The carcass of a bear was found by a group of hikers in an inaccessible area between the lake Molveno and San Lorenzo Dorsino, in Trentino. It’s about the specimen M62. The animal appears to be in a state of decomposition. His identity is confirmed by ear tags. The cause of death will be established by the Venetian experimental zooprophylactic institute, to which the specimen will be delivered. The recovery was carried out by the Trentino Forestry Corps. According to the Trentino Forestry Department, the wounds found on the bear’s carcass are probably attributable to the attack of an adult male bear. As reported by the Trentino foresters, who intervened for the removal of the 5-year-old animal, it is “a hypothesis that will be confirmed in the next few days by the analyzes of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of the Venezie”. Clashes between bears can take place throughout the year and in the mating season, which has already begun, the risk increases. The bear ‘M62’ was identified thanks to the ear tags that were applied to it in November 2021.
The Problem Bear
M62 was one of the problematic bears, on Ispra it was issuing an opinion for the killing. Killing that the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento Maurizio Fugatti came back to plead for the bear JJ4, the animal that attacked and killed the 26-year-old runner Andrea Papi. “The problem is not the JJ4 bear, it ends up as it has to, I would shoot it down tomorrow morning if they let me. The problem is not her – said Fugatti – but the approximately 70 excess bears that exist in the area compared to the original project. In Trentino there are over 100 and they have not moved to the other regions”. “I know that the issue is very divisive outside Trentino – continued Fugatti – instead there it unites us a lot in our region – he added speaking of the controversy over the killing of the animal -. The Trentino people are very united on this, it is right that the others wonder why. A 26-year-old young man died because he was attacked by a bear, after seven, eight attacks on people. I’m sorry to say it but we knew it would happen, because there was no will and we always reasoned in terms ideological”.
Animal rights activists and the autopsy
The animal rights activists, who are fighting to save JJ4, are of the opposite opinion. The Leal, Odv and Zampe associations, with the patronage of lawyers Rosaria Loprete and Giada Bernardi, proceeded to send a request for access to the documents relating to the discovery of the carcass of the M62 bear to the Forestry Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento and to the Istituto zooprofilattico delle Venezie. The animal rights activists ask to be able to participate in the autopsy of the animal, found this morning in a state of decomposition.
The attack of the environmentalist deputy
“The woods are full of pitfalls, even for bears. The necropsy examination will clarify what M62 died of, a young male, about 4-5 years old, included in the list of ‘sentenced to death’ by the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti. only because he was ‘confidant’: he had never attacked anyone. Of course, if the hand and the intention of the man had something to do with this death, that is, if we were dealing with an act of poaching, we would know well how to frame the event: in the climate of fear and hatred created and fueled by Fugatti. The president of the Province would bear the moral responsibility. As for any material executors, we would act in every venue so that they do not go unpunished”. As Michele Vittoria Brambillapresident of the Parliamentary Intergroup for Animal Rights and the Protection of the Environment and of the Italian League for the Defense of Animals and the Environment, which already in 2017 railed against the killing of the bear KJ2.