French Shepherds Protest Wolves
	From the Associated Press April 2000

By JEAN-CHARLES BANOUN, Associated Press Writer

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (AP) - Bearing anti-wolf signs and crying ``wolf,'' dozens of shepherds led 2,000 sheep through this town in the south of France to protest the resurgence of the sheep's predator and to demand authorities remove it from their Alpine pastures.

``We're not against the wolf, but against the way it was reintroduced into France,'' said Louis Escoffier, of the Sheep Federation of the Bouches-du-Rhone.

Ancestors ``had to burn entire forests'' to get rid of the wolves, said Escoffier. Following a 50-year campaign to eradicate the wolves, they were removed from the region by 1924.

Now, the wolves are back and doing devastating damage, the shepherds said.

Some 5,000 sheep have been killed by wolves since the predators were reintroduced to the Alps in 1992, according to sheep farmers.

  France's leftist government has tried to reconcile its wish to regenerate the wolf population with the shepherds' fears for their flocks. A recently-unveiled ``wolf plan'' would set up protection zones for wolves while allowing them to be hunted in other areas, like the Alps.

But sheep farmers, said they want the animals - known for their roaming nature - to be penned up or killed.

Conservative lawmaker Christian Estrosi, of the Alpes-Maritimes region - where the wolf was first reintroduced - noted an 1871 law permitting wolf hunting that was used to wipe out the wolf population at the start of the 20th century.

Sunday's protest is likely to rekindle the debate, but not solve it.

The government said there are about 30 wolves loose in the Alps.

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