2 - Legal Versus Illegal Hunts: A Species Justice Perspective on Wolf and Bear Theriocides in Norway

Summary

Introduction

Norwegian grey wolves and brown bears are endangered and critically endangered, respectively, in Norway (Artsdatabanken 2021). Although they are protected by the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (the Bern Convention), which Norway ratified in 1986, they are victims of both legal and illegal theriocides (killings of animals by humans; see Beirne 2014; Sollund 2017a), through practices including illegal hunts, state-mandated hunts, and killings in defence of humans or their animals. This chapter is based on comparative analysis of verdicts from Norwegian court cases on illegal wolf and bear theriocides or attempted theriocides, and legislation and guidelines for legal large predator hunts. I identify several similarities between the legal and illegal hunts, and this finding raises the question of whether the legal hunts are more justified than the illegal hunts from an animal welfare-based species justice perspective – that is, whether they cause the victims less suffering.

I begin by presenting the species justice perspective and related research on large predator hunts in Nordic countries. From here, I describe the sample of verdicts that I examined and my methods for analysis, before introducing Norwegian wolf and bear policies based on so-called ‘lethal control’. Following this, I discuss the (attempted) illegal theriocides as they are described in the verdicts, before comparing them with legal hunts. Finally, I consider the justifiability of ‘lethal control’ of endangered predators as a policy strategy.

Theoretical perspective

This inquiry into the distinction between legal and illegal large predator hunts and its justifiability fits well within green criminology's interest in legal definitions of ecological harm (see, for example, Brisman and South 2019). Because Norwegian brown bears are endangered and Norwegian wolves are critically endangered, the hunts affect them both as individuals and as species, threatening biodiversity and, thereby, also affecting humans’ interests in maintaining wildlife across the planet. This chapter adopts a species justice perspective as its point of departure, seeing the hunted animals as victims (Brisman and South 2019: 6) and focusing on the hunts’ effect on them as individuals.