Keeping livestock safe against predators has been one of humanity's more difficult jobs for thousands of years. The sheep was one of the earliest animals that we domesticated, and for about 10,000 years their keepers have struggled to prevent them from being eaten by predators of all shapes and sizes.
One response, popular in earlier times, was to simply wipe out all the predators. This was the fate suffered by wolves (which have been exterminated through much of their range, which once was world-wide), cougars (ditto), large birds of prey, coyotes, and many other species. Lions once ranged throughout the southern Mediterranean including Italy and Greece, before they were wiped out partly as a measure to protect livestock.
