Aren’t those an ancient volunteer group? Our frog man is, as Mark Robbins says, and environmental police man. It just take a bit of getting used to having a person with a gun drinking coffee in your kitchen…
thats shocking.
When we were burgled the station is 20 minutes away, thy were here in 10 minutes, Municipal police when i called them in tarbes on the 3rd were there in under 5 mins.
Ive never had cause to call them on the hunters luckily as we have a good understanding in this area with the chasse and people tend to like that.
Have heard a few not so good experiences like your own as well.
They are Public Servants. Each one has to be a person of the highest integrity and their election has to be ratified by the Prefecture.
They are volunteers… in that they do not get paid for the work they do.
Copying and pasting is just as easy.
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We do have to remember that they are under resourced too, and Police Municipal, Nationale, and Gendarmes are allowed to eat, regardless of being on duty or not.
There is never however an excuse for discourtesy and rudeness.
Many people who speak ill of the gendarmes are also those who, speed/have a little tipple over the limit as the bar is not in walking distance etc.
My experience with the Police in France is totally different to the UK, I was one. We reported a theft to the Nationales in Paris, really nice and friendly but took hours, and as usual thery wanted to know my dead grandads inside leg measurement.
Then last year we found some old (possibly live) bullets, toog them to the local Gendarmerie and they were really friendly, but after taking all the details and looking at them, gave them us back and told us to call a number of a specialist Gendarme who will come and collect them for disposal. In the UK we would have seized them and some young CID lad would probably get the circus out and dig up all the garden looking for bodies!
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Or not.
Here we do not suffer from just discourtesy or rudeness but blatant rules for themselves and their family and friends as opposed to the rest of the population.
There will be porocesses in place to address this, if it is as bad as you say then you have a responsibility to report these matters so others do not suffer the same way, from this prejudice.
It is not easy to take a stand, but that is the only way to stop it. 
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They were looking for him as he was supposed to be at risk of suicide. He was seen in his car in a country lane.
He drove past the gendarmes and they shot at him with carbines and he was shot three times.
The presiding judge ordered a replay of the scene.
Apparently the gendarmes have been charged with misfiring their arms.
Not murder.
His sister is an avocat and is doing her best to stop them getting away with it.
Their names have not been published, as would have been the case if it were a member of the public.
It stinks to high heaven.
Our neighbour helped us save our dog from being shot by other neighbors who did not want to pay the 100 euros demanded by the SPA.
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And then become a sport for them to harass even more?
I don’t understand this - why was SPA demanding 100 euros and why were they trying to shoot your dog instead of paying it? I seem to be missing the connection.
It sounds very dangerous where you live, Jane.
In the late 80s I had a week long stay in a Gendarmerie - not as serious as it sounds, I was on an informal French Exchange with a family we knew well, their house was within the Gendarmerie compound - it was a truly fantastic week and a pleasure to see the mad off duty side of the Gendarmes - they were hilarious.
I think it was during this trip that I fell in love with France.
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Because the SPA asks for 100 euros to take an animal, which is refunded if it is rehomed.
A shotgun cartridge is cheaper.
Peasant farmers.
Hello Jane
I too am a bit confused here, why would they want to shoot your dog ? If it was your dog why would you take it to the SPA ?
by the sounds of it, it was not her dog but was theres and she now owns the dog.
Might be Harry, I think the confusion stems from what Jane posted …
“Our neighbour helped us save our dog from being shot by other neighbors who did not want to pay the 100 euros demanded by the SPA.”
If the dog was indeed saved and Jane took it in then good for her.
Farmers don’t see dogs and cats as pets like we do, and to them and some hunters ( a friend’s cat was shot and badly wounded while on his own land ) anything is ‘fair game’ . 
old school farmers maybe. Our neighbour is a farmer and he keeps his dogs inside the garden and sleeps in his home. Have to remember up until a few years ago dogs were not classed as pets by law but livestock rules.
slowly its trickling down and more and more people are registering their pets. its a slow process but like i said its not been that long only a couple of years.
needs to trickle a little faster around me,( @HP_Wagtastic) Harry. Many local farmers keep their hunting dogs in cages/pounds… and the nearest one keeps his dogs locked in the barn. Their barking/howling is a very sad sound…as it echoes across the valley. He is getting old now… and I am hoping that the dogs will outlive him and finally get their freedom. 
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