JJ4 bear is safe. At least for now. The Tar of Trento has in fact suspended the culling order for a month, accepting the requests of animal rights activists. Governor Maurizio Fugatti had instead ordered the killing of JJ4 or Gaia as her defenders renamed her, held responsible for having attacked two men, father and son, while they were in the woods on Mount Peller.
The Administrative Court will issue a decision at the end of the month. Meanwhile, another appeal to the TAR was announced by the Minister for the Environment Sergio Costa who deems the abatement decision "disproportionate".
Even the Tar seems to think so, arguing that, in essence, before the slaughter - in any case envisaged by the Pacobace protocol in case of danger - the Province of Trento must first implement measures such as the capture and confinement of the animal, as well as to apply the radio collar to the bear.
"They tell us where to put the bear", commented the President of the Province Fugatti.
The Tar's decision was welcomed with enthusiasm by the environmental associations that had promoted the appeal - LAC, LAV, LIPU, LNDC and WWF. The latter announced that the petition launched on 25 June – with the request to the province of Trento to withdraw the death sentence against the bear – has exceeded 100 signatures.
But in addition to the specific case of JJ4, the "automatic" culling of all bears involved in close encounters or accidents must be stopped immediately, by modifying the text of the Action Plan for the Conservation of Bears in the Alps (PACOBACE), which provides for the possibility of killing even in the case of bears that have simply done what nature has taught them, or caused a few thousand euros of damage.
"The signal that all these people send us, whom we thank, strengthened by the position of the TAR, is clear: we must certainly guarantee the safety of the local populations even with respect to these very rare accidents, but by making an effort to find alternative measures to abatement", he declared Marco Galaverni, scientific director of WWF Italy. “We are always available to sit down at a table with the province and the experts of ISPRA and the Ministry to seek shared and far-sighted solutions, and help put them into practice. Coexistence is a value that must be built day by day, in everyone's interest”.
