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.
MORE YUM YUM HERE
Thanks to WiscoDave for the link
They must be extra hungry - I was hunting coyotes over a dead heifer once and it took the vultures 2 days to finish that off.
"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.
MORE YUM YUM HERE
Thanks to WiscoDave for the link
*****
They must be extra hungry - I was hunting coyotes over a dead heifer once and it took the vultures 2 days to finish that off.