Every dog has its day, but monks say time's up for Saint Bernards

Published: 2004-10-22

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Swiss officials have urged Augustinian monks at the world's highest church to reconsider plans to sell their Saint Bernard mountain dogs. "We just can't understand it," said Barbara Ziegler, director of the tourist office in nearby Martigny, Switzerland. "These dogs are the monastery's major source of revenue. We can't see any reason for selling them." The Canons of the Great St. Bernard plan to auction the dogs, who became famous for saving stranded travelers in the stormy Great St. Bernard Pass, near the monks' mountaintop hostel. A monastery spokeswoman defended the decision and said the congregation's current 34 dogs had served their purpose. The spokeswoman, Beatrice Troillet, a member of the Swiss Saint Bernard Association, told Catholic News Service in an Oct. 19 telephone interview that male Saint Bernards, weighing up to 220 pounds, consumed 4.4 pounds of meat daily and were a major expense in time and money to the monastery. She added that the congregation of Canons could barely cope with other tasks, which include running a boys' boarding school and welcoming more than 50,000 visitors annually.

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