FRANCE is killing its wolves and mistreating its sheep

• French sheep livestock : 7,2 million animals in 2014 on 78840 sheep farms.
• Size of sheep farms in France has gone from 500 to 3000 sheep !
• In 2014, 840 000 sheep were sent to slaughter by breeders.
• 9000 sheep killed/year, whose deaths are attributed to wolves (allowing the payment of governmental subsidies).
• Wolves’ estimated population at 2016/3/31: 236 since its natural return in 1992
• 36 wolves is the “ceiling” or the maximum number of wolves that can be shot in France for the current year (July, 2015-June 2016) ; this figure has been determined by a ministerial decree of S. Royal without any scientific back-up.
• Since July, 2015, 46 wolves have died in France : 35 killed by hunters, 2 poached, 6 killed “by accident”, 1 “not clarified case”, 2 cases of “possibly natural mortality”. These are official figures, maybe more wolves have been poached/killed.

Nevertheless wolves are a protected species in Europe and in France. It means that France has to preserve the species and its habitats. This is not the case.Is the wolf an easy scapegoat of the severely affected sheep farming sector ? You cannot break a fever by breaking the thermometer!