Rome, May 26, (dpa/GNA) – A court in northern Italy, again suspended an order issued by the provincial government on Friday to shoot a bear, thought to have killed a jogger in the area.
The fate of the bear, known as JJ4, has been occupying the authorities in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige for weeks.
The order to shoot the bear, also known as Gaia, is now suspended until June 27, the administrative court said, after upholding the objections of several animal protection associations.
Officials say the female bear attacked and killed a 26-year-old jogger on a forest path in Val di Sole in Trentino, popular with hikers and tourists, in early April, although this claim is disputed.
The provincial government, led by Maurizio Fugatti, issued a decree to kill the bear.
After a complaint by animal rights activists, a court suspended this order in mid-April.
Since her capture in mid-April, 17-year-old Gaia has been held in a fenced-off game enclosure. Meanwhile, a heated and emotional debate has erupted in Italy over the coexistence of bears and humans.
Animal welfare activists had an expert opinion prepared in early May, according to which the jogger was not killed by JJ4, but by an adult male bear, citing the distance between the canines in the bite wounds.
Recently, a German sanctuary, in Lower Bavaria, offered to take Gaia in.
GNA