By Damien Gayle PUBLISHED: 11:34 EST, 5 May 2013 | UPDATED: 02:00 EST, 7 May 2013 The body of a 52-year-old woman who fell to her death in the Pyrenees was devoured by Griffon vultures before emergency services were able to retrieve it. Furious locals are demanding that authorities take action against the endangered carrion-eaters after they left only the woman's bones, clothes and shoes for burial. Fear of the birds has been growing in recent years, which have reportedly also begun attacking live animals since a European edict that dead livestock must not be left in the fields.
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Carrion-eaters swooped on the woman after she fell from the Pic de Pista
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Only bones, clothes and shoes were left, local police reported
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Fear of the protected birds is growing and farmers want right to shoot them
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EC ruling means their traditional prey, dead livestock, must now be burned
For centuries, the @placeholder farmers lived in symbiotic harmony with the griffon vulture.