dogs works well
• Thanks to herd protection, wolves kill fewer livestock in Switzerland
• Farmers see fields as a landfill
• Wildlife biomass
• From sheep farmers and diffuse authorities
• The double standards of wolf opponents