A nationwide row has erupted in Italy after vets threatened to refuse to put down a bear that killed a jogger, whose body was found mutilated by deep claw and bite wounds.
A sniffer dog located the body of Andrea Papi, 26, in early April by following a long trail of blood that led into the forest above his house in the Alpine province of Trento.
Authorities in Trento said the bear – a 17-year-old female identified as JJ4 – was captured last Tuesday using a tube trap and taken to an enclosure in a wildlife park in Castellar, sparking a row over whether the animal should be put down or spared.
Ten brown bears were brought from Slovenia as part of a repopulation programme in 1999. Despite estimates at the time suggesting the population would reach just 50, it has grown to 120.
Residents living around the Caldes, where Mr Papi lived, say they are tired of the threat of attack.
Despite seven non-fatal attacks occurring before Mr Papi’s death, almost 300,000 people have signed a petition demanding the bear’s release.
Maurizio Fugatti, the governor of Trento, has ordered the bear to be put to death. But vets have threatened to refuse amid demonstrations outside the governor’s office.
The court is expected to decide on the issue on 11 May.
It comes after a previous order by Mr Fugatti to kill JJ4 was cancelled by an administrative court after it attacked two hikers, a father and son, in 2020.
“If the court proves us to be right, the bear will be put down,” Mr Fugatti said last week. “It is the news we would have liked to have given in 2020 following the attack against a father and son. There is bitterness about what has happened this time.”
The governor also said he was preparing to issue orders for the culling of two other bears deemed to be dangerous – MJ5, which attacked a man in March, and M62.
Mr Fugatti is seeking the transfer of some 60 “excess” bears from the Trento region and said he planned to convene a working group to discuss the next steps.
A coalition of animal rights groups, including the International Organisation of Animal Protection, or OIPA, vowed to defend JJ4 and her cubs “via all available legal means.”
Mr Papi’s parents said they did not want JJ4 to be killed but that they want justice for their son. “It’s too easy to say he shouldn’t have been running there,” his mother told Rai 2, adding that local residents did not know of the “problematic” bears.
