Local authorities in northern Italy killed a mother bear, KJ1, on Tuesday, labeling her “dangerous” due to an attack on a French tourist in July and other encounters with humans. Animal rights groups and a government minister protested the move, highlighting the bear’s three cubs, which the International Organization for Animal Protection (OIPA) said would struggle to survive without their mother.
Maurizio Fugatti, the head of the provincial authority in Trento, ordered the local forestry corps to track and shoot the bear. The bear had seven interactions with humans, including a July 16 attack on a 43-year-old French hiker in Dro, who suffered injuries to his arm and leg but managed to call for help.
Italy’s national environment minister, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, condemned the decision. He argued that killing individual bears is not a solution and suggested sterilization as a possible alternative. He criticized the marketing of the bear repopulation program, which began with EU support in 1999, to attract tourists.
OIPA called the 22-year-old bear’s death a disaster for her cubs and accused Fugatti of pursuing an “anti-bear” strategy. They criticized the overnight order to kill the bear, which prevented a legal challenge.
The incident is the latest in a 25-year effort to repopulate the Alps with brown bears. In 2023, officials planned to relocate a bear that killed a jogger from Italy to a sanctuary in Germany. In February, they shot another bear, M90, in the region. The area around Trento has recorded nine bear attacks on humans during the repopulation project, raising questions about the sustainability of the program given the region’s increased population and tourism compared to when bears originally roamed the Alps.
One of the first bears from the Alpine repopulation project to be shot was JJ1 (or “Bruno”), who ventured into the Austrian and Bavarian Alps in 2006. Hunters ultimately killed him after failed attempts to capture him alive.
