Two of the Farmer, Mikael Fredriksson’s cows grazing in the forest outside Storuman have probably been killed and eaten by a bear or bears. Now he wants the county board to say yes to protective hunting.
– It is very unusual for bears to take cows, he tells TV4 Nyheterna.
– We discovered a week or so ago that a cow had been killed and eaten by a bear, there was a lot of bear droppings there so we take it for granted that it was a bear. Then we found another one that had been eaten, says Mikael Fredriksson, who is a farmer outside Storuman in Västerbotten.
He had about 40 cows in a large enclosure in the forest by the mountain Lillblaiken, he had brought most of them home, but 14 cows remained in the forest and now there are only twelve.
The cows that remain are so terrified that they too will fall victim to the bear.
– They are so scared that we can’t get hold of them, when we come they gallop away, we don’t know what to do, he says.
Mikael says that he has contacted the county administration to have the bear or bears hunted for protection, but has not yet received any information.
– It is very unusual for bears to take cows, I have had the cows here for 30 years and it has happened once before. Then we got protective hunting.
He says the smell of the bears and the dead cows scares away his other cows so he can’t round them up.
– We are going to remove the cow skeleton, but I don’t think it will be enough, now the bears have got a taste for this, says Mikael Fredriksson.