Man succumbs to bear attack injuries, officials would like more bear shooting
So far, 71 bears have been shot this year.
On Saturday morning, a man was attacked and injured by a bear near the village of Hybe, Liptovský Mikuláš district. Later on the same day he succumbed to his injuries. The animal hit one of the main arteries on a lower limb.
The man was mushroom-picking with another person in hard-to-access terrain; a helicopter, police patrol and the Brown Bear Emergency Team were dispatched to the site.
On the same day, the Liptovský Mikuláš District Office declared a state of emergency in the district, allowing the authorities to carry out rescue work related to the identification and capture of the bear in question.
Fico would like more bears shot
Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) called on local authorities to declare a state of emergency in the event a brown bear wanders into municipalities, creating conditions to reduce their numbers.
"Someone might say that we can address the situation with a nationwide shooting, sending hundreds of hunters into forests and solving the problem our way, the Slovak way. I would like that, but we are in the European Union and I don't want to face more threats of the European Commission stopping our European funds," he declared.
In response to the bear attack, head of the parliamentary committee for agriculture and environment, Rudolf Huliak (SNS caucus), proposed eliminating up to 30 bears regularly found near human dwellings, adding that on Saturday night two more bears were culled, with one near the site of the attack.
Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba (SNS nominee) wants to present a proposal so that every national park has its own intervention team to shoot bears on its territory, with a team in the High and Low Tatras to be established first. The minister also said that in 2024, 71 bears have been shot. Taraba also wants to investigate whether there were legitimate requests to shoot bears in the past months that were not complied with.
Education needed
On Monday, the My Sme Les (We are the Forest) initiative called on the authorities to stop exploiting the attack for their own political purposes. Instead of shooting bears, they should implement preventive measures and educate the public. At the same time, the initiative asks the ministry to stop blaming activists and conservationists for the tragedy.
"In 2024, according to Tomáš Taraba, 71 bears have already been shot. So it's necessary to state that even the historically highest number of shot bears since 2000 did not prevent the tragic attack," the initiative said. It added that it is impossible to prevent attacks by wild animals, but they can be reduced by educating the public.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
