About thirty ranchers blocked the C-13 highway at the entrance to Sort this Tuesday with three tractors to protest the “disastrous management” of the bear.
The ranchers ask the administration to “avoid major problems” to make perimeter closures for the bears so that the bears can roam free and it is the ranchers who must enclose the livestock.
The ranchers are categorical and affirm that the coexistence of extensive livestock farming and the presence of bone “is impossible.”
They consider that now the problem is with the livestock farmers, but that it will soon be the tourist sector, given that the plantigrades are getting closer to the population centers, as happened last week in Alins and Àneu, in the Pallars Sobirà.
The rancher Xavier Rivera has called for unity and has said that they must make a “consensus proposal” together with the regional administrations to define the future of extensive livestock farming and the presence of bone.
Rivera has been pessimistic and has said that at the moment the only thing the ranchers have are “animal casualties” due to bear attacks.
Farmers do not only talk about bears but also about wildlife such as vultures or mouflons and say that they are forced to buy grass because the wildlife eats the grass in the meadows.
The president of ASAJA of Lleida, Pere Roqué, has insisted that “there cannot be coexistence between bears and extensive livestock farming” and has stated that it has been proven that “it is not feasible.”
Roqué has asked political leaders to “cut the direct aid line for the reintroduction and conservation of the brown bear throughout the State” and to incorporate this request into their electoral programs for the European elections.
The representative of Revolta Pagesa, Gerard Cardona, has said that the situation that is occurring this spring “is unsustainable” given that every day they have news of ranchers who have seen a bear, people who have encountered it walking or sightings next to the bears. towns.
Cardona has warned that “the problem begins now” because the animals will soon go up the mountain. For all this, she has asked the administration to find a solution and provide a clear protocol for action.
