Shepherds in French National Parks Protest Inhumane Living Conditions with Rap Song

A cabin of four square meters at an altitude of more than 2,000 m, in the middle of the mountains, to be shared by two. Nothing to shower or eat. This is not the new challenge of a youtubeur but the daily life of certain shepherds and shepherdesses in mountain pastures, especially in national parks for “a dozen years”. Tired of not being heard by officials, they decided to denounce their working conditions in song.

“In this way, we will finally be listened to a little,” slips Fanny from the PastorX and the Black PatouX collective, at the initiative of the project with Noémi and Félix. The song is a tool to promote causes that we want to defend and for which we have not been heard for years. » At the same time, a petition was launched to support their claims.

Their first title, entitled “Niche à chien”, has just been released and already has 30,000 views. “It’s pastoral rap, says Félix with a smile, it’s never been done before. It came spontaneously and in the end, that’s what seemed to correspond the most with our rant. »

“It’s about our lives”

A “rant” that actually hides much more serious claims than a desire to create buzz. “Our lives are at stake,” loose Fanny. The one who has been practicing for five years, recalls that, when one is a “herdsman and in the mountain pastures”, one is in charge of hundreds of sheep, which must be kept, fed, protected. “We have to get up at night in the event of an attack,” she points out. We must be with the herd all the time and therefore sleep next to it during the season. [de deux à quinze semaines] “. Hence the need for decent housing. She also notes that last summer, the Labor Inspectorate checked shepherds’ huts in the departments of Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and that “none was up to standard”.

“There are these niches as we see in the clip but also caravans with holes or marabouts, quotes the 38-year-old woman. These homes are poorly insulated and poorly heated. Shepherds and shepherdesses become intoxicated, are victims of digestive problems because of the lack of drinking water. She adds: “There is no possible family life. All of this questions us about how we can exercise over time. We are talking about human lives. »

“We don’t want to let go of the job without changing it”

In addition to housing, the shepherds point the volunteer hours they perform. “We do 70 hours of work per week for 44-hour contracts,” emphasizes Fanny. And the equipment is at their expense as well as their dogs.

“It is for all these reasons that many do a bit of the job and then abandon it, notes the shepherdess. It is a danger for the profession which needs long-term transmission and investment. Especially since pastoralism really has its place. An observation shared by the 33-year-old shepherd. He wants to react now to imagine an “exemplary” future, which respects a territory, the flora, the animals that populate it, the herds and their shepherd.

“Pastoralism contributes to the preservation of the environment, the maintenance of spaces and the maintenance of a benevolent and respectful human presence in the mountains as well as in the plain. We don’t want to let go of the job without changing it. Behind us, there will be no more dog houses, there will be respected shepherds,” he hopes.

Upcoming changes?

But for that, you have to put the means. For PastorX and the Black PatouX, there is a “real gap” between the means put in by the national parks for “image and tourism” and those invested in the people who work there.

The Vanoise national park, in Savoie, directly targeted by the collective, has eleven “dog houses” which have been deployed since 2005. Through a press release, he explains that these helicopter emergency shelters are used to “provide a response quickly and temporarily to stockbreeders pending restoration or the construction of real housing. While conceding that the “finalization of these achievements” is sometimes “long” and that the shelters are “particularly Spartan”. The park then indicated that it was considering other projects for pastoral cabins.

“The wolf has been in all the mountain pastures for more than twenty years and we still have no lasting solutions”, replies Félix dissatisfied. Before adding: “If the national parks had not done it, no one would have dared to design such accommodation. »

While waiting for “things to move”, PastorX and the Black PatouX plans to release an album with notes of rap but also punk, sea shanties and traditional songs whose theme will remain the profession of shepherdess and shepherd.