TRENTO. “In a scenario characterized by growing intolerance for the presence of bears and increasingly frequent poaching phenomena, with 13 animals slaughtered in the last two years, we can only express a conditional appreciation for the words pronounced by the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto during question time in the Senate”. This was stated in a note byNational Animal Protection Agency (Enpa).
“Some passages of the minister’s speech, such as those relating to dangerous human behavior ‘not suitable for the presence of the species in the territory’, are absolutely acceptable. Others, such as the reference to sterilization, are to be taken with extreme caution. Still others are of the all inaccurate: that the Province of Trento in recent years has done little or nothing on the prevention front is not only said by animal rights associations, but also by authoritative experts and scientific bodies. However, we cannot fail to grasp the attempt, at least at the level of declarations to seek an alternative path to the useless, cruel killing of specimens deemed speciously dangerous”, continues Enpa.
The organization renews its request to the minister “to convene a roundtable on bears which involves all stakeholders, first and foremost the animal rights associations. Which, so far, have been deliberately excluded from any attempt at discussion and mediation, despite the many proposals advanced regarding coexistence”.
However, the no is clear Luigi Spagnollisenator and vice-president of the Group for Autonomy: “The sterilization of bears is a bizarre idea to say the least. No wildlife scientist will ever endorse it, both due to the impossibility of capturing dozens of bears in a short time, and because there is no tested contraceptive that guarantees that it works on wild species. Then there remains the basic problem that it is not known how bears subjected to such treatment might react. It cannot be ruled out that they may become aggressive. And this without forgetting the suffering to which they would be subjected, which clashes with any principle aimed at protecting animal welfare. It frankly seems to me to be an absurd project, which the whole world would laugh at. And I can’t imagine what would happen in the first accident between a sterilized bear and a human being. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone denounces the Ministry for having maliciously induced it.”