Vultures Eat French Tourist

[DrLeftover]

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."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/464496/20130504/vultures-killed-fatal-cliff-plunge-pyrenees.htm

 

[Jazzy]

Taken from the article:

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

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

The vultures are starving due to the lack of dead animal carcasses. Well, who caused that to happen? The vultures didn't and now farmers want permission to shoot and kill these protected birds. The vultures are being punished with a death penalty for being vultures. Now, is this fair?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Thats nature for ya. Dont get made at the vultures for doing what their instincts tell them to do. Its not like they killed that lady.

 

[Evil Eye]

This is exactly the sort of behaviour I'd expect from a vulture... Seems pretty natural.

 

[Andrew Darmac]

Yeah, that's kinda disgusting, and I feel doubly sorry for the lady's family, but such things are going to happen if the animals themselves don't have a ways to access their normal food sources.

 

[Bluezone777]

Only a human would take a life just because they don't like what it does. It's not like the birds killed the woman as they only fed on a carcass. Sometimes people make you think they just sit around looking for excuses to kill.

I somehow get the feeling that some of those farmers are going to kill those birds regardless if they get permission or not to do so.