Wolves and Bureaucrats The Iberian wolf is a beautiful animal. It is also feared and despised by farmers everywhere, especially in the Alto Minho region and in Soajo. For centuries, wolves and farmers have been at war, forever in competition for territory. For this, wolves are despised. And unfortunately hunted down.
Wolves are intelligent, brave and ferocious hunters. They kill only what they need to survive and to feed the clan. Like all animals of the planet, they deserve to live. Wolves are misunderstood animals.
Men have feared wolves mostly because of the stories and myths passed on from one generation to the next. While it is true that wolves occasionally will kill domestic livestock, they mostly target wildlife like red deer or roe deer. Unfortunately, hunters have encroached on that natural food source by over hunting, leaving the wolves with no choice but to hunt domestic animals like older or injured cows, newborn calves, lambs and goats.
Only one attack on a human has been reported in Portugal. And that was because a wolf was infected with rabies, which is no longer known to be present in Portugal.
But let’s get back to the issue of attacks on domestic animals. Farmers and shepherds of Soajo have a right to protect their animals. These animals are their property. Lots of hard work and expense is involved in raising and caring for these animals.
Wolves too should be protected. They should not be hunted to the point of extinction. Eradicating wolves from the Alto Minho region would be a travesty on the level of killing baby seals and hunting whales. It would be a disgusting example of mankind’s excessive nature to destroy yet another species.
But how can a balance be achieved between the rights of farmers to protect their livestock and the right of wolves to live in their ancestral region?
This is where the government bureaucrats come into the story. The people of Soajo and surrounding villages nearly hunted the wolf into extinction. The people were so fed up with wolves killing their livestock that they retaliated in a big way by waging an eradication campaign. This campaign nearly succeeded.
But about thirty years ago, the native wolf was reintroduced to the region by the government. In return, farmers were promised compensation for animals killed by the wolves. On the surface, this seems like a fair deal. But the reality is quite different.
Governments all over the world tend to be inefficient and bureaucratic. In Portugal, bureaucracy is raised to an art form. Therefore, what should have been a simple plan to compensate farmers for lost animals has become instead yet another example of false and undelivered promises.
Government compensation has been slow, if at all. All domesticated animals are tagged and registered. But because animals are often killed while grazing in the mountains, evidence is sometimes never found. If the tag is lost, the farmer is generally out of luck. The burden of proof is placed squarely on the farmer.
The government must do a better job. It is time for Portugal’s government to truly elevate itself to a higher level of governance on par with modern European societies. The government was right to reintroduce the wolves to the Alto Minho region. It is a noble policy to protect an endangered species. The government should also be applauded for making it illegal to kill wolves. But the policy should not come at the expense of subsistence farmers and poor shepherds whose loss of animals is a great financial burden for entire families.
The government must be more responsive in compensating farmers. It should not take years to process payments. Wolves belong in Alto Minho. They have existed in the region for many centuries and should be protected from extinction. It is a good policy. At the same time, poor farmers should not shoulder the financial burden resulting from this policy.
The government must do a better job in processing claims by farmers. Doing so would make the people of Soajo and Alto Minho better understand the policy and more willing to co-exist with their ancient archenemy. The people of Soajo would perhaps embrace the wolf. Until then, the government’s policy, similar to any other unfunded mandate, will be viewed with suspicion and resentment.
It is time that the government reform its bureaucracy and become more efficient in administering this worthy program.
Jose Afonso
December 19, 2007
Today is Memorial Day in the United States of America. It's a day dedicated to the memory of those men and women who gave the greatest sacrifice to preserve liberty and democracy. Many wars have been fought in the last century. The two most significant were WWI and WWII. These two wars changed Europe forever and for the better. The victory by the Allies over the Axis powers was possible only because of the USA. Europe today owes a great debt of gratitude to the young men who sacrificed their limbs and lives to defend the democracies of Europe from the tyranny of extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies.
