The shepherd "was afraid of his life, he thought he was dead" says Lisa, a shepherdess he knows.
A bear pursued a shepherd described as experienced, after attacking his animals on the heights of the village of Saint-Lary, in Ariège, said Friday the mayor of the town, Gérard Dubuc, who lodged a complaint.
For him, this is the first time that a shepherd has been attacked by a bear, since the brown bear reintroduction program was started in the 1990s. The facts would have occurred around 1 a.m. on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, near the mountain hut of this sixty-year-old shepherd, on the Estive de l'Estremaille, at an altitude of 2,000 meters, in the Pyrenees.
"Fortunately he had time to come in and close the door"
“The herd was gathered about 50 meters from the hut (…) The shepherd heard noise and movements near the hut.
He went out to see what was going on, ”says Gérard Dubuc.
“The bear left the sheep he was chasing and charged in the direction of the shepherd.
Fortunately not very far from the hut, he had time to come back and close the door ”, he explains, affirming that the bear was“ in fury, in full predation ”.
“It is the daily life of shepherds today.
The situation is catastrophic.
The State must take drastic decisions, ”reacted Alain Servat, president of the Pastoral Federation of Ariège (FPA).
Opponents of the bear are calling for the culling of aggressive bears.
55 sheep found dead this week
The bear of the Pyrenees being threatened with extinction, France started in the 1990s a program to reintroduce bears from Slovenia.
Most live in the central part of the massif, especially in Ariège.
According to the Association for the Protection of the Heritage of Ariège-Pyrénées (ASPAP), 55 ewes were found dead this week in a summer pasture, following a stripping, the term used by breeders to describe fatal falls of sheep from a cliff, threatened by a bear.
Three bears illegally killed in 2020
In April, around 250 Hautes-Pyrénées herders protested in the village of Arreau, after three bear attacks on herds in the space of ten days.
The Hautes-Pyrénées prefecture then triggered the “problem bear” protocol, which allows plastic bullets to be fired into the animal's hindquarters, followed by detonations, in order to frighten it.
In 2020, three bears were illegally killed in the Pyrenees, two in Spain and one in France.
The pro-bear associations are calling for the replacement of these three bears and new releases, to ensure the sustainability of the presence of the species in the Pyrenees mountains.
There are about sixty in the massif.
Planet
Isère: A flock of sheep victim of two wolf attacks in one month
World
Slovakia: The death of a man killed by a bear revives the debate on the ban on their hunting
Toulouse
Pyrenees
Animals
Bear
Mountain
Planet