Outcry as vultures eat a dead French tourist.

[Mr Mannn]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/464496/20130504/vultures-killed-fatal-cliff-plunge-pyrenees.htm
Vultures Eat French Tourist Killed in Fatal Pyrenees Cliff Plunge
France shocked to learn that vultures act like...vultures.

A campaign against Griffon vultures is gathering pace in France after it was revealed that the carrion eaters had devoured the body of a 52-year-old woman who fell to her death in the Pyrenees.

Major Didier Pericou of the gendarmerie said the woman had fallen down a 300-metre slope while taking a short cut walking with two friends.

"There were only bones, clothes and shoes left," he told The Times.

"They took 45 to 50 minutes to eat the body."

French farmers are now demanding the right to shoot the protected birds after attacks on sheep and cows.

The birds no longer have their diet of carcasses because European health and safety regulations now force breeders to burn dead animals.

The Pyrenees population of Griffon vultures has apparently been affected by an EC ruling that due to danger of BSE transmission, no dead animals must be left on the fields.


This has critically lowered the food availability of the scavenging birds.

Like other vultures, the Griffon is a scavenger, feeding mostly on carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks. The maximum lifespan recorded for a specimen kept in captivity is 41.4 years.

Fear of vultures has been growing in recent years. Le Nouvel Observateur reports of 'mutant vultures', with one woman saying that a group of the birds, whose wingspans can exceed seven feet, hovered near to where her children were sitting.


One farmer, Alain Larralde, reported seeing a group of vultures attack and start eating an adult cow. There have also been alleged sightings of live animals being carried off.

"You can't imagine what it is like to see an animal eaten alive," Mr Larralde was reported to have said.

Over the past few months, there have been 42 claims for compensation from farmers who say they have had livestock taken by the birds.

The vultures, which have evolved to eat carrion and not tackle live prey, may have changed their habits due to starvation.

According to a New Scientist report, there have been cases of vultures grabbing the bodies of shot animals before the hunters can reach them.

"We are seeing three-figure vulture flocks over Belgium and Holland. These birds are fanning out across Europe in search of food," Grahame Madge, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' European bird of prey expert told the Mail.

French policies created the problem. Now they get to act surprised.
Whats more interesting is the report deliberately left out the Ptarmigan instigators.

[Karin]

Apparently, the members of CC were not as outraged in turn over the dead French tourist.  No replies save mine.   

[Eupher]

Well, it's not like anything can be done for the woman that fell 300 meters to her death.

Maybe if she'd had a safety harness on, the fall would've merely broken her back or her neck. Then they could've dragged her to safety whereupon she'd be a vegetable for the rest of her life.

I look at this as being a good thing. The vultures got something to eat and there was one less body to occupy valuable grave site room. 

[Big Dog]

Apparently, the members of CC were not as outraged in turn over the dead French tourist.  No replies save mine.   

Hey, hikers are gonna die,  and vultures are gonna eat 'em. It's nature.

 

[Rebel]

At first I was like...




Then I was all like...

[marv]

Maybe the buzzards thought the climber was a fried French........DUH!

[longview]

My sympathies to the woman's family and friends.  Especially sad that they had this happen in addition to losing a presumably loved one.

Specifically regarding the vulture problem in Europe:  Why on earth ban leaving carcasses in fields?  Are Europeans in general that far removed from nature, and that lacking in common sense, that they are offended by something like that?  Or, is there a good reason?

[Eupher]

My sympathies to the woman's family and friends.  Especially sad that they had this happen in addition to losing a presumably loved one.

Specifically regarding the vulture problem in Europe:  Why on earth ban leaving carcasses in fields?  Are Europeans in general that far removed from nature, and that lacking in common sense, that they are offended by something like that?  Or, is there a good reason?

Just guessing here, but after having lived in Europe for almost 15 years, what you're hearing is the rabid babblings of the perpetually-stupid socialists; those who have gone waaaaaaay beyond moonbat and are firmly ensconced in terminal DUmbass mode.

Most of the rest of Europe is perfectly reasonably about wildlife and the things that occur in Nature.

[Mike220]

My sympathies to the woman's family and friends.  Especially sad that they had this happen in addition to losing a presumably loved one.

Specifically regarding the vulture problem in Europe:  Why on earth ban leaving carcasses in fields?  Are Europeans in general that far removed from nature, and that lacking in common sense, that they are offended by something like that?  Or, is there a good reason?

According to the article it's to prevent transmission of BSE, aka mad cow disease. Not sure just how effective it is, or if its just an excuse to be pansies, so YMMV.

[Eupher]

According to the article it's to prevent transmission of BSE, aka mad cow disease. Not sure just how effective it is, or if its just an excuse to be pansies, so YMMV.

BSE/TSE hasn't been a problem, except in very isolated cases, since the mid-Eighties. That argument is bullshit.

[BlueStateSaint]

The 'Law of Unintended Consequences' strikes again.

[JohnnyReb]

They started requiring the burial of dead animals around here 40 years ago. They started picking up road kill and burying it also about that time. Before then the sky was full of circling buzzards. For years you hardly ever saw a buzzard in the sky. But now with the return of an over population of deer and them dying in the woods somewhere, the buzzards are back.

[Dori]

Vultures get a bad rap...they are nature's clean-up crew.

[Eupher]

Vultures get a bad rap...they are nature's clean-up crew.

Yup. The only thing that's missing is a shovel and a broom.

[vesta111]

Vultures get a bad rap...they are nature's clean-up crew.

Much like our Sea Gulls that do their best to keep the waters clean.   

Anthrax is interesting, bury a horse or cow with the disease and 100 years later the ground is disturbed and the darn sleeping disease comes awake to infect humans.     Had the dead animals been left for the buzzards no illness would have come about. 

[Duke Nukum]

So, they make the birds protected and then they make the farmers burn up what they would eat as food....hmmm.