A court has once again banned wildlife rangers from shooting wolves with paintballs to keep them away from people.

The judgment is the latest stage of a long-running battle between provincial authorities in Gelderland and nature conservation group Faunabescherming.

The province wanted to fire paintball pellets to deter a young wolf that has been approaching people in Ermelo, in the northern Veluwe region.

Faunabescherming argued that the real problem was visitors enticing wolves with food to pose for photographs, causing them to lose their natural fear of humans.

The organisation brought the case after the province issued a permit allowing rangers to shoot wolves with paintballs for 18 months. It said the province had failed to prove that all other efforts at intervention had been tried and failed.

“The car parks are no longer closed, there is no ban on stopping. They have only looked at one solution,” Faunebescherming spokesman and Animal Rights Party (PvdD) senator Niko Koffeman said.

Protected species

Wolves are strictly protected in Europe and local authorities are only allowed to shoot them or intervene directly in exceptional circumstances.

The court ruled that the province had failed to present a comprehensive case for using paintballs or explain why the deviant behaviour of a single wolf justified issuing giving rangers wide-ranging powers to shoot wolves for an 18-month period.

Lawyers for the province told the district court in Gelderland that the measure was needed to prevent the situation worsening. But the judges said the provincial government had “not provided enough evidence of what the wolves’ abnormal behaviour in the northern Veluwe entails.”

Faunabescherming said on its website that the court had found in its favour on all counts.

“In Faunabescherming’s view there is no question of abnormal behaviour in wolves in the northern Veluwe, or it must first be made clear which wolves are displaying abnormal behaviour and what exactly that abnnormal behaviour involves,” it said. “There are also other options to protect wolves.”