In the Pyrenees, a standoff between justice and breeders around the “scaring” of brown bears

In total, nine prefectural decrees were suspended by administrative justice, including two by the Toulouse court on August 31. These decrees authorized an intervention to keep the brown bears away from the herds, in two sectors of Ariège, a request made by the breeders since the beginning of the summer. What fuels the tensions is the method of distancing chosen: scaring. A method institutionalized by the State in 2019, but denounced by associations for the defense of the brown bear, including the Pays de l’Ours-Adet association, of which Alain Reynes is director, which condemns the fact “to intervene directly on animals”.

“The worst is obviously the rubber bullets, because potentially, it can hurt an animal. There is also a risk of separation of a female with the first year cubs for example.”

Alain Reynes, association of the Pays de l’Ours-Adet

at franceinfo

Last year, bears killed 570 animals, and this summer the breeders accuse them of having caused the death of 45 sheep, which fell from a cliff. “We have to recreate fear in this bear, and we recreate it with scaringexplains Philippe Lacube, president of the Chamber of Agriculture in Ariège. It’s not a miraculous measure, but still a light scare, a scare with firecrackers… Do you think that a non-lethal bullet, a little lead in a bear’s ass, is fine? hurt that much?”

Scaring is prohibited in France, except in the case of derogation. This is what the breeders asked the prefect of Ariège, and what they got. But the situation has created a rather astonishing tussle between the prefect, who has taken scaring orders with a vengeance, and the administrative court, which has suspended them one after the other.

These nine arrested were attacked by the One Voice association, of which Muriel Arnal is the president. “The arguments are unstoppable, justice has passed, and despite this, the prefect did not respect this court decision, to please the breeders who are upwind but who today do industrial breedingshe explains. We are no longer on the pastoralism of yesteryear which respected nature and which respected animals.”

For its part, justice considers that the conditions to justify scaring are not met. 70 brown bears have been recorded in the Pyrenees: they are considered animals in critical danger of extinction.