Nov 19th 2009

Wolves are being blamed for damage actually done by dogs

FARMERS have never liked wolves. That is why wolves are rare where farmers are common. Fashion, though, is swinging round to the wolf’s point of view in many places where town-dwellers are even more common than farmers and the big, bad wolf is just a fairy tale, rather than a sheep-rustling reality.

How much sheep-rustling actually goes on is a moot point–and a pertinent one when the town-dwellers are prepared to put their money where their sentiments are, to compensate farmers for the damage done by wolves. Such is the case in Spain, where about EURO1.5m ($2.3m) a year is paid out to farmers in compensation for damage those wolves are alleged to have done. During 2003 and 2004, for example, 432 farm animals were attacked in 154 incidents in Spain’s Basque country. Almost 95% of these attacks were blamed on wolves. 

The complicating factor is that areas to which wolves have returned after decades of absence are often also home to feral dogs, which do not usually attract compensation for any damage they cause. Jorge Echegaray and Carles Vila at the Donana Biological Station in Seville therefore started wondering whether wolves were being framed for the depredations of their once-domesticated cousins. To find out, they collected 136 samples of faeces from the area of the Basque country where the reported wolf attacks were taking place, in order to see what was actually eating what.

As they report in ANIMAL CONSERVATION, Mr Echegaray and Dr Vila were able to identify 86 of the samples from DNA they contained. Of these only 31 were from wolves. A further 53 were from dogs, and two fox droppings had been picked up by mistake.

Pulling the faeces apart to see what they contained revealed that wolves seem to prefer roe deer, but also ate wild boar, hare and badger. Only one wolf sample had any sign of sheep in it. Dogs, by contrast, ate a lot of sheep: 14 of the dog samples contained the remains of these animals.

Both wolves and dogs ate cattle and horses, though in small numbers. Mr Echegaray and Dr Vila suspect that these meals were actually scavenged from the carcasses of beasts that had died of other causes. That is partly because both cattle and horses would be large and difficult prey for either a wolf or a dog, and partly because all but 8% of reported attacks on livestock were on sheep.

The faeces also enabled the two researchers to estimate the number of wolves in the area (the DNA samples were good enough to distinguish between individuals) and thus the cost per wolf of compensation and stock-protection methods, such as keeping guard dogs, undertaken by the local farmers. The figure came out at more than EURO3,000 a year for each wolf.

They do not address the question of whether farmers genuinely believe wolves are doing most of the damage, or merely find that belief convenient because of the compensation. Either way, though, it looks as if the finger of blame is being pointed at the wrong animal. Wolves are indeed big, and may sometimes be bad, but in this part of the world the shepherd’s worst friend is a dog.

Author: Roxie Video Productions

“Roxie” of Roxie Video Productions is a small golden terrier mix. Animal Control found Roxie on the street with one eye hanging out of the socket. They promptly brought her to Lied Animal Shelter where the fine doctors fixed her up. After a rehabilitation period with a foster mom, they adopted her out to her new home with Joanie.

[source: Born to Die Pets & Paul Davis for youtube video]

From World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)

A Wildlife Crime Hotline run by Vietnamese member society Education for Nature (ENV) is getting real results for bears. Tapping into public determination to stop the bear bile trade, tip offs have led to bears being removed from bear farms.

Radio, television and print advertising for the WSPA-funded hotline are clear: the bear bile trade is based on extreme cruelty and buying or selling products made from bears is illegal.

Most farmed bears are poached as cubs and held in tiny cages for the rest of their lives. The public can help prevent this by reporting any advertising they see for bear bile products to the hotline.

Although now banned in Vietnam, there have been reports of bile extraction from captive bears continuing. WSPA and ENV are working to help the authorities improve enforcement.

Watch advertisements for the hotline
(WARNING: these clips contain graphic images and sounds of bears in distress)

The Vietnamese government’s commitment to ending bear farming is the first stage in making this cruel trade part of the country’s history.

Alongside our member societies, WSPA is working with the authorities to offer expert advice and ensure that this important animal welfare goal is achieved.

For more information, visit Animals Asia

What you see below has nothing to do with surgery. It’s pure slaughter.

Click images for a better view.

Is this how caviar is born? More photos here

L.E. Sorry, everybody, I have to apologize as the info first received was misleading. The images don’t have anything to do with caviar. They are photos of the Faroe Islands whale slaughter , taken by Mark Cox. Full story, here

Meanwhile, the ‘NYSE Euronext bomb squad’ have claimed on an animal
rights website that it placed six explosives under two cars belonging
to a former NYSE Euronext employee in Hilversum, the Netherlands last
week. The cars burnt out completely, but no-one was hurt.

Euronext deals in shares from a company called Huntingdon Life
Sciences, which has the world’s largest animal laboratory. In the
United Kingdom, courts have restricted the activities of the Stop
Huntington Animal Cruelty group (SHAC) using terrorism legislation.

As a result the antivivisection group has moved its activities to the
Netherlands. SHAC has been active since 1999 and is notorious for its
radical methods. Once, it even went as far as to dig up the body of a
laboratory animal breeder’s mother-in-law.

full story here