Drôme: a two and a half day old calf killed by a wolf

A new wolf attack in Drôme. It happened during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in Parnans, above Romans, on the border with Isère. This time, it was not sheep that were targeted but a calf born just two and a half days earlier. “I put the animals back outside because the weather is suitable” explains breeder Jérôme Leroy, “there was still a herd of 36 mothers and 15 calves, in a park with an electric fence and fifty meters from my house and with other houses all around.”

It was Wednesday morning, while touring his parks, that Jérôme Leroy discovered “a calf spread out on the ground. The rear leg was missing and the ribcage had been piercedreally neatly, as if we had gone there with a bell on the end of a drill. An agent from the French Biodiversity Office came to make observations and confirmed that it was the wolf.”

“I am dejected”

“I am dejected” continues the breeder, “the mother is a heifer that I have been raising for 3 years. We are trying to have a herd with genetics that we are improving more and more. After 3 years, she gives us a calf, but she no longer has it three days later, I have other calves suckle on this heifer because her udders are full of milk and they are pumping. Where is the animal welfare in that? And let someone prove to me what the wolf is for. He's not afraid of anything. He’s getting closer and closer to the houses.”