Global Courant 2023-05-29 19:32:41
A bear believed to have fatally attacked a jogger in an alpine region of northern Italy was spared his life today by the country’s administrative court.
The brown bear, given the identity JJ4, was captured on April 18 after an intense two-week manhunt, which began after the tragic death of 26-year-old local Andrea Papi who was jogging on a mountain pass.
The court of the city of Trento requested more details on the dynamics of the event to allow the neutralization of the 17-year-old female bear, and suspended the order given by the local authorities for the fatal procedure on the animal.
The suspension lasts until June 27 and the bear’s fate may take longer to decide as a court hearing is scheduled for the case in December. They will be placed if the bear will be transferred to an animal shelter where it will not be a danger to humans.
It is not yet completely clear whether JJ4, who was near the incident with her puppies, attacked the victim Papi, who was running there.
Animal protection groups have contested the order of the Trento authorities to eliminate the animal.
The victim’s family also did not support the order to kill the bear.
Trento manager Lorenzo Dellai argued that Papi’s death could have been avoided if the bear had been eliminated, since previous attacks on people in 2020.
The parents of bear JJ4 were brought to the Italian forests from Slovenia two decades ago in an EU-funded project to increase the bear population.
Global Courantl
