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In Romania, more large carnivores live near livestock than in any other European country, but little is known about conflicts between the two. Designing a management strategy to preserve livestock protection methods while limiting the economic burden on livestock raisers requires data on (1) organization of livestock raising, (2) cost-income relations of livestock camps, and (3) financial damage caused by large carnivores. To understand these systems, we submitted questionnaires to shepherds and interviewed key personnel in local town halls. Species killing livestock during summer were primarily wolves (Canis lupus, 63%) and bears (Ursus arctos, 36%). Ninety-one percent of livestock killed were sheep. Excluding one outlier from the analysis, number of kills/camp was positively correlated with ratios of sheep:shepherd and sheep:livestock guarding dog. Mean damage was US$465/ livestock camp and US$35/km^2 (1999 year basis) Considering all cost and income factors, livestock camps incurred a mean loss equivalent to 10% of their total expenses and 74% of the total income of the livestock camp organizer. We hypothesize that an important step for minimizing conflicts between large carnivores and livestock is the implementation of an economic strategy as support for small-scale livestock raisers.