Enlarge image
Do not Scare!
A brown bear in France (icon image)
Photo: Gerard Lacz / VWPics / IMAGO
A flock of sheep with 170 animals fell in the Pyrenees - and this has fueled a dispute between animal rights activists and shepherds again.
"Before there were bears here, there were no crashes like this," Ustou Mayor Alain Servat said on Tuesday.
Servat is also the chairman of a regional shepherd association.
Bear advocates point out that there is no evidence that a bear caused the stampede among the sheep.
"Anything can cause a herd to fall, a dog, a wild boar, a thunderstorm," said Alain Reynes of the Bear Country Association.
He pointed out that there would only be compensation for the animals killed if a bear was suspected to be the cause of the crash - even if there was no evidence to support it.
"A perverted system," he said.
About 70 bears live in the Pyrenees
In the Pyrenees, there has been a heated argument for years between advocates of biodiversity - including the reintroduced brown bears - and the shepherds, who fear for their herds.
In the mid-1990s, France introduced bears from Slovenia after the native animals had almost become extinct.
Around 70 brown bears now live in the Pyrenees, mainly in the Ariège department and in the Spanish Val d'Aran.
At least four bears have been killed by humans in the past two years, according to animal rights activists.
has/AFP