A farm destroyed by the neighbors’ dogs

Being able to connect your farm to the road, especially between the drought and the lack of a road for almost 20 years (see elsewhere), Pascal Picard’s daily life is not easy. Despite everything, the farmer firmly clings to the potential of his 17 hectares, especially in the field of tourism, the latter is located at the foot of the Cabris peak and offers a 180-degree view of the plain, the castle walls and the Biberon waterfall. , all in Olympic calm. A land where ancient river plants have returned to the wild and rubbed shoulders with guava trees and other medicinal plants. As there is no farm road, it is currently cultivated on an area of ​​only 3000 m2 and engaged in animal husbandry with the support of agricultural technicians. Poultry is resold through word of mouth and markets. Diversification on the right track, but weakened by frequent dog attacks. Since Christmas, he estimates the number of roosters, hens, geese and other ducks killed at about twenty. Eight for Tuesday alone. Not washed, just killed. Appears for “game”. An additional hundred animals were killed within a year.

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Poultry, which until then they had raised in the open air, but for fear of the dogs returning and exterminating all his brood, he decided to confine it to the park in the evening. “These are stray dogs, but they also have owners,” says the farmer. He already claims that one of his neighbors’ dog passed his chickens in his mouth… He identified another Malinois-type dog. Attacks will occur at night and early in the morning.

Pascal Picard contacted Cirest to install a cage at his home to hold these dogs, but the deposit required is too high. If he did not complain, he applied to the municipal police to contact his neighbors. “Tie up your dogs or I’ll take care of the problem,” he warns. He is calling for the creation of a sort of “brigade” dedicated to catching dogs, with the sector already the target of a violent attack on a sheep farmer with 17 animals in November. In response, the municipality and the Cirest pound installed cages at the breeder and multiplied the rounds. Compared to many times before, the pound now goes to the Plains two to three times a week, taking several captures. If the dogs were not broken, Bernard Bege, head of the city’s security department, thinks that stray dogs are involved in these attacks, “animals are killed but not eaten.” He unsuccessfully attempted to meet the suspected owners, but warned that major seizure operations would soon be mounted. After similar attacks in the Hauts de Sainte-Rose or the South, the latter no longer spared any sector.

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> “Wild” dogs are caught

During the year, 197 dogs were caught in the Plain by the Cirest pound together with the municipal police of the municipality. Bernard Bege, head of safety, points to the consequences of many abandonments at the Col de Bellevue, but also along the RN3 in the direction of Saint-Benoît. Abandons with serious consequences: the birth of “feral” dogs because they have never known humans. Wild born dogs. It is already a very real threat: the capture of such dogs has recently been carried out thanks to cages in the Tiger forest.

> It has been landlocked for 19 years

In our issue of January 21, 2022, we tell the story of Pascal Picard, who has been “landlocked” for 19 years after purchasing 17 hectares of land, originally sold by SAFER but with no road. Exploitation by the owner of the surrounding land as there is no right of way. After a long legal marathon, the farmer hopes to see the end of the tunnel in October 2020 after the agreement between the municipality and GFA les Arums, from which he leases the land, is signed. In 2019, the mayor’s office bought 18 hectares of land from the former owner, which will be cultivated with the establishment of municipal greenhouses. More than 600 meters of line must be concretized to open the soil, but also these additions to cultivate them. Contracts to be administered directly by the city, the latter decided to separate from SAFER to manage these agricultural lands. According to the municipality, the construction should start by the end of the year.