The president of the Autonomous Province of Trento was ready to ask for it to be demolished as it was considered dangerous. The Enpa: “Strong fear of poaching”
In Trentino the carcass of a bear was found by a group of hikers in an inaccessible area between Lake Molveno and San Lorenzo Dorsino. “It’s about the specimen M62 – let the Province know -. The animal is in a state of decomposition, but its identity is confirmed by ear tags. The causes of death will be established by the Istituto zooprofilattico delle Venezie”. M62 is one of the bears for which the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti, was ready to ask for it to be slaughtered as it was considered dangerous.
Enpa: “Strong fear of poaching” “We are saddened, shocked and extremely concerned by the death of M62,” the National Animal Protection Agency said. “We would not want the campaign of hate and revenge, a real witch hunt, unleashed by Fugatti to end up arming the hand of poachers. M62 was sentenced to death only because in the past he had approached inhabited areas where he had been lured from the waste left unattended. The association is awaiting the necropsy examination on the body of the poor animal. If human responsibility in the death of M62 should emerge, Enpa will immediately proceed to take legal action”.
The discovery of lifeless M62 comes in the aftermath of the latest statements by the President of the Province Fugatti on the bears present in the area. “The problem is not the bear JJ4, it ends up as it has to, I would shoot it down tomorrow morning if they let me. The problem is not her but the approximately 70 bears in excess of the area compared to the original project. In Trentino there are over 100 and they have not moved to the other regions, ”she declared in a speech at the Lega’s Political Training School.
“The problem is the coexistence that Trentino people have with bears, there is a risk for people’s safety – he continued -. I don’t expect the institutions to find a place for JJ4 but for the bears who are in excess, in this way the problem is tackled seriously. Otherwise the project is doomed to fail. Otherwise we save JJ4 and in 2030 we will be at 170 bears and then at 200, and then we will count the attacks”.
The response from the Lav animal welfare association was not long in coming, who echoed the immediate comment to Angelo Bonelli, deputy of the Green-Left Alliance. In fact, he had spoken of Fugatti’s “obsession” with bears, asking for the intervention of Environment Minister Pichetto Fratin. Not different, therefore, are the words of Lav.
“Fugatti persists in invoking the death of the JJ4 bear with a sentence that should be carried out on May 11 by the veterinarians of the Trento health company, employees of the president himself. It is clear that Fugatti’s is now a obsession, wanting at all costs to kill the she-bear in order to be able to exhibit her as a macabre trophy in front of her acolytes”, Lav wrote in a statement, also contesting the second culling order suspended by the TAR until 11 May.
“We have already provided precise information on the two shelters that have become available for days to take care of the bear – adds Lav -. One is in Germany, the other in Jordan. We await the outcome of our appeal with confidence Tar with which we hope to block Fugatti’s fury against a she-bear which by now does not constitute any danger and which, if entrusted to us, we would transfer to a shelter abroad at our expense”.
Meanwhile, other signals are coming from Piedmont with respect to the human-bear coexistence. The M29 bear lives in the Val Grande national park, in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola: it is a male specimen, it is more than ten years old and arrived in Piedmont via Switzerland, after being dispersed starting from Trentino. Its presence in the area had already been reported in 2019, and in recent days some footprints have been found in the snow between Bocchetta di Vald and Moncucco, between Valle Loana and Val Grande.
The animal, explains the president of the park Luigi Spadone, has never shown “problematic” behavior and, in all these years, sightings have been few, testifying to its shy nature. From Spadone, then, the invitation to hikers to continue to visit the park without fear, but avoid hunting for the animal’s footprints. “Let’s avoid this type of tourism, which makes no sense and has nothing to do with respect for nature”, his words to the newspaper
The Prealpine.