Animal rights groups decry ‘brutal’ killing of bear by Italian forestry police

A bear at the Parco Faunistico in Spormaggiore. An animal rights group said Trentino’s policy was ‘shortsighted and hostile to animals’. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Animal rights activists have decried the “brutal” culling of a bear by forestry police in Trentino following orders from the president of the mountainous northern Italian province.

M90, a brown bear, was deemed to be a “danger to public security” after the animal was alleged to have intentionally followed people on three occasions, most recently a couple of hikers who were walking along a mountain path 1,400 metres above the town of Ortisé in the Val di Sole.