11/13/06 It's Easier to Kill Than Collect Trash!!!
Reaction on the permission to kill a bear near Grobnik
The organizations Animal Friends, Life, Animal Voice, and Association for Wild Animals Protection, supported by other organizations and citizens of all Croatia, including the residents of the surroundings of Grobnik, oppose the killing of bears on account of inappropriately discarded waste and illegal waste dumps.
Animal Friends sent a protest letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management as it issued the permission to kill a bear relying solely on one official letter written by hunters, instead of reexamining the facts or ordering waste clearance and better area control. Animal Friends demands withdrawal of the permission by the Ministry.
It is not so hard to come to the conclusion that the hunters could barely wait for an excuse to kill the bear, and the Ministry should have acted more conscientiously by considering non-violent methods of solving this problem first, and only later on, if need be, issuing a permission to kill.
One question arises: why has the permission already been issued and nothing done about illegal waste dumps? Are bear footprints all that is required to obtain permission to kill, especially in times when bears occasionally get hurt in Croatia due to bad construction highway design?
While poachers use motorway crossings as a pretext for killing bears, hunters use forsaken waste. In the end, bears in Croatia will survive only on Croatia's five-Kuna coins.
