Frogs legs it from the wolves in sheeps clothing!

[Gary]

Ordered to reduce a population of 50 wolves in the southern Alp's France has begun its first wolf cull since the 1930's after sheep farmers and shepherds took their flocks to the city streets in southern France.

 

[tomtom]

cant they ship their extra ones over here

 

[hobbitboy]

Thats quite sad.... :thumbs_do :sad: could they not be relocated instead?? Or am I being simple?

 

[C_Claycomb]

Its bad enough that we have French fruit and Fishermen over here, I don't think we want their sheep and farmers

 

[RovingArcher]

:shock: ):

 

[tomtom]

): :rolmao: ):

 

[Paganwolf]

What a sad sad thing i cant believe it really why not relocate the wolves :?: that has really Pi**ed me off.. 50!!!

 

[tomtom]

im sure real european wolves could be distributed among zoos

 

[Gary]

It is sad especially as it has taken so long to re-establish the wolves. This is a classic case of farmers needs being taken over the needs of wild life.

There is a protest going on but the french seem to ignore it.

Maybe it is time for 'the powers that be' to forget about Humans rights (which are so badly flawed and abused anyway) and bring in a new act called 'life rights' is as much as all living creaters have the right to life and only when it has been proven to be a last resort can they be culled. I'd much rather see this act empowered than the former!

Maybe the french would swap their wolves for the some of the former Songat campers? Sounds a good deal to me!

 

[C_Claycomb]

French law allows four wolves, from an estimated pack of 50 in the Alps, to be culled in 2004 "to contribute to reducing the pressure of this predator on flocks."

http://science.news.designerz.com/french-ecologists-to-demonstrate-against-wolf-cull.html

There certainly isn't a shortage of info on Google if you search for "French Wolf Cull".

 

[maddave]

French law allows four wolves, from an estimated pack of 50 in the Alps, to be culled in 2004 "to contribute to reducing the pressure of this predator on flocks."

http://science.news.designerz.com/french-ecologists-to-demonstrate-against-wolf-cull.html

There certainly isn't a shortage of info on Google if you search for "French Wolf Cull".

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying this but why not factor wolves into the sheep breeding program to allow for losses. :?:

 

[leon-1]

In the end Dave it comes down to cost, the cost of raising a few extra sheep and paying for thier vets bills would not seem as viable as say 50p for a bullet and the government sending a couple of guys out to hunt and cull.

Also the cost of say splitting the pack and transporting half of it to another place would not seem viable either.

Sad, but true.

 

[Moine]

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying this but why not factor wolves into the sheep breeding program to allow for losses. :?:

It's indeed more complex than that.

I live in France, just south of the Alps where the killing of 4 wolves have been allowed. Killing 4 wolves is totally stupid: it won't fix the problem for the shepherds, it won't even make them happy, and it will remove 4 wolves from the ecosystem.

Of course, as you say, there are solutions to that problem... I personally am in favor of wolf reintroduction... even though I have some shepherds as friends. From where I stand, the wolf really is just the cherry on top of the sundae, for them. They have a hard time making a living out of their activity, and they really feel alone in this market globalization and european standards and all the rest. When you already have a hard time paying your bills, losing a few sheep is something dramatic in the short term, thus their anger. As they already work about 18 hours a day, the additional workload needed to either raise more sheep or keep them in at night is just not acceptable for them. Many shepherds here were the edge of stopping their activity BEFORE the wolf came back...

The thing is, we have a choice to make right now. I, personally, would like shepherds to be able to live, and earn money from their hard work. I would also like the ecosystem to recover some of it's native balance... but the two are hard to reconciliate.

One thing is sure, though: the feral dogs are a much bigger concern for the sheep than the wolves will ever be. Each year, in France, 70000 dogs are "released/lost" in the wild. They don't all check in to the SPA within 48 hours... I went to check tracks after one of my friend's sheep were attacked (5 killed, 15 injured, only 1 half eaten...). I saw NO wolf tracks. I did see many DOGS tracks, though. Mostly medium/small sized hunting dogs type.

Cheers,

David

Forgot something: The main problem here -- as it is in most of Europe, is the human pressure on the land and 'wild' areas. Even natural parks such as the Vercors are filled with human habitations and farms and sheeps...

It REALLY makes me MAD to see how the europeans are trying to 'civilize' every darn part of the land. As if everything had to be used, made profitable for them... either for agriculture, or parkings, houses... or even camping, hiking and... bushcraft! To paraphrase Aldo Leopold, we really are still neck deep in an Abrahamic conception of the land. The land is viewed as "ours". I see things the other way around. I belong to the land. But as Chief Seattle supposedly put it, maybe I'm just a savange and I don't understand...

Over here, everything fu... pond has a name. There are about 30 bears in the southwest. Even them all have a name. 50 wolves? In a week or two they'll be tagged, named, classified and documented. Hell they'll probably even give them full rectal search when they come accross the border just to check if they're trying to hide something.

I wonder how I can still tolerate that, sometimes... I guess I just tell myself that if the french are too stupid to let the wolves, bears and lynx take care of nature for them, maybe they just don't deserve to ever know about our Mothers secrets and generosity...

... sigh...

Ahhh! Feel better now