Animal lovers may be delighted that wolves are roaming the French mountains once again, but the predators’ increasing attacks on sheep have farmers longing to get their guns out.
On Monday, farmers flooded the streets of the city of Lyon with hundreds of sheep, demanding more government action after the deaths of more than 8,000 animals blamed on wolves since last year.
“When you discover the body of one of your sheep with its throat ripped out by a wolf, it is horrible. It’s traumatic,” said Nicolas Fabre, a 38-year-old farmer from Cornus in the southern Aveyron region.
Wolves have targeted his flock of more than 500 sheep twice in recent months, killing three of them.
The attacks, mostly in the Alps and southern France, have sparked an increasingly bitter debate between farmers and animal activists who fiercely defend the rights of Canis lupus, a protected species in Europe.
