EUROPEAN FARMERS are under 'constant threat' from the large carnivores now thriving across the continent under the strict protection of conservation law.

Calling for a change in that law to achieve a better balance between predators and people, Michèle Boudoin, chairwoman of the Sheep Working Party at EU farm union Copa-Cogeca, warned that there was 'unchecked and unlimited' growth in the populations of wolves, bears and lynx, with huge impacts on agriculture.

"As a livestock farmer, you suffer the loss of your flock, the loss of your income, the increase in costs of labour and material, and having to use your own funds to finance 20 % of the protection measures deployed," said Ms Boudoin. "On top of this comes the psychological pressure of having to be constantly on the lookout in fear of the next attack, and not knowing whether the flock will survive the night. Some farmers have even taken to sleeping with their flock in sleeping bags, away from their families and their homes, in order to protect their livelihoods.

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"As an inhabitant of a rural area, you now must live there in the knowledge that the village you have known your entire life or which you have chosen to live is no longer safe. As a hiker or tourist, you are even more at risk because you deliberately walk about the countryside where predators which may not have been there five years ago are now numerous and aggressive," she said,

Compensation payments for the damage caused to animals, assets and local infrastructure cost European taxpayers €28.5 million in the last recorded year, and the average cost per predator per year between 2005 and 2013 has been calculated at €2400 for wolves and €1800 for bears.

"But the true cost is not only monetary – it also lies in the psychological affect this can have on humans and domestic animals," said Ms Boudoin. "Livestock farmers suffer from psychological damage caused by injuries, abortions, drops in fertility or the loss of the entire flock. Livestock guardian dogs, which are financed in part by the EU, are often killed or wounded due to the intensity of the physical force with which predators attack.

"The lack of action by the EU on this issue is leading to serious harm to the welfare of animals, almost as though livestock were considered superfluous and it were considered normal for them to suffer so that the wild species may survive. Initially there had been concern about the dwindling numbers of these species of predators, now, however, with nothing to restrain their attacks, the free availability of food is allowing their populations to increase exponentially and uncontrollably."

Ms Boudoin's own experience as a farmer in France is that that the French Wolf Plan's measures, preventative as well as financial, are 'ineffective and dangerous', and deeply unfair as the funding comes directly from either the CAP budget or farmers’ own pockets.

"If civil society and the Commission want wolves, bears and lynx to roam our lands, they should finance them with funds that are not from the CAP, and should ensure that farmers are not the only ones suffering financially. Every year, funds are takes from the CAP budget to establish measures, which clearly do not achieve their objective, but instead only deprive farmers of funds they could use for more important economic purposes," she said.

But more urgently, she also proposed that the strict protection on Europe's large carnivores be lowered, to allow lethal control where needed: "We have had a solution to this problem since the dawn of time, which consisted in appropriate and proportionate protection from attacks. The Habitats Directive, which is thirty years old, has upset this order of things by leaving humans and domestic animals exposed to attacks, while the Commission stands idly by. When will the Commission take action to protect its livestock farmers, its citizens and its domestic animals?"