“The problem is not the bear JJ4, it ends up as it has to, I would shoot it tomorrow morning if they let me. The problem is not her but the approximately 70 bears in excess that there are in the area compared to the original project. In Trentino there are over 100 and they have not moved to the other regions”. This was stated by Maurizio Fugatti, president of the Autonomous Province of Trento when interviewed at the Lega’s Political Training School.
“I know that the issue is very divisive outside Trentino, but there it unites us a lot in our region – he added, speaking of the controversy over the slaughter of the animal -. The Trentino people are very united on this, it is right that others ask themselves why. A 26-year-old young man died because he was attacked by a bear, after seven, eight attacks on people, sorry to say but we knew it would happen, because there was no will and we always reasoned in ideological terms”.
“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 balance between man and animal with the numbers that exist is no longer acceptable, either we find a place to move these animals or we have to do as they do all over the world – concluded Fugatti -, where dangerous bears kill them as soon as they attack a person and for those in excess a selection is made. Trentino cannot distort its mountains and change its approach to life because there are bears”.
Animal rights activists: “For Fugatti, killing the bear Jj4 is now an obsession”
“Fugatti persists in invoking the death of the bear JJ4 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 an obsession wanting at all costs to kill the bear in order to be able to exhibit her as a macabre trophy in front of his acolytes”. To say it is the Lav (AntiVivisection League) contesting again the second culling order signed by the governor of Trentino, suspended precisely by the TAR until 11 May, against the she-bear responsible for the fatal attack on Andrea Papi, 26 years old Caldes, while he was running on the paths of Mount Peller.
“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”.
Obsession and persecution. Even Michela Brambilla, president of the Leidaa, uses similar terms to Lav towards the president of the Province of Trento: “Fugatti has an evident obsession with the bears of Trentino, otherwise, if I recall in 2012, he would not even have organized a banquet based bear meat at his party party: a madness that was stopped by the Nas. A bear is a super protected animal, so this episode speaks for itself.” After the latest culling order, Brambilla states that “we are confident that now the judiciary will put a stop to his persecution of all the bears in Trentino, aimed only at hiding the failure of local policy towards the repopulation project. There is no reason to kill a she-bear who is now in prison and therefore cannot harm anyone. This would, moreover, constitute the crime of killing an animal for cruelty without necessity, provided for by article 544 bis of our penal code Fugatti resign himself, the Italians love animals unlike him and therefore they will stop his arrogance”.
Meanwhile, the list of associations that have appealed against the ordinance is growing. In recent days, the Enpa (National Body for the Protection of Animals), Leidaa (Italian League for the Defense of Animals and the Environment) and Oipa (International Organization for the Protection of Animals) have announced an appeal against the latest provision signed by the president of the Province of Trento and have announced the presentation of a warning not to proceed with the killing in order not to incur the crime of killing animals without necessity.
In the past few hours, the Animalist Task Force, together with Meta (Ethical Movement for the Protection of Animals and the Environment), the Jigen Odv Foundation Association and the Animal Liberation Odv have communicated that they are forming themselves ad adiuvandum in the appeal before the Trento Tar to protect the life of the bear Jj4 against the provisions of the Province of Trento which order the abatement, as they believe that the provisions are illegitimate and disproportionate under various profiles, even under the profile of the competence of the body that issued it for violation of article 9 paragraph III of the Constitution which provides that the State and not President Fugatti are responsible for wildlife matters, and more generally for the fate of animals.