While a bear pursued a shepherd a few days ago in Ariège, nature protection associations denounced Monday a "collective hysteria".

The experienced shepherd had managed to find refuge in a cabin.

"A charge of intimidation of a bear has just occurred on a shepherd, rightly shocked by this event", recalls in a press release the collective CAP-Ours.

“It ended without contact or injury.

Note that if the bear had wanted to hurt the shepherd, he had the physical capacity and it was not ”, continues the collective, which brings together associations such as WWF, France Nature Environment (FNE), Ferus or Pays de l'ours-Adet.

Nine bear charges recorded in 25 years

They denounce "the collective hysteria systematically orchestrated by certain elected officials and anti-bear organizations" and recall that "the charges of intimidation of bears can occur in the event of a close-range encounter when the bear is surprised and feels threatened" , without constituting an attack.

The collective is also surprised that the bear charges - there are nine from 1996 to 2021, with one injured - make more noise than "at least 23 injured hikers or hunters, mostly seriously, and one killed, by cattle in summer pastures ”between 2010 and 2020.

Three bears illegally killed in the Pyrenees

As the brown bear is threatened with extinction on its territory, France launched a program in the 1990s to reintroduce bears from Slovenia.

They are currently about sixty in the Pyrenean massif, which does not ensure the sustainability of the species.

In 2020, three bears were illegally killed in the Pyrenees, two in Spain and one in France.

The French government has pledged to replace any bear killed by human hands with reintroductions, while breeders are opposed.

The pro-bear associations are also asking that the herds be better protected, even if the government also funds measures to protect the herds.

But "almost all summer pastures in Ariège do not practice the complete triptych of protection required (shepherd + dogs + electrified nocturnal regrouping park)", reproaches the CAP-Ours collective, which also affirms that "the mountain lives and does not is not reserved for the agricultural lobby.

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