Features

Raquel Serrat

LIVESTOCK FARMER and Farmers’ Union representative

“The mistakes made with bears must not be repeated”

THE WOLF IS THE SPECIES THAT WORRIES US MOST RIGHT NOW. WOLVES ACT AS A GROUP AND DO A LOT OF DAMAGE

In­ter­view EN­VI­RON­MENT

A live­stock farmer from Ripollès, Raquel Ser­rat rep­re­sents women farm­ers and is also a mem­ber of the na­tional stand­ing com­mit­tee of the Cata­lan Farm­ers’ Union. This or­gan­i­sa­tion is very con­cerned about the pos­si­bil­ity that wolves end up es­tab­lish­ing them­selves with breed­ing groups in Cat­alo­nia. The union ar­gues that the species should not be pro­tected by the state be­cause this pro­tec­tion has reper­cus­sions for man­ag­ing any wolf pop­u­la­tion that may be es­tab­lished here in the fu­ture. Ac­cord­ing to farm­ers, the im­pact of the wolf on ex­ten­sive live­stock farm­ing is suf­fi­ciently well-known and af­fects their liveli­hood and con­ti­nu­ity as an in­dus­try.

Right now, are Cata­lan farm­ers wor­ried about wolves?
Yes, it’s the species that wor­ries us most right now. They act as a group, they do a lot of dam­age. All farm­ers who have suf­fered at­tacks know this. From ex­pe­ri­ences in other places on the Iber­ian Penin­sula where the wolf is more wide­spread, we know that at­tacks are very blood­thirsty. If they end up set­tling here, we ask that the mis­takes made with rein­tro­duc­tion of the bear are not re­peated, and that pre­ven­tive mea­sures are taken when­ever pos­si­ble, for ex­am­ple pro­vid­ing guard dogs or pro­mot­ing the use of elec­tri­fied fences. But, of course, farm­ers can­not do all this alone. There must be sup­port from the au­thor­i­ties.
And I imag­ine com­pen­sa­tion for the loss of live­stock when there are at­tacks?
Yes, of course. The thing is, it’s not just about com­pen­sa­tion for when an an­i­mal dies. Until now, rural agents have of­fered farm­ers pre­ven­tive mea­sures, but we must bear in mind that at­tacks on sheep or goat herds are very dif­fer­ent from those on cat­tle or horses. Sheep and goats go in herds and are eas­ier to pro­tect. But cat­tle and horses are much more scat­tered, it is not so easy to mon­i­tor them. We be­lieve that the pri­mary sec­tor must al­ways be pro­tected, be­cause it pays for the con­se­quences of the pres­ence of these an­i­mals.
Is co­ex­is­tence pos­si­ble?
Co­ex­is­tence yes, but there will never be har­mo­nious co­ex­is­tence. We, the farm­ers, are the ones who do the work to pro­duce food for the pop­u­la­tion and man­age the ter­ri­tory, and this can­not be ne­glected. Now we are see­ing the idea that we need to man­age the wolf pop­u­la­tion and Eu­rope is con­sid­er­ing lift­ing some pro­tec­tion. We are for that.
There are also en­vi­ron­men­tal­ists and sci­en­tists who say that wolves will eat roe deer and wild boar and that farm­ers should there­fore be in favour of them.
The food chain has its way of work­ing, but apart from these an­i­mals, wolves also eat calves, lambs, goats... If en­vi­ron­men­tal­ists saw their in­come and way of life being threat­ened, they might see things dif­fer­ently. And we do not want a re­peat of what hap­pened with bears, whose rein­tro­duc­tion was very poorly man­aged. There was lit­tle trans­parency and lit­tle di­a­logue about it with the sec­tor in order to be able to take the nec­es­sary mea­sures. The re­sult is that at­tacks have in­creased and a lot of dam­age is oc­cur­ring.
Sign in. Sign in if you are already a verified reader. I want to become verified reader. To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader.
Note: To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader and accept the conditions of use.