wolf attacks worry ranchers

The wolf prowls in the Tarn. Three isolated individuals attack the ewes. Those of Cédric Carme, breeder in Saint-Amans-Soult (Tarn), no longer leave the sheepfold and are protected by a grid. “I have lost 11 ewes and two purebred rams since November 29″, he confides. The young farmer raises about sixty ewes for lamb meat. Instead of fresh pasture grass, they feed on hay.

An amateur video, filmed by Claire-Lise Barthès at Bouisset Lasfaillades (Tarn), testifies to the presence of the wolf in the Montagne Noire. In four months, 21 predations took place on ewes, sometimes calves. “I no longer sleep at night. It’s our livelihood, now it’s taken away from us. We protect the wolves, and almost not the breeders”, deplores Serge Gloriès, breeder in Mazamet (Tarn). The wolf is a protected species in France, as well as in Europe. Several protection tools are subsidized for breeders, such as electric fences. According to some breeders, they are sometimes difficult to set up.