In Champcella, in the Hautes-Alpes, 28 sheep and lambs were killed by wolves on the night of Wednesday October 16 to Thursday October 17.
Four ewes disembowelled and 24 lambs killed. The toll of the last wolf attack in the Hautes-Alpes, which occurred on the night of Wednesday October 16 to Thursday October 17, is heavy. At least two wolves are said to have attacked a herd in the town of Champcella, taking advantage of the unusual absence of protection dogs to monitor the herd.
“If one day a wolf meets a kid, what happens?”
“We are asked to remove the dogs on the pretext that the herds are close to the villages” laments the shepherd Jean-Christophe Abrard, victim of the attack.
Faced with the increase in complaints from walkers and the conviction in 2021 of a high-Alpine breeder for “unintentional injuries” after his patous bitten passers-by, the mayors of the Hautes-Alpes are reportedly increasingly trying to dissuade breeders from keep protection dogs.
For Jean-Christophe, it is certain, the wolf is less and less afraid of man, but also of protection dogs: “At the beginning, the protection dogs calmed them but last night, the wolves did not I was afraid, if it continues like this one day they will eat the dogs.”
According to the shepherd, a wolf was even seen recently near the old Saint-Crepin post office at 5 a.m., proof according to him of a change in behavior: “If one day a wolf comes across a kid, what happens? ?If they are not afraid of guard dogs who can kill them, then imagine facing a domestic dog or a kid.”
Downgrading the status of the wolf as a solution
For Patrick Gelato, member of the Hautes-Alpes hunting federation, it is clear that the wolf has changed its behavior but it is above all its increasing number which poses a problem.
“The Guisane valley with Névache had a population of 280 animals in 2018, currently and because of the wolf there are only around fifteen left, this poses problems of inbreeding, it will create degenerate animals” explains -he.
Patrick Gelato questions the effectiveness of downgrading the status of wolves to reduce their number.
“Why not change it from “very protected” to “protected” and then task hunters with regulating, that’s their role and it would cost the State much less,” he asks. he.
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