The hashtag #BoycottTrentino has gone
viral on social media in Italy as animal rights activists and
sympathisers lobby fiercely against plans to put down a killer
bear in the northern Italian region.
The female bear, JJ4, killed 26-year-old trail runner Andrea
Papi on April 5, the first Italian to be killed by a bear in
modern times. He is thought to have run into her on a trail and
she reacted while protecting her three cubs.
The bear is now waiting to hear if she will be euthanised or
just placed into captivity somewhere.
The new hashtag was coined against Trento Provincial President
Maurizo Fugatti of the rightwing League party who has called for
JJ4 to be eliminated as there is a risk she may kill again. Many
of those posting said they won't vacation in Trentino again and
came out strongly against JJ4's being put down.
"I will never again go to Trentino or to any of the areas run by
the League," wrote Roberto.
"It's horrible, we have to get her out as soon as possible,
moving her to the place that has been found for her, possibly
with her cubs; and never again holidays in Trentino," wrote
Sara, referring to a haven animal rights group LAV have found
for JJ4.
Francesca said, with a weeping gave emoticon: "the bear has
been captured and separated from her cubs, why so much cruelty?"
Ipazia wrote "enough with the witch hunts by these inadequate
politicians" Stop massacring Trentino bears"
Roby tweeted: "Do you really want to find yourselves in the
middle of these people? Their hotels must be left empty".
Stefano says of the captured bear: "She only did what every
parent does. Defending her territory and her cubs. The woods
belong to the bears. The ocean is for sharks. Mountains are for
avalanches. The city is for human animals".
WWF Italia said: "someone should explain to the president of the
autonomous province of Trento that there is not electoral
campaign between the bear party and the anti-bear party and that
when he speaks about the bear JJ4 he is talking about a living
being and not an object.
"The tap of propaganda on the management of bears in Trentino
must be turned off."
Other animal rights groups said they would defend JJ4 "in all
the ways that we are allowed to".
Paolo Colangelo of the National Research Council (CNR) said
"bears only become aggressive when they feel threatened", adding
that "in Trentino they have lost the culture of cohabiting with
the animals".
The bear population in Trentino has boomed to around 120
exemplars after the start of a campaign to stop them dying out
at the turn of the millennium.
Other countries including Romania and Slovenia are implementing
culls to curb growing bear populations.
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