"The EU is to allow farmers to receive full compensation for any damages caused by attacks from protected animals like lynxes, wolves and bears.
Other expenses including installing electric fences or acquiring guard dogs to prevent damage will also be fully reimbursed.
The EU says the move will help protect large predators in areas where they have come into conflict with humans.
Campaigners hope it will limit the need for culls.
After many decades of decline, the numbers of large carnivores like wolves and bears are stable or increasing in many parts of Europe, often due to concentrated conservation efforts." BBC
————-
I am really for this. As a half a—d naturalist and recovering hunter I love the creatures of the field. These measures to compensate farmers for livestock losses to predators and for better fencing are great things. Anything that results in more dogs must be good.
When I was a young man I had many forest encounters with black bears (Maine), wolves (Alaska), tigers (SE Asia), and jaguar (Panama). I never felt particularly threatened but then, I don't think I look afraid and vulnerable and I don't go into the woods without a pistol that will knock down whatever might come along in a hostile mood. Thankfully, I never had to do that.
We have cougar in Virginia. I have had them around my erstwhile cabin on the North Fork of the Shenandoah at night. Beautiful creatures, they were attracted by the large population of White Tailed deer who used the front steps of my little house to descend the slope to the river below and behind the house. It was a great experience when sleeping on the screened front porch to hear and smell one nearby. A flashlight through the screen several times revealed one peering in at me in puzzlement. "Where did you come from?" the mountain lion seemed to ask. When I turned the light off they would disappear around the corner of the house headed for the river.
These were probably western puma migrated in. The eastern mountain lion is thought to be long extinct. I mentioned them once at the local hardware store in Strasburg and after a glance among the Valley People present was told that "we do not tell outsiders about them. If we do some idiot will shoot them."
I knew I had arrived. pl
