The last close encounter with the wolves in the Pinerolo area it is from a few days ago, on the hill of San Germano, in Val Chisone. Mrs Sandra Botto was in the house when she heard the goats stir, so she ran into the yard to see and found three gutted, while the others were outside the enclosure, terrified. Wolf predation has been certified by the vet and the lady received permission to bury the carcasses of dead animals. “Now we find wolves in the courtyard - Sandra Botto protests-, they come and take the hens, the goats. They are not afraid of anything, no one can touch them.
I fear for the life of animals, but above all for the safety of my children, when there is fog I keep them at home, otherwise I will no longer let them go to play in the woods and in the morning I take them by car to the school bus stop, because I think it is dangerous for them to walk ”. His three children have respectively 12, 7 and 2 and a half years. For them, the wolf has become a daily fear. The other day the mother saw another, drinking in the Chisone, here in the valley, while this summer the predator hit the herd guarded by the father upstream, in the locality of Prà Mollo, on the path that goes to Pomerano.
The damage balance on that occasion was two dead calves and a cow, which are added to the three goats preyed on in the courtyard of the house: "The wolf fence is not needed -Mrs.Sandra observes-, just as guard dogs are not needed, which often run away". In the Pellice valley, the shepherd Danilo Garnier laments the loss of five sheep and two goats, killed this summer in the pasture in Villar Pellice. Blame the wolf, but also the lynx, who killed a kid. “With the veterinarian, we compared the bites on the animal's corpse - explains Garnier-, there is no doubt that it is the lynx. Her verse is unmistakable, now she is there too, not just the wolf ”. Garnier is fed up with paying insurance against i damage from predation: “It costs me more than what I take for compensation, I left it alone.
Those who are not insured, however, must also pay 50 euros for the ASL certificate that intervenes to examine the dead animal. In addition to the damage, the insult ”. His fellow pastor, Ivan Monnet, calculated that this summer, between Villar and Bobbio, in Val Pellice, no less than forty animals, mostly sheep and goats, were preyed upon. In Prali, there are those who have lost a cow, while a calf has been injured. His flock also had to deal with the lynx, which took two goats. "Wolves are at home in Val d'Angrogna -confirms Monnet-, there is a herd of at least five or six specimens that have all seen, plus the loners. If no action is taken to contain them, the shepherds will soon end up having to leave ”. A worrying problem, which Italian CIA-Agricoltori was the first to place at the center of the attention of politicians and public administrators at all levels, calling for containment measures that can no longer be extended.
"Faced with what is happening - Gabriele Carenini intervenes, regional president of Cia Italian Farmers Piedmont- no one can turn their face away. The wolf dominates the valleys and now also descends into the inhabited centers, putting at risk not only the animals, but the people, the hikers, the walkers. As with wildlife, wolves must be managed and not just protected. Need bring the relationship between man and nature back into balance, through preventive actions and containment plans, otherwise the protection of predators will eventually lead to extinction of the shepherds ”.