French farmers, who regularly bring livestock into Paris to punctuate their protests, drove some 250 sheep into the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on Thursday to highlight an unusual concern - that a growing wolf population is killing their flocks.
Wolves were reintroduced to France in the 1990s under an convention on wildlife conservation in Europe.
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She stressed that France’s “wolf plan”, which compensates farmers for sheep losses and pays for prevention measures and staff, cost the government nearly 15 million euros in 2012.
“We don’t want the money, we want to do our job in good conditions,” she said as a flock of brown “Noires de Velay” sheep arrived at the meeting point.
Luc Bourgeois, a young shepherd from southeastern France, said he lost 150 of his 3,000 sheep this year. Ten were killed directly, he said, while the rest jumped in a ravine as they fled.