Trento kills bears and Bolzano kills wolves, animal rights activists report

The Province of Bolzano has authorized the killing of two wolves in Val Venosta.Enpa:"The terrorist campaigns of politicians only help poaching"

ROME – The National Animal Protection Agency activates its legal office on the ordinance issued on Monday 12 August by the president of the Province of Bolzano Arno Kompatscher, “which authorizes the killing of two wolves in Val Venosta“.According to the provision signed by the president of the Province of Bolzano, "who evidently does not want to be outdone by his 'colleague' Maurizio Fugatti", denounces Enpa, "the animals would have been involved in episodes of predation which occurred over the course of two months".A period of time, this, which, Enpa observes, "would have given the owners of the bred animals the opportunity to prepare adequate countermeasures to avoid the repetition of the alleged predations".The modalities of which, however, "are all to be verified".

For this reason, the animal rights association, in addition to challenging the ordinance with an urgent appeal, requests access to the Forestry Department's report on the alleged predation and the Ispra opinion on the killing of the two animals.“As admitted by the Province itself, the Institute for Environmental Research and Protection would not go into the merits of the issue but would simply limit itself to expressing an opinion of congruity,” the association reports.

“It's a paradoxical situation.From what we know - explains Enpa - Ispra does not express assessments on the specific case, for example in relation to prevention methods, and does not say that the Province of Bolzano can proceed with the killing of wolves.Ispra only says that that ordinance complies with the wolf-killing law approved by the Province itself in 2023.Which would be rather strange considering that the Institute should rule on environmental and non-legal issues".

In short, according to Animal Protection, "the story is much darker than what Kompatscher claims in his order".“Which and how many prevention methods have been applied?With what effectiveness?Were the recent electrified ones intact and fully functional or, as happened last year in a similar case in Trentino, were they in a poor state of maintenance?Were there night shelters or were the animals abandoned to their own devices?Above all - asks the animal rights association - how was it possible that 30 animals were preyed upon in the space of two months and the appropriate measures were not taken to protect them?

For the Enpa "there are very few certainties in this matter.One of these is the singular coincidence, of dates as well as facts, with another killing order issued by Kompatscher himself exactly one year ago, always in the middle of summer and always against two wolf specimens".A true "photocopy ordinance" which, Enpa recalls, was stopped on that occasion by the Regional Administrative Court of Bolzano.But in the Val Venosta affair "there is also another certainty:That the terrorist campaigns fueled by some political-institutional exponents and some extremist trade associations add fuel to the fire of poaching and encourage criminal acts, just as is happening in the 'twin province' of Trento.Killing orders are not and can never be a solution, but are themselves the problem:man's inability to coexist with wolves, bears and more generally with all wild animals".