Two hikers injured by livestock guardian dogs in Val Sumvitg

Two German nationals suffered slight injuries on Monday afternoon in Val Sumvitg, in the Grisons, after encountering two livestock guardian dogs.

One of the hikers, aged 22, slid about ten metres down a slope. The police cannot confirm whether one of the dogs bit either of the two. Investigations are under way.

The inquiry has been entrusted to the Grisons office for food safety and animal health.

The problem with measures

The head of the office, Giochen Bearth, describes the difficulty facing the authority: "It is hard to adopt sensible measures that do not have a negative impact on flock protection." Each situation therefore has to be assessed individually.

According to Bearth it may become necessary to withdraw the dogs temporarily when a flock is in an area particularly popular with tourists. That is a targeted solution, applying to a single alpine pasture rather than to the whole system.

Conflicts between people and guardian dogs have not decreased in recent years. Bearth attributes the trend to two factors pulling in the same direction: demand for effective flock protection has grown, and with it the number of dogs in service, while summer tourism brings more people onto the alpine paths.

A similar incident occurred at the end of June in the Maighels area, in the municipality of Tujetsch. A man is reported to have been bitten there and filed a complaint with the Grisons cantonal police.

Guardian dogs are used on alpine pastures to defend flocks against large predators. Their task is to signal and drive off anyone approaching the animals, and that behaviour is triggered even when the stranger is a hiker.

It has not been announced how long the inquiry will take, nor whether the dogs involved will remain on the pasture. Neither has it been specified whether the office intends to revise its guidance for people using paths where flocks are present.