Swiss foundation rescues Alpine monks' St Bernard dogs
ENI-05-0004
Geneva, 4 January (ENI)--A Swiss foundation is to take over the
stock of St Bernard mountain dogs which Roman Catholic monks put
up for sale because they did not have the resources to look after
the creatures famed for rescuing travellers in the Alps.
The foundation is being set up in January to look after the dogs,
and a former Geneva private banker is to donate 4 million Swiss
francs (US$3.47 million) to build a museum for them in Martigny,
a town of 14 000 inhabitants in the Rhone Valley.
"This dog is a symbol that is part of our history and it is our
duty to keep the legend alive," said the banker, Bernard de
Watteville, quoted in Switzerland's Le Temps daily newspaper.
The dogs are kept by the monks in the St Bernard Hospice, located
almost 2500 metres above sea-level on a pass that leads to Italy.
The creatures are reputed to have rescued more than 2000 people
over the past 200 years.
Still, in recent decades helicopters rather than the dogs have
been used to find stranded travellers.
The number of monks at the hospice has been declining in recent
years and they announced last October they intended to auction
the St Bernard dogs. They said the animals represented a major
expense in time and money.
Still, they said dogs would not disappear from the mountain as
the new owners would be asked to bring their charges back to the
hospice for the tourist season.
The new foundation which is to breed the dogs in future is called
"Barry" after a rescue dog born in 1800 that saved 41 lives.
It will work closely with another foundation named after Bernard
and Caroline de Watteville, who are supporting the construction
of the museum, the Swissinfo service of the Swiss Broadcasting
Corporation reported.
Monks began training mountain dogs in the late 17th century to
come to the aid of travellers on the pass, which suffers from
wind and snow for about 245 days each year.
The high-stamina, disease-resistant dog became noted for its keen
senses, and could find tracks and smell-out buried avalanche
victims.
The animals traditionally worked in pairs on rescue operations,
with one dog going to raise the alarm, while the other sat atop
stranded hikers, licking them to keep them warm.
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