Between the drought and especially the absence for almost 20 years of a path to be able to connect his farm with the road (see elsewhere), Pascal Picard’s everyday life is already not easy. Despite everything, the farmer holds firm, convinced of the potential of his 17 ha of land, especially in tourism, the latter located at the foot of the Cabris peak and offering a 180 degree view of the plain, the ramparts and the Biberon waterfall. , all in an Olympic calm. A land where ancient tea plants have returned to nature and rub shoulders with guava trees and other medicinal plants. In the absence of a farm road, he currently cultivates only 3,000 m2 and has diversified into livestock farming with the support of agricultural technicians. Poultry, resold via word of mouth and in the markets. Diversification on track, but undermined 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 eaten, just killed. For “the game” it seems. In one year, the addition has risen to a hundred animals killed.
Upcoming operations
Poultry, which until then they raised under the open sky, but which he had to decide to close in a park in the evening for fear that the dogs would return and destroy all his breeding. “They are stray dogs, but they also have owners,” says the farmer. He claims that he has already crossed one of his neighbors’ dog with one of his chickens in his mouth… He identified another, of the Malinois type. Attacks that would occur at night and early in the morning.
Pascal Picard contacted Cirest to install a cage in his home to catch these dogs, but the requested deposit is too high. If he did not file a complaint, he contacted the municipal police to get in touch with his neighbors. “Let them tie up their dogs or I’ll solve the problem,” he warns. He calls for the creation of a kind of “brigade” which will be dedicated to the capture of dogs, while the sector was already in November the subject of a violent attack on a sheep farmer with 17 animals. In response, the city hall and the pound of Cirest installed cages at the breeder and multiplied the rounds. Instead of once before, the pound now goes to Sletten two to three times a week with more catches. If the dogs were not chipped, the head of the city’s security department, Bernard Bege, also believes that stray dogs are involved in these attacks, “the animals have been killed but not eaten”. He tried unsuccessfully to meet the suspected owners, but warns that major capture operations will soon be organized. After similar attacks in the Hauts de Sainte-Rose or in the South, the latter no longer spared any sector.
PM
> “Wild” dogs caught
During the year, 197 dogs were caught on the plain by the Cirest pound in cooperation with the municipality’s municipal police. The head of the safety unit, Bernard Bege, points to the consequence of many abandonments which have been made at the Col de Bellevue, but also along the RN3 towards Saint-Benoît. Abandonments which have a serious consequence: the birth of “wild” dogs because they have never known humans. Wild-born dogs. An already very real threat: thus recently such dogs have been caught in the Bébour forest thanks to cages.
> Landlocked for 19 years
In our edition of January 21, 2022, we tell the story of Pascal Picard, who has been “landlocked” for 19 years now after the purchase of 17 hectares of land that was originally sold by SAFER, but without a road utilization, due to lack of right of way. of the owner of the land around his. After a long legal marathon, the farmer hopes to see the end of the tunnel after the signing of an agreement in October 2020 between the town hall and GFA les Arums, to which he leases the land. In 2019, the town hall bought 18 ha from the previous owner, which is to be cultivated with the establishment of municipal greenhouses. A linear of more than 600 meters must be concreted to open the land, but also these annexes to put them in cultivation. Contracts that will be administered directly by the city, where the latter has decided to leave SAFER for the management of these agricultural lands. According to the town hall, construction should start by the end of the year.
