Letters: Patou dogs can spoil hiking trips in France
Readers share their opinions Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog
The Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog or patou is typically used to defend sheep - including against wolf attacks
Mikhail Farina/Shutterstock
To the Editor,
I read with interest the recent article about a shepherd defending his patou dogs and implying that tourists were the problem.
I am the same age as the shepherd and have been walking in the mountains for many decades.
The vast majority of shepherds I have come across have been kind, considerate and aware of where their dogs are and where walkers or climbers are.
My wife and I were walking in an unfrequented valley off the Col de Vars on the very day that your article was published.
We took a very wide detour to avoid the bergerie in the valley and when we pitched our tent the sheep were nearly 2km away.
As we were about to take a stroll from our tent, sheep unexpectedly appeared.
There was only one dog at first. We stayed motionless for one hour and 40 minutes with it barking constantly.
After an hour another dog could be heard, which was even more worrying. But this one seemed to stay with the sheep, which had moved off.
The patous outside our tent did not move and the sheep had long gone (the bells were hardly audible) before it wandered off. The shepherd did not appear.
It was a very unpleasant experience.
Don’t go into the mountains if one is scared of animals is, frankly, not a helpful thing to say. I am not scared of people but if a person comes up to me shouting and yelling, I am scared.
I don’t think Mr Riera really meant this. He surely knows how unpredictable animals can be.
I am not writing to anger the shepherd — he is clearly worried for his sheep. But I do think there is a problem brewing with so many more dogs in the mountains.
I suspect mountain villages and towns gain as much economically from tourism as they do from agriculture.
The mountains of France are very special and there is room for everybody who wishes to walk among them or raise sheep in them.
I think some more collaborative discussions could help the problem.
I return back to the mountains tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Dr John L Hart, by email
To the Editor,
Your article about the shepherd and his patou dogs was very interesting.
Shepherds deserve our respect, and I agree with the sensible comments made by Mr Riera.
As the saying goes: Some people are born with two brain cells, and one dies off.
Janet Forster, Aude
