EU laws see vultures going hungry

Spanish vultures are hungry, even starving, because European Union laws aimed at halting the spread of mad cow disease require the countryside to be kept clear of dead livestock.

But Juan Carlos Atienza of the Spanish Ornithological Organisation says the lack of animal corpses since the law was introduced in Spain in 2002 has hit certain vultures very hard.

Atienza said the EU is studying a change that would allow some regions to leave carrion out.