Buenos Aires, Aug 13 (IANS/EFE) A provincial government in Argentina is offering a 500-peso ($126) reward for killing every puma, the mountain lions that have been preying on the region’s livestock.
The government of Rio Negro, however, allows only those people who have permits to hunt down the pumas, officials said.
A recent drought in Rio Negro caused many sheep-grazing grasslands to become deserted, making way for dozens of pumas to move in and attack other animals in nearby fields.
Though a law on hunting pumas existed, the provincial government decided to double the reward – from 250 pesos to 500 pesos – for each puma killed in the region.
But the permit ‘is not open to everyone’, only to sheep raisers who must be authorised by provincial authorities. ‘We don’t want to exterminate the pumas, only to solve the sheep producers’ problems,’ an official said.
