Saturday, while he was in the Couserans massif, in Ariège, for a wild boar beat, a hunter was seriously injured by a bear he shot. This accident has increased the tensions between supporters and opponents of the reintroduction of plantigrade in the Pyrenees, at daggers drawn for several years.
In an attempt to calm the tensions between the different actors, the prefecture of Occitanie appointed a delegated prefect to this issue, Jean-Yves Chiaro, on November 19, the day before the tragedy that occurred in the town of Seix. “Its mission will be to strengthen dialogue between all the players and to support the departmental prefects in the action they carry out as close as possible to the territories. The delegated prefect will be present during the group “Pastoralism and bears of the massif” that the coordinating prefect brings together on December 8th. He will immediately go to meet the players in the field, ”state services explained in a press release.
25 years of opposition
Twenty-five years after the first bear releases in the Pyrenees, opposition is still strong on the massif. The pro-bears have just launched a petition calling for an end to the beatings in areas where there are many plantigrades.
For their part, the anti-bears have an appointment this Thursday for the installation of the Avenir Montagne Parliament in Ariège, carried by the departmental council for which “cohabitation” with large predators is impossible.