May 262007
 

There’s a news item on at the moment about some endangered bears in the Italian Apennine mountains, and the farmers there who are not so keen on them because they steal what the farmers produce.

What I can never understand is why the most obvious solution to this is not tried. Farmers raise livestock to sell in the marketplace; if a wild animal steals that livestock, they lose money. Make up that money fairly (with the price set to what it would have been in the marketplace) and the farmers are likely to stop grumbling so much.

Hell, instead of grumbling about wild animals (and in some cases wandering off in stealth and attempting to terminate the careers of some wild animals) they are likely to suddenly start encouraging the wild animals to breed!