The M90 bear was shot down after the green light given by the Province of Trento.
On January 28, the plantigrade had followed a couple to Mezzana, in Val di Sole.
The killing, in the Trentino valley, took place a few hours after the decree signed on the morning of Tuesday 6 February by the president of the Province of Trento Maurizio Fugatti, who instructed the Forestry Corps to identify the specimen and kill it.
The M90 bear had a radio collar from the night between 14 and 15 September 2023. Until 28 January, 12 approaches were reported "in a residential center or in the immediate vicinity of homes permanently in use" (case 13 of Pacobace) and 3 cases which fall within case 16 of Pacobace ("Bear intentionally follows people").
Animal rights activists announce battle
"We hoped until the end for a change of heart, in consideration of the special protection that the species also enjoys at European level and in compliance with Article 9 of the Constitution which protects biodiversity, but President Fugatti was also deaf to the requests of the public opinion that would like an animal-friendly Trentino".
Thus, in a note, the International Organization for Animal Protection (Oipa), announcing its intention to request access to the documents to know the details of the affair and to find out how the killing was carried out.
"The Province of Trento's policy is short-sighted and hostile to animals and does not protect biodiversity", states Oipa.
The Lav intervenes to point out that the types narrow between the decree and the killing of the specimen have not allowed us to carry out the appeal.
"We were prevented from defending M90 by appealing to the TAR against his death sentence, but we will not stop in the face of wild killers. We are already working to obtain justice for M90 and all the other bears casually found dead after killing sentences" declared Massimo Vitturi, wildlife area manager of the animal rights association.
The national president of Enpa, Carla Rocchi, in a statement, speaks of "horror, dismay and profound indignation", highlighting how the body will undertake "all the necessary actions to ensure that the president of the Province of Trento is accountable for his decisions in all appropriate venues, Italian and European, including courts".
The Italian Animalists association then launched an appeal to the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and to the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin to "save the life of the bears".
Animal rights demonstration on Saturday
After the killing of the M90 bear, the activists of the StopCasteller campaign recall that on Saturday 10 February they are organizing a national demonstration in Trento against what they define as the "bloody management" of large carnivores in Trentino.
Joining the march - a note states - are Lav, Lac, Lndc Animal Protection, Animal Liberaction, Ribellione Animale and Bearsandothers.
The event is also supported by the journalist Andrea Scanzi and the actresses Caterina Murino and Elisa d'Eusanio.
"To all those who think that what is happening in Trentino is a local anomaly, we remind you that the responsibility also lies with the national institutions: the hands of Piero Genovesi from Ispra, who on Friday gave his approval to the killing of the Sonny-M90 bear", the activists add in the note.
In the meantime, Centopercentoanimalisti has announced a demonstration in front of the Alpine fauna recovery center at Casteller, in Trento, on Saturday 2 March, starting at 2pm from Villazzano station.
Pichetto: "Culling cannot be the only solution"
"Suppression cannot be the only alternative. If what has been implemented so far with the province of Trento has not been sufficient, the commitment - on everyone's part - must be to multiply efforts to identify every possible solution to guarantee peaceful coexistence in the territories. I have once again mobilized all the structures that report to the Ministry to define a timely strategy in which culling must truly be the extreme solution".
This is what the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security,
Gilberto Pichetto
, declared .
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