Crying wolf

[stewamax]

In parts of the EU, wolves are released and protected.
But wolves being wolves they kill things, and a pony called Dolly has been killed by them in Lower Saxony.
They may now be regretting this choice of main course as it was Ursula von der Leyen's pony when a child and Mrs von der Leyen is threatening to bring down the might of the EU Commission on them.

Scoreline:
EU 1 Wolves 0

[elkay]

So the pony was Ursula's about 50 years ago?

I doubt it was wolves that killed it....

elkay

[Hallucigenia]

The pony was 30 when killed in September 2022.

von der Leyen is 65, but her eldest daughter is currently 35. So I would assume it was bought for the eldest daughter.

More here : https://www.politico.eu/article/ursula- ... -bad-wolf/

[elkay]

Sorry, I forgot my tongue in in cheek emoji now I can't find one... :-J

I suspected that was likely the case, and it was an error in the relating of the story.

elkay

[bungeejumper]

Until quite recently, we used to go hill-walking every year in a part of France where wolves roamed. It could be a bit of a concern when a farmer told us "attention aux loups", and we never quite knew whether he was joking or not.

Wolves certainly will attack sheep and deer, and dogs too, but they've got to be very hungry before they'll go for a human. That's what we preferred to believe, anyway. Game over if they're rabid, of course. But at least it feeds the vultures. (Did I mention the vultures?)

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

Until quite recently, we used to go hill-walking every year in a part of France where wolves roamed. It could be a bit of a concern when a farmer told us "attention aux loups", and we never quite knew whether he was joking or not.

Wolves certainly will attack sheep and deer, and dogs too, but they've got to be very hungry before they'll go for a human. That's what we preferred to believe, anyway. Game over if they're rabid, of course. But at least it feeds the vultures. (Did I mention the vultures?)

BJ

Is there rabies in France?

ISTR Italy being free of it when I lived there in the '90s. I also asked about bears and wolves there. Someone told me that if I got killed by them, I'd be the first person since sometime in the eighteenth century to suffer that fate. Saw bear tracks (and a friend got some fantastic pictures of an actual bear on the trail) though never wolves.

[bungeejumper]

Is there rabies in France?

ISTR Italy being free of it when I lived there in the '90s. I also asked about bears and wolves there. Someone told me that if I got killed by them, I'd be the first person since sometime in the eighteenth century to suffer that fate.

Good question. It seems to depend on who you ask. Officially, France has had no dog rabies since 2001 (apart from a limited outbreak in 2020, from a pet dog imported from Morocco).

But bat rabies is still out there. Did I mention the bats?

Do French wolves eat people? Maybe we should ask the Daily Mail? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13324169/

BJ

[Gerry557]

Until quite recently, we used to go hill-walking every year in a part of France where wolves roamed. It could be a bit of a concern when a farmer told us "attention aux loups", and we never quite knew whether he was joking or not.

Wolves certainly will attack sheep and deer, and dogs too, but they've got to be very hungry before they'll go for a human. That's what we preferred to believe, anyway. Game over if they're rabid, of course. But at least it feeds the vultures. (Did I mention the vultures?)

BJ

I take it you haven't seen the film The Grey 2011