DOGS OF THE PYRENEES

Evening Star, Issue 23094, 21 October 1938, Page 12

DOGS OF THE PYRENEES

The exploits of the St. Bernard dog are familiar to everybody, but a similar breed in the. Pyrenees is rarely heard about. Yet the Pyrenees mountain, dogs perform equivalent feats .of lira saving, and only recently, when refugees were lost in snowdrifts" in their efforts to escape from Spam into France, these animals were .-of great usefulness in rescue parties. Ma y a refugee to-day owes his life to these magnificent animals, which resemble the St. Bernard in form but are usually white, sometimes with black or dark brown flecks, instead of having -he taw'nyi’coats of the - Alpine * breed.. The Pyrenees mountain dog is pew haps the bravest of animals, and > ju> tainly the best, fighter of all dovy He is of a very special breed which is curiously dying out as the number of bears diminish. This dog and the bears of the Pyrenees have always been - mortal enemies. They invariably fight they meet, and as invariably the bean wins, generally killing the dog. _ In spite of that the dog always, attacks the bear. , . And yet the Pyrenees dogs are the gentlest of animals. They are used for guarding cattle during the summer when the flocks go grazing high up in the mountains. At lower altitudes! ey are not at their ease, and are even extremely difficult to bring up away from the mountains. Tourists uLuiro them, and in Luchon or Cante.'tts, where there are a number of them, children play with them, and no matter how much they tease them, no d ig has ever been known to bite a human being. Thick white fur protects -h.-.a against the cold nights in the moan* tains and the claws of the bear in * fiS One of them, now “ T etired, ”■ passes his old age at the Hospice de France, a refuge near the Spanish'frontier. Its name is Tina, and Tina’s - legendary feats are famous all over the Pyrenees. Tina is the only dog that so hurt a bear that the shepherd was able to com©- up and kill the bear before it got away. Tina limps, and Turn can only cock'one ear: for the other was lost in. some heroic battle* but lina can still wag its tail and grunt with delight when a tired tourist-clumps bis heavy boots down by the fire at the Hospice de France.