Just this last Monday, the country of France has authorized the shooting of two wolves following attacks on sheep in the southeast part of the country. This is the equivalent of one percent of the surviving population. Around 200 wolves survive in the wild in France, mainly in the southeastern corner of the country but also in the Pyrenees mountains. Local farmers say about 130 sheep have been killed or injured in wolf attacks in the last year. Actually only a few of these attacks have been officially attributed to the wolf, but farmers say coexistence in the area is impossible.

The permit to hunt the wolves started on Monday and will run until September 19th. The decision to order the hunt has been described as a last resort in the effort to protect livestock from the wolves. According to Var prefect Paul Mourier, "We have reached the final stage. The various protection measures and defenses implemented over the past few years have not been enough."

The decision was taken after a recent acceleration in attacks, with an additional 72 sheep taken in an attack last Friday. The orders can be issued when local conservation officials judge that attacks on livestock have reached a threshold which makes it necessary to reduce numbers of the predators.

Var is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in the south-east corner of France. Var is the second area to recently allow a wolf hunt, following a decision by the prefecture of the Hautes-Alpes after similar attacks in 2012. Although some 99 percent of the attacks in the Var have taken place in Canjuers, the hunt has also been allowed in the municipalities of d'Aiguines, Chateaudouble, Comps-sur-Artuby, La Roque Esclapon, Montferrat and Mons et Seillans.

The Cevennes mountains of Lozère in the southern Auvergne, located in southern France is the home of Roquefort cheese and also a "political" reason behind authorized wolf kills. It is obvious that sheep farmers there resent the fact that they feel that they cannot allow their sheep to roam due to the return of the wolf. Roquefort farmers warn the future of the cheese could now be in jeopardy as they will no longer be able to respect the appellation's strict rules on allowing their sheep to graze freely. These rules stipulate that it is compulsory for sheep to roam on the hilly pastures every day provided there is sufficient grass and weather conditions permitting. Under a "wolf code" established in 2004, these wolves can be shot legally only by licensed "wolf lieutenants" or government marksmen.

Environmentalists and animal rights groups are very critical of the policy of authorizing what are effectively mini-culls of a protected species. They argue that these policies exist purely to placate a farming lobby which is prone to exaggerating the damage done by wolves. France's wolf population has grown to around 200 wolves since being re-introduced in 1992, but there has been only six wolves that have been legally hunted since 2004.