Call to cull Greek wolves

PROTECTED: ATTACK ON GIRL, 5, AT A BEACH ALARMS HUNTERS, FARMERS >>> Animal population in wild is estimated at 2 075 and range is spreading.

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Hunters and farmers in Greece are demanding the right to cull wolves after one attacked a child on a beach this month, warning that the protected species is multiplying in the wild.

The animal “grabbed” the five-year-old girl by the waist as she played on a beach in the Halkidiki peninsula, northern Greece, her mother told Skai TV.

A bystander drove the wolf off by throwing stones, but it later followed the girl and her mother to their apartment yard, she said.

Greek hunters have long maintained that the wolf population in Greece is much greater than estimated, increasing the threat to hunting dogs and livestock.

"Where I go hunting, there are wolf sightings almost every day,” said Stelios Thomas, a 60-year-old from Thessaloniki who ventures some 50km east of the city.

“I am now afraid to go to the mountain. They have eaten many dogs and livestock lately. There are attacks almost every day,” he said.