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Comment by pwthornton | Hacker News Reader

A healthy, non-rabid wolf killing a human is way less likely than being killed by a lightning strike.

Farmers are also heavily subsidized in Europe.

Is this, however, because humans rarely encounter wolves? I can see wolves attacking a large man, but can see them picking a kid if he is walking alone to school.

This has happened; not fatally. Last July and August kids have been attacked, involved a 6yo boy; bite marks and abrasions after being dragged. While these kids survived, there is emotional damage. I was attacked by a dog, a bred that is now illegal to own, when I was a kid. And I can tell you that this fear stayed with me till late in adulthood. The encounters have become more regular as places like Belgium, Netherlands are more densely populated or in close proximity to forests. Warthogs have attacked people in my area, but they are not a false and smart like a wolf is. They are a lot more opportunistic in their approach and stealthy. So yes, the number of incidents are rising.

https://www.rtvutrecht.nl/nieuws/3929221/jongetje-6-dat-bos-...

The worst part is, often the problem wolf is known to people (multiple incidents), but there is no permit to deal with it, or just difficult even when permit is granted. There is no real plan for this

Are you a farmer speaking out of experience? I can tell you from family that your perception is wrong.

This subsidizing is not a EU standard practice, and not for all sectors of agricultural development. This idea that subsidizing offsets the loss of livestock sounds weird to me, as is the risk of a human attack. Europe is far more densely populated than most other places that have to deal with bears, coyotes or so, plus... You are allowed to take precautions, that we are not; a spray might harm the animal.

The EU has a €300B program directly subsidizing farmers [0]. To quote the wiki page:

     The [EAGF] consumes a large part of the general budget of the European Union.

Apparently the overarching CAP program consumes something like 30+% of the budget, so I'd love to know what you consider "heavily subsidized" if this doesn't merit.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Agricultural_Guarante...

Most wolf-attack compensation paid to farmers are government subsidies not EU ones (so on top of EU subsidies if it's not EU subsidies funneled for this purpose somehow).

It's a heated debate because farmers are considered such an important part of historic & cultural identity. And thus have a strong lobby & much public support. This is ignoring their dwindling % contribution to GDP.

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