Wolves have killed some 360 sheep and other livestock since 2007. Though the state of Brandenburg has created a fund to compensate farmers for their livestock losses, Kahn said some members of his group have waited up to a year for reimbursement. Farmers have also encountered red tape when attempting to tap into a fund that supports the building of livestock pens and the training of sheep dogs.

Wolf expert Gesa Kluth of the Lausitz Wolf Office in Rietschen is a strong proponent of the wolf's return to German soil. She hopes their comeback could mark the regeneration of an ecosystem that hasn't existed in Europe for 200 years. But she is worried that old biases against wolves could kill them off again just as quickly as they've returned.

"Poland is an example we should follow," Kluth said. "They are much more relaxed. They have about 700 wolves - an impressive number for this part of Europe - and the numbers are growing. They don't want to hunt them. Rather, they are taking steps to protect their sheep and goats from wolves."

Unlike North American wolves, which travel in larger packs in order to improve their hunting success, wolf packs in Germany usually consist of parents and offspring. When food is scarce, a mother wolf might venture into a small town and forage for food in garbage containers.

Several such incidents have been reported -- and this has angered farmers like Lutz-Uwe Kahn, who are banned from shooting wolves on their own land because the wolves are on Germany's endangered species list.

"The wolves aren't dumb - they're going to seek out the easiest places to find food. And they'll start to feel more comfortable around people, lose their natural shyness, and attack people," Kahn explained.

Veterinarian Oliver Krone dismisses this, however. He and his team of wolf experts at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin say attacks against people are exceedingly rare.

Yet Krone is worried that farmers are ignoring the ban on killing wolves. Perhaps the country's most famous vet -- he was part of the team that autopsied Berlin's famous polar bear, Knut -- Krone says he has the evidence to prove it. Numerous bullet-pocked wolf carcasses sit in freezers ringing his lab. He distributes to reporters a PowerPoint with graphic wolf dissection photos and fancy charts with wolf facts.

To gather evidence for his theory, Krone and his colleague Gisa Kluth setup a 24-hour hotline for people to call after stumbling on a dead or dying wolf. After getting a call, Krone and his team dispatch an animal ambulance truck to pick up a carcass and bring it back to the lab in Berlin. Krone said that through the program, he has been able to autopsy over 20 wolves. Many were shot by hunters, but the majority were mowed down by cars.

"It's easier to kill a wolf this way," Krone said sarcastically. "You can't stop and get out your rifle. But if you know the road is fenced on both sides, you just accelerate, and kill the wolf."