vile and bloody act – The Time

The TAR, accepting the appeal of animal rights associations, had suspended two orders to kill the bear KJ1 who, at 22 years old, was the oldest in Trentino. Governor Maurizio Fugatti, strong in the green light from Ispra and the powers granted to him by the 2018 law on large carnivores, overnight signed the death sentence for the specimen responsible for 68 incursions against agricultural companies in the upper Garda area and 7 close encounters with humans. The last one on 16 July when, above the town of Dro, the plantigrade attacked a 43-year-old French tourist who was jogging, causing him injuries that would take 20 days to heal. This morning the plantigrade, who in recent days had been captured and equipped with a radio collar and then released back into the wild, was killed by the Forestry Corps.

“KJ1 was a dangerous specimen, according to the Pacobace scale – Fugatti specified in reference to the Interregional Action Plan for the conservation of the brown bear in the central-eastern Alps -. Ispra also confirmed this, confirming the need to remove the bear, classified as high risk, as soon as possible”. A vile and bloody act for the animal rights associations that have chosen the path of stamped papers to present complaints and reports to the European Union and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

If for Fratelli d’Italia, through the mouths of the deputies Alessia Ambrosi and Alessandro Urzì, «the cull was necessary but there is nothing to celebrate», the Minister of the Environment was lapidary. «I have already told President Fugatti: the suppression of individual bears is not the solution to the problem – said Gilberto Pichetto Fratin -. I understand the state of mind of the administrators and the population but today we are experiencing the effects of a mistake from the past, due to an incautious choice of touristic exploitation of the image of the bear in Trentino, made 25 years ago. Certainly one way forward is sterilization and we are working on it together with Ispra. But this measure, if not accompanied by a work of correct information to citizens and by new actions agreed with the administrations, will risk being insufficient. Certainly, as Minister of the Environment, I strongly reiterate that the suppression cannot represent the first and only solution to be implemented».