[Animals] Slovenia and Italy accelerate to kill brown bear specimens

[Draeno]

 

The brown bear does not live its best days in Slovenia and Italy. In the first country, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Territorial Affairs has just given the green light for the elimination of more than 200 of these large mammals, whose po[CENSORED]tion was decimated in Europe by hunting in the first half of the 20th century. In the Italian autonomous province of Trento, for days there has been a debate about the slaughter of two specimens considered dangerous to humans.

In both countries, the argument is similar, although the figures are very different: they argue that it is necessary to control the overpo[CENSORED]tion of bears (about 1,100 in Slovenia and 100 in the Trento area). In the case of Italy, what has given wings to the crusade of the provincial president, Maurizio Fugatti, of the ultra-right party of the League, has been a tragedy: that a bear, known by the acronym JJ4 and mother of three cubs, killed this month to a hiker, an event that adds to years of complaints from farmers about the damage that animals cause them.

judicial blockade
The matter is causing a huge controversy in the transalpine country and has not yet been closed. Despite the intentions of Fugatti, who has already signed the decrees to put an end to the life of the two animals, the Trento Administrative Court has provisionally blocked the killing of JJ4 and MJ5 to better examine the matter. The second bear is accused of having injured a person in an accident that has not yet been fully clarified. This is one of the arguments of the animalists, in particular the LAV and LAC associations, although not only they have raised the cry to heaven for the possible dejection of the two bears.

Various figures from politics, culture and the media have spoken out against it, including the former Italian Environment Minister, General Sergio Costa. “Fugatti has signed the dejection of MJ5. It will be a death without cause. I will continue fighting to preserve this life”, said Costa. Even more: even both parents of the deceased hiker have expressly stated that they are against the fact that the bear JJ4 is also sacrificed. “Vengeances do not interest us. Killing that bear does not mean justice," said the father, Carlo Papi, asking instead for clarification why the authorities did not take precautions to prevent the accident.

European project
The reason for this is that Fugatti, who has already said that he also intends to kill or move another 70 copies, has questioned the 'Life Ursus' project. This program, financed by the European Union, was launched when the brown bear was almost extinct in that area of Italy in the late 1990s. Then 10 specimens from Slovenia were introduced that were later reproduced. "This project was not a failure, it was a great success, internationally recognized (...) but the project ended in 2004 and after that the responsibility passed to the autonomous province of Trento", defended the zoologist Andrea Mustoni, former program coordinator.

Dispute in Slovenia
Another case is that of Slovenia, where only last year 206 bears were killed (in addition to four wolves), a figure 60% higher than the previous year. And, for now, the change of government last year, when the current Slovenian prime minister (with a liberal-environmental orientation) won, Robert Golob, has not meant a change in the aggressive policy of po[CENSORED]tion control of these animals.

 

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/sociedad/20230423/eslovenia-italia-aceleran-abatir-ejemplares-86323352