We have forgotten how to live with nature.
The discussion about the wolf is at an impasse – killing is the last word in wisdom. “Problem wolves” may be shot, and if you catch the wrong one, you just keep trying until you find the “right one”.
The bears have already ticked off Austria as their home.
You can’t compare it, it’s completely different there, etc. You hear that when you bring up Romania.
I am there very, very often, I know shepherds and see countless flocks of sheep and goats. About 12,000 bears and 3,500 wolves live there. They, too, are in danger; politics wields its iron sword there, too. The people in the countryside are relaxed about it, bears come into the gardens in autumn to get fruit, that is completely normal.
Herd protection works: Human shepherds and animal shepherds.
There are quite a few big dogs as defenders, Romania has its own breeds:
Ciobănesc Românesc Mioritic
Ciobanesc Românesc Carpatin
Ciobănesc Românesc Corb
Ciobănesc Românesc de Bucovina
These dogs fend off wolves as well as bears very successfully, and are themselves not infrequently injured, sometimes even killed, in the process. Our local vets have to treat dogs injured by bears or wolves again and again, and shepherds come to our shelter to pick up guard dogs. Before a discussion starts, I’d rather they were allowed to live as guard dogs, even though they are endangered, than stay in the shelter in a kennel forever…because hardly anyone adopts these dogs.
Then there are the smaller dogs that keep the herd together and they are also really on their toes, I observe this all the time.
At night the herd is driven into a pen, also by the dogs, the shepherd sleeps next door.
There are hardly any animals killed and after talking to shepherds this has been confirmed to me again and again.
Conclusion: If you want to keep animals, out of self-interest, because the poor, cunning animals are ultimately murdered by human hands, but that’s quite another thing…then you also have to protect them and that means work.
If we don’t soon learn to live in harmony with nature, then we should leave this mother ship Earth, the sooner the better.
Now, of course, endless discussions will start again, saying that I have no idea and that Austria is completely different, etc. The fact is – it can work.
The fact is – it can work, experts confirm that. But, as I said, it involves work. I pass on here what I see and hear again and again in Romania.
And this is my second home, so I know what I’m talking about.