- The JJ4 bear, accused of killing the runner Andrea Papi, will not be put down: the Province of Trento has ordered its transfer to Germany.
- JJ4 is currently in the “prison” in the center of Casteller: thanks to the appeals of animal rights associations, the Province’s culling decree had been suspended.
- The Anti-vivisection League: “Good news, we hope that Fugatti has taken the path of dialogue.”
The JJ4 bear finally seems to have found a destination: by next autumn she will be transferred from the Province of Trento in Germany, to a refuge in the Black Forest. It could finally be the last act of a long, much discussed and also very painful story: the bear JJ4 is indicated by the Trentino authorities as being responsible for the fatal attack on 5 April last year, in which the young Trentino Andrea Papi, who was jogging in the woods near Caldes in Val di Sole, in the province of Trento. However, a subsequent medical-scientific report subsequently reopened strong doubts about JJ4’s responsibility in the tragic episode.
How did the transfer of JJ4 to Germany come about?
JJ4 is currently locked up in the Casteller alpine fauna recovery center together with another specimen, M49, but following the dissemination of an assessment carried out by the veterinary consultant of the Lav (anti-vivisection league) on the medical bulletins of the two bears, obtained by following access to the documents, which certifies the serious state of stress in which the bears find themselves, the hunting and fishing councilor of the Autonomous Province of Trento Roberto Failoni announced that in autumn JJ4 will be transferred to the refuge Alternative Wolf and Bear Parkin Germany.
The death of the runner Andrea Papi had caused a lot of outcry, triggering above all a political and media controversy over the presence of “problem bears” in the woods of Trentino Alto-Adige, which led to the killing of other specimens. Following the accident, the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti, issued orders and decrees to kill JJ4 and another specimen, identified with the acronym MJ5, believed responsible for injuring a hiker in early March. However, the Regional Administrative Court of Trento had suspended the culling decree for the JJ4 and Mj5 bears until at least June 27 following the requests of the animal rights groups who appealed, and who had identified a possible sanctuary shelter in Romania destination for bears.
What future for the other bears of Trentino?
The announcement of the transfer of the JJ4 horde to Germany, second Massimo Vitturi, Lav manager for wild animals,” then confirms JJ4’s safety. We take this declaration as a first concrete and positive signal from the Province of Trento towards all bears, a result which is also the result of our legal battles and dozens of our appeals to the TAR. However, we do not want the movement of M49, and therefore the emptying of the Casteller prison, to become a pretext for the Province to capture other bears”.
Furthermore, the animal rights activists continue, “one wonders why the Province did not act sooner, deciding to leave the bear for more than a year in conditions that were highly detrimental to its ethological needs, as fully detailed in the report carried out by our consultant ”.
It is difficult, however, to say whether the Province of Trento has really decided to start a new phase that finally favors peaceful coexistence with bears, through the widespread dissemination of tools and information necessary to prevent possible accidents also by educating citizens on the management of possible encounters with bears. Also because it only dates back to last February‘killing another bear, M90, only a few hours after the signing of the killing order by the president of the autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti: a very rapid execution of the act, aimed at not giving the associations time to appeal. And only a few days later the Provincial Council approved a law that allowed the culling of up to 8 bears a year to “keep the population under control”.
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