Livestock Damage by Carnivores and Use of Livestock Guardian Dogs for its Prevention in Europe - A review

Abstract

In the last century livestock animals in Europe were decreased after industry revolution because of mechanization and industrialization. Ungulates were ignored as transport or pack animals. Small ruminants were decreased because lesser importance of wool and hair additional grazing areas were decreased because of using those areas as field, industrial or human buildings. In ancient times majority of people were farmers but nowadays farmers are minority almost in all developed countries. Because of those reasons while pastoral areas were decreasing, urban areas were increased which caused smaller living areas for wild animals. Besides that developed gun industry facilitated killing wild animals for hunting or other reasons. In most of European countries, large carnivores have been decreased because of those reasons. Farmers tend to raise animals from extensive systems to intensive systems in order to get more yields by giving less feed or spend less money. All these reasons push farmers for intensive farming systems.