Abruzzo mourns the Amarena bear:shot dead.The man who shot has been identified

The bear symbol of the national park had two cubs.She was killed in San Benedetto dei Marsi.Governor Marsilio:"I am ready to constitute the Region as a civil party against this criminal"

ROME - The Amarena bear was shot dead.The video that was all the rage on the web of the lovely walk through the villages of Abruzzo was made just a few days ago of the bear symbol of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park:an animal that had never caused problems for humans. The person who fired the shot was identified by the park rangers and handed over to the police.

THE REPORT OF THE NATIONAL PARK

“At approximately 11pm this evening the Orsa Amarena was hit by a shotgun fired by Mr. LA on the outskirts of Saint Benedict of the Marsi, outside the Park and the Contiguous Area - reports the social post published during the night -. The Park Guards promptly intervened on the spot, on surveillance duty, given the area where Amarena had landed with her puppies. The Park vet intervened on site with the emergency team, but was only able to ascertain the death of the bear given the severity of the injury.The man was identified by the park rangers and then subjected to investigations by the Carabinieri of the local station, who intervened following the call from the park rangers. The investigations to ascertain the dynamics of the events are underway and will continue throughout the night, just as the Park staff is busy identifying the two cubs of the bear to evaluate what to do. The episode is a very serious fact, which causes enormous damage to the population which numbers around sixty specimens, affecting one of the most prolific females in the history of the Park. Obviously there are no reasons whatsoever to justify the episode given that Amarena, despite causing damage to agricultural and livestock activities, always and in any case compensated by the Park even outside the borders of the Contiguous Area, it had never created any kind of problem for humans“.

MARSILIO:READY TO ESTABLISH CIVIL PARTY REGION

“The news of the shooting death of the Amarena bear represents a very serious act towards the entire Region which leaves pain and anger for an incomprehensible gesture.All these years the communities inside and outside the parks have always shown that they know how to coexist with bears without ever interfering with their habits– the president of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, spoke.Never in Abruzzo has a bear represented any danger to humans, not even when it found itself frequenting inhabited centers. The violent act committed against the plantigrade has no justification. We trust in the investigations that have been launched by the police and the management of the park, who have already identified the person responsible, so that justice takes its course. I am ready to constitute the Region as a civil party against this criminal to protect the image and honor of our people.I invite local communities and all tourists to continue to observe all the rules prescribed so that the animals present in the area can live undisturbed in their habitat".

(Photo credits wwf)

NOW AMARENA PUPPIES AT RISK, WWF WILL BE A CIVIL PARTY

 “Terrible news and an event that risks frustrating efforts for the conservation of the Marsican brown bear, the rarest plantigrade in Europe“.The news of the killing of Amarena, a bear who unwillingly became the first social media star "and today a symbol of the senseless violence with which some people relate to nature, represents a severe blow to the bear's hopes of survival in the Apennines".So does the WWF.

“This summer Amarena was spotted and filmed with two puppies of the year, to date not yet self-sufficient and whose fate is therefore at great risk (bear cubs generally stay with their mother for about a year and a half)”, continues the WWF, “for this reason the Park has already started searching for them but it will not be easy to obtain results”.Today therefore "one of the most prolific female bears in the recent history of the residual Marsican bear population was killed by a rifle shot and by ignorance".A confident but completely peaceful bear, "Amarena had entered the collective imagination and had become the pride of a land that has the bear as a symbol of its nature and the richness of its territory", adds the WWF.

It is now necessary for "judicial and law enforcement investigations to quickly ascertain how the facts unfolded", asks the WWF, "in our country, unfortunately, the laws are not suitable to adequately punish those responsible for such heinous gestures, and even those that exist are almost never rigorously enforced.It is time to adapt the effectiveness of the sanctioning system and to invest in local surveillance for a preventive and repressive function."

The Panda association is "working forcefully for the conservation of this unique population in the world, through the Bear 2x50 campaign, its Oasis of the Sagittarius Gorges in Anversa degli Abruzzi and the Life Arcprom Project, intends to form a civil party" .This dramatic act of poaching “is also a consequence of a systematic action of disinformation which concerns the coexistence between man and large carnivores and more generally between man and nature" declares Luciano Di Tizio, President of WWF Italy who adds:“We are faced with an operation that is increasingly entering the arena of political propaganda, with all the resulting distortions.In addition to those of the author of this act, it is therefore necessary to also identify the responsibilities of those who, on a daily basis, in sectors of the political, hunting and agricultural world, irresponsibly and instrumentally fuel feelings of fear and justify or instigate the use of the rifle as the only solution .We have to react to all this and we launch an appeal for all lovers of nature and the coexistence between human activities and wildlife to meet as early as next week in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park to reiterate the need to protect our extraordinary biodiversity heritage".

“Italy, as the many surveys, demonstrations and also the communications we receive every day tell us, is a country full of people who believe in the importance and beauty of nature”, continues the WWF.“Strong action is needed to relaunch the message of protection of our territory and its inhabitants, human and otherwise, whose destinies are inextricably linked, as has now been widely demonstrated”, concludes the Panda association, “and this it is a specific responsibility not only of environmental associations but first and foremost of the State, in all its aspects".