Once upon a time (these essays always start this way).....in a faraway land (Hoyerswerda to be precise)......a hunter or to be more precise....a forester was out in the wooded area and came across the "Tiger of Sabrodt".
I know.....it's an exotic title and probably worthy of a 300-page book....but I need to keep this simple.
There in the rurals of Saxony.......the Tiger of Sabrodt is a title that had been given to a wolf noted in the local region. For weeks and months....the Tiger of Sabrodt had been noted killing livestock and farm animals in the Hoyerswerde region. The Prussian government.....existing at that point of time in 1904....had a department to handle these type problems. So they set up a bounty for the killing of the wolf.
The bounty? I know you'd be curious. It was 100 Reich-marks. In this time-period....it would have meant in relationship to the dollar of about twenty-five dollars in 1905, which is a fair amount of money if you take into account the value of money at the time.
The hunter's name? That's gotten lost over time and probably doesn't matter. He was probably a pipe-smoker, a quiet guy who carried a small bottle of schnapps in his back pocket, and generally hit whatever he aimed his rifle at. The numbers over the wolf? He was quoted as weighing around 90 pounds and was a sizable wolf (1.6 meters long).
The thing is.....the Tiger of Sabrodt was the last known wolf in Germany. In that last week or two that he roamed.....his legendary status had grown. Every single expert on wolves vowed that there were no more wolves left anywhere in Germany.....so the gut feeling and news media spin on this....was that it was NOT a wolf. What then? An escaped tiger, from a circus.
Yeah, I know.....it's a hokey story and a definite twist to reality, but it's 1904 and whatever the newspaper prints is absolute fact as far as people are concerned. You have accept this as part of the situation as well....it was bad enough that people thought it was a wolf, but now you'd suggest it was a tiger? That went from a three-star bad situation to a definite four-star really bad situation.
So across eastern Germany at the time, in this period of nine years prior to WW I.....the Tiger of Sabrodt was putting fear into the hearts of locals. People kept a watchful eye over their children and everyone felt dread over their little world and it's lack of safety.
After the hunter killed the wolf.....the Tiger of Sabrodt.....he was stuffed and put on display at the local castle museum (where he is still shown today).
Why do I tell this story? Well....the topic of wolves has crept back into German society again. This week, some school over in Saxony decided to cancel a kid's hiking trip into the local woods because of fear of wolves seen in the local area.
The wolf experts tend to say there's nothing much to worry about. Wolves tend to stay away from civilized areas.
Course, the odd piece to this story is that farmers have come to local authorities and complained that they've had animals killed by the wolves. They'd like for the government to do "something". They are careful about how to word the request....but they'd like for some hunter to fix their problem.
How many folks have been dragged off into the woods by wolves? Well....here's the thing. As recent as 2010 (in Alaska).....a female teacher was jogging alone and was grabbed by wolves and dragged off (killed by the wolves). So, you can't really pretend that they are this lovable and sweet creature.
My humble guess is that we will go through a period of ten years where environmentalists and wolf-friendly groups try hard to keep the public focused on preserving the wolf population. Then one day out in some smaller village where two little kids are walking from one village to another.....one gets grabbed by pack of wolves and the other kid escapes. Within a week.....things kinda change from the 'good wolf' script.....to the 'bad wolf' script, and some hunter gets permission to hunt down the pack.
So, I come to the end point presently of this little tale. Roughly 111 years ago.....a wolf came to get a legendary name and title.....being the last hunted wolf in Germany. And history has the strange luck of repeating itself in some cases. Hopefully, we can get a good decent name for this new wolf.
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