The female bear JJ4 suspected of killing 26-year-old Andrea Papi remains alive for the time being. Another bear that risked being shot, named MJ5, has also been spared that fate for the time being. The Italian court has Friday according to the ANSA news agency decided to postpone the verdict on the bear issue until the end of June, in the meantime the animals will remain alive.
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Bear JJ4 was captured after the fatal incident and taken to a secure shelter. On April 5, she attacked Papi, who was jogging in the mountains at the time. Presumably he made little noise, surprising mother bear JJ4 and her three cubs. She fatally wounded him and then dragged his body 200 feet with her.
Debate
Before the verdict on the fate of 17-year-old JJ4, there was a lot of discussion about the bear issue. Part of the population feels that the situation with the wild bears in the northern Italian Alpine province of Trentino has gotten out of hand; that the animals come too close and are too dangerous for humans. Three years ago, JJ4 already attacked a father and his son, who survived. Supporters of the bear’s death include the president of the province, Maurizio Fugatti, who signed a decree to have the bear euthanized. He did the same for two other bears, MJ5 and M62.
Animal rights organizations then went to court. Another part of the population wants to spare the bear. They say the fault lies with the province’s failing policies, not the bear itself.
The brown bear had been nearly extinct in Italy since the early 1980s. Around the turn of the century, ten bears from Slovenia were therefore released in the region. After the project to reintroduce the bear ended in 2004, more than a hundred were already out there. After that year, according to opponents of completing JJ4, less investment has been made in education, so that people no longer take precautions to keep bears at bay.