France orders killing of two wolves

There are currently about two hundred wolves in France, mostly in the southeast, but also in the Pyrenees region.

Local officials have ordered a wolf to be shot in the Alpes de Haute Provence area, following a similar move last week in the nearby Var region.

Local farmers say about 130 sheep have been killed or injured in wolf attacks in the last year.

The orders, which will remain in place until late September, can be issued when local conservation officials judge that the number of attacks on livestock attributable to wolves reaches what is deemed to be an unacceptable level.

Environmentalists and animal rights groups are critical of the policy of authorising what are effectively mini-culls of a protected species, arguing that they exist purely to placate a farming lobby which is prone to exaggerating the damage done by wolves.