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Eurogroup for Animals, Wolf Protection Research

Eurogroup for Animals commissioned Savanta ComRes to conduct an opinion poll among six EU member states (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Finland) in order to better understand public perceptions and attitudes towards wolf protection across Europe.

  • Overall, adults across the six surveyed countries agree that wolves have a right to exist and should be accepted in their respective countries and are in favour of their protection.
  • This is particularly true for Italian, Spanish and Polish adults, while adults from Finland, Germany and France seem to be the less favourable towards wolves.
  • Over nine in ten (93%) adults agree that wolves have a right to exist in the wild, while just 5% disagree.
  • Similarly, nine in ten (89%) agree that wolves belong to our natural environment just like foxes, deer or hares and a similar proportion (86%) agree that wolves should be accepted to live in their respective countries.
  • The vast majority of adults across all surveyed countries agree that their national government and the European Union should fund and equip farmers with the tools to protect farm animals from wolf attacks (86%) or that humans should find a way to coexist with wolves (85%).
  • At least half of adults in each country surveyed, except for Finland, say that is rarely or never acceptable to kill wolves in any of the scenarios tested.
  • Four in five (81%) adults agree that wolves are beneficial to the ecosystem in which they live, while around seven in ten agree that wolves help to control populations of animals lower down the food chain (72%) or that wolves improve the overall health of populations of animals lower down the food chain by killing off those that are diseased, weak or old (69%).

Date Published: 24/03/2020

Categories: Europe | Public and communities | Social

Client: Eurogroup for Animals

Methodology

Savanta ComRes conducted an online quantitative survey in which respondents were interviewed about their current views and understanding of wolf protection. We interviewed 6,137 adults in six European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and Finland) aged 18+ online between 11th and 17th February 2020. Data were weighted to be representative of adults aged 18+ by age, gender and region in each of the six countries.

While the combined results cannot guarantee to be representative of the EU as a whole, these countries were chosen with an aim that they would be a good representation of the range of countries within the European Union (EU) in terms of geography, political history and culture.

  1. Eurogroup-for-Animals-Wolf-Protection-Research_February-2020_Europe 0.02 MB.
  2. Eurogroup-for-Animals-Wolf-Protection-Research-February-2020_Finland 0.02 MB.

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