Wolves to be 'educated' not to kill sheep

**Rockntractor** · 02-11-2013, 03:05 PM

In a bid to try and crackdown on the number of wolf attacks on farm animals the French government has announced a plan to try and "educate" the wild beasts. The proposal has been greeted with mixed reactions.
Can you teach a wolf not to eat sheep?

The idea is being floated in France, where the return of the wolf has got farmers and environmentalists at each other's throats.

Under a proposed "National Wolf Plan," the government says it will conduct experiments into "educating" the canine carnivore, which is spreading stealthily in remote areas.

Rest assured, this scheme does not entail lecturing wolves about the cuteness of lambs or trying to convert them to vegetarianism.

Instead, it entails capturing individual wolves that are known to attack a local flock and then marking these bothersome predators before letting them go.

The theory is that the animal will be so traumatised by the experience that it will leave the sheep alone and instead hunt for deer, boar, rabbits and other wild animals.

But if the wolf remains a problem, the ID makes it easier to be singled out and shot.

"Eleven of France's regional parks have said they are willing to take part in the experiments," Ecology Minister Delphine Batho said this week, as the proposal met a mixed reception.

Once plentiful, the wolf officially died out in France in the 1930s, wiped out by farmers and hunters.

More than a half a century later, wolves began creeping back, crossing the border from Italy. In 1992, suspicions of the comeback were confirmed when a pair of wolves were spotted in the Mercantour park in the southeast of the country.

Around 250 wolves in France

Today, according to Eric Marboutin at the National Office for Hunting and Wildlife (ONCFS), there are around 250 wolves, 90 percent of them in the Alps, and scatterings of others in the east and southwest of France, including the eastern Pyrenees.
Read More>http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/fra...n#.URlAeUpht8E

Um well ah I uh hmmm................................

**Jim54** · 02-11-2013, 03:44 PM

Was it Orwell who said "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them."? I think that applies here.

**Odysseus** · 02-11-2013, 04:36 PM

There's only one way to teach wolves not to mess with sheep:

**Rockntractor** · 02-11-2013, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by Odysseus

There's only one way to teach wolves not to mess with sheep:

Don't they like have the right to bare sheep?

**Odysseus** · 02-11-2013, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Rockntractor

Don't they like have the right to bare sheep?

If you disarm the rams, all that you have left are the sheep.

**SarasotaRepub** · 02-11-2013, 07:57 PM

Man, I thought this was gonna be a Florida story but...

**SaintLouieWoman** · 02-11-2013, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by Jim54

Was it Orwell who said "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them."? I think that applies here.

Or only a Frenchman?

**SarasotaRepub** · 02-11-2013, 08:58 PM

**NJCardFan** · 02-12-2013, 12:55 AM

For a group of people who buy into Dawrin's theory they sure try to mess with what he was proposing.

**Odysseus** · 02-12-2013, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by SaintLouieWoman

Or only a Frenchman?

The French consider themselves intellectuals, so it's a twofer.

Originally Posted by NJCardFan

For a group of people who buy into Dawrin's theory they sure try to mess with what he was proposing.

They don't understand Darwin. They believe that society can change nature, and that if they get society right, then nature will follow. It's Darwin by way of Rousseau. This is why they keep trying to modify human behavior to suit their desires, rather than recognize universal truths and moderate their desires. Ultimately, they will end up with dead sheep, neurotic wolves or a combination of the two, with guilt counseling for the wolves.