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The autonomous province of Trento, led by governor Maurizio Fugatti, intends to kill another bear.This time, the M90 plantigrade, about three years old, ended up in the crosshairs of the provincial authorities, which last Sunday was said to have been the protagonist of the pursuit of an engaged couple on a forest road in the municipality of Mezzana.Although no injuries were reported, the PAT decided to start proceedings for the death sentence of M90, deemed "dangerous".The Province has in fact already taken steps to inform Ispra and has announced that it is working to reconstruct the facts and ascertain with certainty what happened "in order to complete the removal request through demolition“.Regarding the dynamics of the facts, however, there is a clash between the PAT and the animal rights associations, which - as already done previously for the other plantigrades - they protest vehemently against Fugatti's "ursicidal" plans, who continues undaunted to carry forward an alarmist narrative on the issue, widely disavowed by official reports and statistics.
What is certain is that, two days ago, the animal met the couple of hikers in Val di Sole.According to what was reconstructed by the provincial authority, which announced that it was carrying out "the necessary investigations for decisive action" following what happened, the bear would have followed the pair of hikers along the road that leads to Malga Farini for about 800 metres, and then disappeared into the woods when some people on motorbikes arrived on site to rescue the boys.Last year, M90 showed up several times in the municipality of Dimaro, where he was captured in mid-September, because, as claimed by the PAT, he had caused "damage to be recorded near the inhabited areas", and had been radio-collared.The province has framed M90 as a “problematic specimen, which has been the subject of numerous attempts at dissuasion”.However, it was the National Animal Protection Agency (Enpa) that raised doubts about the whole affair, which in a statement said declared to nourish"serious and well-founded doubts about the reconstruction, spread in recent hours, relating to the alleged pursuit of an engaged couple by a bear in the Mezzana area.It is in fact known that plantigrades run faster than men and that if the chase had really lasted for 800 metres, the animal would certainly have caught up with the couple."The members of the organization therefore see in this story only a pretext for sentencing the bear to death.In this regard, they have already announced that, if an abatement order is signed, they will contact the company again administrative justice, which, they recall, "has so far suspended all similar measures".In the same vein, the Anti Vivisection League, which recalled that M90, last Sunday, "did not cause any damage", also thanks to the correct behavior of the two hikers, who after meeting the bear "correctly began to slowly retreat and do noise".
In the meantime, only about ten days ago, the Provincial Council of Trento approved the bill which provides for the possibility of culling eight bears every year for the next three years, with the aim of reducing the population of plantigrades present in the province.If the president of the province Fugatti has defined the bill is «an important management tool to ensure first and foremost public safety, but also the protection of the mountain economy», the animal rights associations have spoke of a measure "of unprecedented cruelty" and "without any scientific basis", which "puts Italy on a collision course with Brussels, exposing Italian taxpayers to the very high consequences of an infringement procedure" for violation of the Habitat Directive on the protection of animal species.In support of this thesis, moreover, there is the insight provided by the Large Carnivores Report, published last summer after months of strong insistence from animal rights associations, which stated that the number of bear specimens present in the provincial territory is not increasing exponentially at all, as is instead subtly told to the population.
[by Stefano Baudino]