Lynx shooting should come as 'stark warning' says farmers union
The Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) says the shooting and killing of a lynx which escaped from a zoo "should come as a stark warning" when it comes to plans to re-introduce the wild cats into Northumberland.
Back in July, The Lynx UK Trust submitted an application to Natural England to re-introduce six of the medium-sized cats to Kielder Forest on a trial basis.
Since then, the felines have made the headlines after an 18-month-old Eurasian lynx named Lillith went missing from Broth Wild Animal Kingdom near Aberystwyth.
The animal, which the FUW believes was responsible for killing seven sheep, had been on the loose since October 29, before being captured almost two weeks later and killed by Ceredigion Council.
Despite animal rights campaigners condemning the shooting, the FUW has defended the Council's decision after the local authority received advice from a specialist veterinary surgeon that the risk to public well-being had increased from moderate to severe.
Park staff said that the animal did not pose a threat to humans and were"devastated and outraged" by what had happened.
A spokesman for the FUW said:
The FUW said it had written to the Welsh Government and the local PoliceCommissioner last week to express its concerns that the danger the animal posed was not being taken seriously.
Ceredigion Council said the decision had been taken to humanely destroy the wild animal after the risk it posed to the public increased to "severe"following failed attempts to recapture it.
A statement shared by Aberystwyth central councillor Ceredig Davies on Facebook said:
The Lynx Trust said there are no recordings of attacks on humans by healthy, wild Eurasian lynx anywhere in the world.
It also says the animals have a very low impact on livestock, with lynx inEurope killing, on average, less than one sheep every two years.