and that is what puzzles me - the ranchers kill and don't allow wolves reintroduction because it is supposedly hurting their herds when instead they could have just got herding dogs.
Yeah it's not a "just" they are not for free. But in north-Italy and Switzerland they are payed by the government and leased (the dogs have no problem with it since the family are the sheep's and not the human)
and that is what puzzles me - the ranchers kill and don't allow wolves reintroduction because it is supposedly hurting their herds when instead they could have just got herding dogs.