After M90, sentenced to death in early February, and KJ1, killed at the end of July immediately after the killing decree, also the M91 bear was shot down by the agents of the Trentino Forestry Corps, at the disposal of the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti.
The bear, which had followed a hiker upstream from Molveno, on the Paganella plateau, at the end of April, had since then approached residential areas several times and had followed a person for a long time, which is why the authorities deemed it appropriate eliminate it in order to “ensure the protection of public safety and security”.
The specimen, according to the Province, has been classified as dangerous pursuant to Pacobace (Interregional Plan for the Conservation of the Brown Bear in the Central-Eastern Alps) up to grade 16 out of 18.
The response from LAV was not long in coming, having already expressed its opinion regarding the decision to apply the radio collar to him to monitor his movements. On the association’s FB page we read:
Horror again in Trentino: the young bear M91 was convicted and then killed in a few hours!Fugatti continues with his delirium of orsicidal omnipotence and has killed a bear again a few hours after signing the provision that provided for its culling. A cruel and anti-democratic act that did not allow us to appeal to the TAR!
The fact that the killing was carried out a few hours after the measure was issued would have prevented the animal rights associations from appealing in time. Which is why many of them, including LEAL, LEIDAA and OIPA, have declared in a joint statement that they will intervene – in the appropriate judicial offices to demonstrate the illegitimacy of the decree with consequent damage to wildlife and unnecessary killing of a (protected) animal. –
LAV underlines that in reality he was not aggressive at all, as described by the authorities, so much so that in April – despite the numerous provocations suffered by the man, not least a throwing of stones and threats with a stick, he had responded in an exemplary manner without no aggressive reaction. – While Leal declared: – if this is to be the yardstick of the current law, every game should be killed, even without a justified reason.-
Regarding the frequenting of anthropized areas, on several occasions he had been identified – while feeding from unprotected bins – the same bins, LAV highlights, – which Fugatti in his decree claims to have already replaced, clearly lying shamelessly. –
SOURCES: LAV/The Dolomites/Leal
