Reintroducing wolves to Britain is pure insanity

Should we release packs of ravenous wolves into the English countryside? The answer is so obviously ‘of course not, are you insane?’ that I anticipated no disagreement when I scoffed at a pro-wolf Guardian article by George Monbiot last week.

Monbiot has found common cause with wolves because he hates sheep-farming and wants to ‘rewild’ Britain. His latest article uses deer as an excuse to promote the interests of the wolf lobby. There are too many of them, apparently, and the best way to deal with a surplus of deer is to have them torn apart by apex predators. 

Monbiot has been banging on about the benefits of wolves for twenty years. He accepts that wolves kill people from time to time, but says that depression also kills people and that ‘the excitement of knowing that they [man-eating predators] are out there somewhere’ could prevent depression and thereby save lives.