A little more than two weeks after the attack on a hunter by a bear in Seix in Ariège, the new prefect in charge of the bear in the Pyrenees gathered on Wednesday supporters and opponents of the plantigrade. Jean-Yves Chiaro recalled the contours of his mission: strengthen dialogue between all stakeholders and support the departmental prefects in the action they take as close as possible to the territories.
State funding for herd protection measures or the strengthening of teams intervening at night to scare off potentially dangerous bears, “certainly contribute to the decrease” in attacks, according to a statement released by the prefecture after this closed meeting of the Pastoralism and Bear group. Yann de Kérimel, representative of breeders and member of the Rural Coordination, contested the figures of the prefecture for which, in 2021, the number of animals attacked is “lower than all annual reports since 2017”. For him, “one can believe that it decreases because one overcounted those of the preceding years”.
Among the pro-bears, Alain Marek, Ariège delegate of Aspas (Association for the protection of wild animals), deemed sufficient the current annual increase of 10% in the number of bears, not wanting new introductions likely to undermine the necessary “dialogue”, in particular with breeders. For Patrick Leyrissoux, of Ferus, another pro-bear association, “we must continue to put protections” in order to further limit the attacks. On the other hand, for Yann de Kérimel, these protections harm the ewes, which are also “wild animals” and are not intended to be grouped together every evening to avoid the attacks of these “non-Pyrenean” bears who “unfortunately have the ‘habit of approaching man and herds “.
According to meeting participants, the authorities presented a roadmap for 2022 including an increase in the “bear budget” beyond nine million euros.