Trento, the KJ1 bear will not be demolished for now.And what happens now?

The animal, with 3 puppies, had injured a tourist:The TAR suspended the Provincial ordinance, accepting the appeal of associations such as Lav.

• The KJ1 bear, responsible for injuring a French tourist on 16 July, was saved by an appeal to the TAR by animal rights associations against the ordinance of the Province of Trento.
• The president of the court invites Fugatti to take more proportionate actions, including monitoring of the territory, reporting and closures, or at most transfer.
• On 5 September the TAR collegial hearing will have to confirm or overturn the suspension:optimism on the part of Lav.

The president of Regional Administrative Court (Tar) of Trento issued a sentence twice in a few days suspending the killing of the KJ1 bear, accused of having attacked a French tourist in Dro, Trentino, last 16 July.The KJ1 bear, for now, is safe and at large, even if her fate remains in the balance.

The KJ1 bear in the dock 

The president of the autonomous province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti, had initially signed a killing order for the KJ1 bear, which however was suspended last week after exceptions and appeals presented by animal rights associations Enpa, Lav, Oipa and Leal.

However, Fugatti decided to issue a second order, based on the results of genetic tests conducted in the laboratories of the Mach Foundation in San Michele all'Adige, which confirmed that the KJ1 bear was responsible for the attack.The new ordinance authorized the placement of four tube traps to capture the animal.But this initiative was also unsuccessful, because animal rights activists presented a new appeal to the TAR, arguing that there are alternatives to culling and that public safety can be guaranteed in other ways.The court accepted this argument, again suspending the killing order and inviting the Province of Trento to the adoption of alternative measures.We read in the TAR decree:

“The different timing with which the captivation can be carried out and the need to guarantee the safety of the operators indicated by the contested provision as reasons justifying the culling as the only practicable measure, do not appear sufficient to support, in terms of necessity, suitability and proportionality, the definitive choice of culling”.

Furthermore, the TAR has indicated to the Province of Trento the need to carry out prevention work, ensuring constant territory monitoring and on time reports to the population who frequents the areas affected by the existing danger and the behaviors to follow, not least theban on access to certain areas, possibly leading to capture, but excluding the irreversible solution of killing.

What happens now?

The KJ1 bear (and her 3 cubs, to protect whom probably the attack occurred) is safe at least until September 5th, date on which it is set the collegial hearing of the TAR who will be able to confirm or overturn the decision of its president:in the meantime, animal rights associations continue to monitor the situation closely, trying to guarantee a future for the animal without compromising human safety.

But what can happen from September onwards?The September 5th appointment, he explains Massimo Vitturi, head of wild animals at Lav, the anti-vivisection league, “it is not a formality:in theory the TAR could also completely overturn the ruling, and the ordinance would return into force.But we are optimistic that what the president said will be confirmed."Also because the suspension, as seen, provides for a whole series of alternative actions to culling "which will certainly remain valid also in September.Fugatti has plenty of time to implement that advice, which is the same one we have always given and which all the countries where there are bears, including Abruzzo, use.This is what Fugatti could do if he really wanted to guarantee the safety of citizens, instead of waiting for an attack and then decreeing the demolition."

 

In the desirable event that the TAR confirms the ban on killing, the KJ1 bear could remain free in Trentino together with her 3 cubs.Or, explains Vitturi, the Province of Trento could opt for capture and removal, a solution already applied to JJ4, the bear responsible for the killing of the runner Andrea Papi, which like Lav "we had proposed right from the start, but as an alternative to killing and to remove Fugatti's alibi:contrary to what he says, the refuge in Romania we are in contact with is absolutely available."The best solution, however, according to the animal rights association, remains that of staying in Trentino, with the necessary prevention works.Also because, Vitturi underlines, it is wrong to argue that today there are too many bears in the Trentino mountains (about a hundred), as the Province states:simply “because the perfect number depends on what the territory offers them to survive.If a certain territory supports 100 bears, it means that 100 bears is the right number:the 101st either dies or moves somewhere else.Is called carrying capacity of the territory”.A sort of self-regulation which man cannot oppose unless going against the laws of nature.