The legal battle over the fate of a
bear that attacked and killed a trail runner in the northern
Alpine province of Trento in early April continued on Tuesday as
a local court suspended a second order by the provincial
government to have it put down.
In its ruling, the local administrative tribunal (TAR) upheld an
appeal lodged by animal rights groups on Friday after Provincial
Governor Maurizio Fugatti issued a new edict for the 17-year-old
female bear tagged as Jj4 to be culled.
The same court had already suspended a first culling order
issued by Fugatti shortly after Jj4 attacked and killed
26-year-old Andrea Papi while he was out running in woods near
the town of Caldes in Trentino's Val di Sole on 5 April.
He was the first person to be killed by a bear in Italy in
modern times.
The order to kill Jj4 and another bear also known to be
dangerous has divided public opinion in Italy and prompted an
outcry among animal rights groups, which have slammed the
provincial government's "obsessive war on bears in Trentino".
Meanwhile, Jj4 has been captured and is being kept in an
enclosed area at the Casteller anima centre in Trento pending a
final decision on her fate.
Michela Vittoria Brambilla, president of the Italian League for
the Defense of Animals and the Environment (Leidaa), one of the
associations that appealed against the second culling order, on
Tuesday hailed the decision by the court.
"Jj4 is locked up at Casteller and therefore cannot harm
anyone," said the lawmaker and former tourism minister, adding
that she "truly hoped that the president and his government will
now stop sowing fear and hatred toward the bears of Trentino".
"This is not the way to handle the matter, she said.
"The narrative of 'killer bears' does serious damage to tourism,
which is important for the economy of the province of Trento,"
she concluded.
Green Europe national co-spokesman and Green and Left Alliance
lawmaker Angelo Bonelli likewise described the "policy of hatred
towards bears" allegedly enacted by the Trento provincial
government as "intolerable".
The TAR ruling "confirms the sloppiness with which the President
of the Province, Maurizio Fugatti, has handled the bear issue,
behaving as if they were his property, having done nothing to
prevent their concentration in the Val di Sol and to create
ecological corridors to encourage their dispersal throughout the
Eastern Alps, having forgotten to change the batteries in bear
JJ4's radio collar," said Bonelli.
Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin Putting has also
said that he hopes Jj4 can be transferred to a safe place rather
than be put down and has requested the involvement of animal
rights' associations in drawing up a plan to manage the bear
population in Trentino.
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