Enlarge image
Brown bears in France (symbolic image): Once they were almost extinct in the country
Photo: Gerard Lacz / VWPics / IMAGO
In certain circumstances, farmers in France are allowed to shoot brown bears with rubber bullets to save their livestock.
The Ministry of the Environment in Paris issued this regulation.
If it is not possible to scare bears away with stun guns or flares, non-lethal ammunition may be fired directly at the animals upon request.
The prerequisite is that animal owners have already taken all the planned measures to protect their herds and their cattle have been repeatedly attacked.
The new regulation had been tested since 2019.
They live in the Pyrenees
In France, brown bears are found only in the Pyrenees.
The animals were almost extinct in 1995.
An estimated 70 animals now live on the French side of the mountains.
There were 331 bear attacks on livestock and two on beehives last year.
In 2020, cattle were attacked 369 times and bears tampered with beehives five times.
jpz/AFP
