After the boar raids in the city, now it is the hour of the wolves that have come down from the mountains to the inhabited centers representing another risk to the safety of people. The phenomenon has been reported across the entire metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria so much so that farmers even speak of "land under siege" with very serious economic consequences for the entire sector. These are "numerous packs of wolves formed mainly by feral dogs and hybrids born from the wolf-dog union that daily attack the flocks of sheep, goats and cattle»To generate among the breeders« a feeling of mistrust and strong concern for the future of their activities ».
Domenico Tripodi, the president of the provincial association of breeders, denounced "the increasingly explosive situation in the countryside where the number of wolves and wild boars is now out of control, forcing farmers to slowly abandon the mountain garrisons and more marginal than the territory ". As if that were not enough, the already various problems that afflict breeders, from the high price of raw materials, electricity and fuel, to the critical issues relating to the sale of livestock, from the low market value attributed to meat, to the difficulties in marketing livestock products. The attack of wolf packs on crops, land, livestock and property is now also set in motion. So Tripodi took pen and paper and sent a letter to the prefect Massimo Mariani to inform him «of the very serious damage that farmers suffer every day».
The situation depicted is alarming. "Farmers have to manage an increased workload from having to fence in pastures and even stables and constantly follow the animals to keep them overnight - explains the president of the APA - This leads to a revolution in the management of companies, working on costly prevention practically all borne by the farmer. As for the compensation in case of damage, these are largely insufficient, both for the high value of the animals present in many companies both for the regulations currently in force which are unsatisfactory since the damages are compensated only in the Park area. Furthermore, after an attack, for tens of days the animals are frightened, they do not eat or eat little and are difficult to manage both in the pasture and in the stable ». And again: «The consequences of these attacks are serious and profound. This situation leads to disaffection with agriculture and depopulation: we cannot afford it. The role of breeders is fundamental for the conservation of the environment, territory and landscape.
To protect the animals, shepherds are forced to sleep with their flocks, a life and work of great sacrifices that leads to progressive abandonment of the mountain pastures, of breeding in the wild and therefore also to the loss of the protection of the territory guaranteed by those who derive their reason for living and the main source of income from the defense of the integrity of the environment and the balance of the ecosystem. An authentic Sos that of Tripodi, which asks the prefect for a meeting to "thus lay the foundations for organizing a technical table with all the interested bodies" in order to "find a definitive and shared solution that is not limited to free land only, but is extended to the entire territory ". The first to welcome the a cry of alarm from the farmers is the president of the Aspromonte National Park Authority, Leo Autelitano, who says he is ready to sit down at an interinstitutional technical table to deal with the emergency.
"The Park Authority - clarifies Autelitano - was not set up to protect the leeks that are destroying the territory and endangering flocks and crops, let alone to protect wolf-dog hybrids, real danger of destruction of the herds, as well as the safety of man. The Park Authorities were also established with the aim of applying measures to protect the native fauna (wolves and wild boars) and certainly not to protect the proliferation of hybrids such as the pig or the dog crossed with the wolf. In this sense our administrative activity is centered on two directives: on the porcasts, in fact, the Authority is carrying out a selective culling plan, while on the presence of wolf hybrids, I have personally given political direction to the offices to proceed, translating into deeds, the results of the monitoring that the Park Authorities carry out on the presence of the wolf "(The Daily of the South).