No more KJ2. A parliamentary question on the fate of the cubs of the bear killed in Trentino

Environment · Edgar H. Meyer · 2017-11-24

Gaia Animali & Ambiente has submitted a parliamentary question seeking clarification from the Province of Trento on the fate of the cubs of bear KJ2, killed last August because she was deemed dangerous to humans.

What is the Province of Trento doing for KJ2's cubs after killing their mother? Are they being looked after? Are they being monitored? Given the considerable financial resources received from the EU for the bear population, have any support activities for the cubs been put in place? Considering also the value these cubs hold in terms of ecosystem balance and economic terms, are measures being taken to help them through the critical period before hibernation?

These are some of the questions we posed in the cross-party parliamentary question drafted by Gaia Animali & Ambiente to obtain clear and serious answers from the autonomous province, which, perhaps hoping for a decline in public attention, has until now appeared to show little interest and little desire to provide information on the fate of the orphaned cubs.

In our view, the autonomous province should be held accountable for the mistreatment and unjustified killing of a specially protected wild animal. The bear's behaviour could not in itself be defined as aggressive, since all factual data needed to be verified in order to conduct a proper investigation and reconstruct the dynamics of the incident. The bear did not attack without provocation. The culling order was based on an inaccurate and superficial reconstruction of events.

Kj2 secondo tutte le associazioni animaliste è stata "assassinata". La Lav parla di "un verdetto di condanna vergognoso, una sentenza senza processo, emesso sulla spinta emotiva e irrazionale di un — According to all animal rights organisations, Kj2 was "murdered". Lav speaks of "a shameful guilty verdict, a sentence without trial, issued on the emotional and irrational impulse of a provincial administration that wants full power of life and death over bears, and where the possibility of capture was nothing but an alibi to conceal a clear intention."

On the Province of Trento's website, the last piece of news with a confirmed date on the fate of KJ2's cubs dates back to 1 September, over two months ago, with the publication of a photo taken by a camera trap.

Since then, silence. The Province of Trento, extremely swift in issuing the culling order for KJ2 and equally prompt in collecting European funding for repopulation, appears far more sluggish and distracted when it comes to providing reliable updates on the state of health of the orphaned bear cubs. With this parliamentary question, we want to rouse the inattentive institution and obtain serious answers.

The text of the parliamentary question was submitted to members of parliament from across the political spectrum: to Michela Vittoria Brambilla, MP for Forza Italia and president of the Movimento Animalista; to Andrea Colletti of the Movimento 5 Stelle, a member of the Justice Committee in the Chamber of Deputies; to Patrizia Prestipino, head of the PD's Animal Protection Department; and to PD senator Silvana Amati, who has long been attentive to eco-animal welfare issues.