Italians cheer wild bear’s ‘Great Escape’
The League for the Abolition of Hunting (LAC) said it suspected the bear had been allowed to escape, so that it could be declared a danger to humans and killed.
ELLA IDE: ‘Italian animal lovers cheered on a wild bear Tuesday after a daring escape from an electrified holding pen sparked a bear-hunt and a furore over its fate. The three-year old, known only as M49, was captured Sunday in the Val Rendena valley in the Trentino region in northern Italy after it was spotted several times approaching inhabited areas. But in a getaway compared by Italian media to Steve McQueen’s exploits in the 1963 WWII film “The Great Escape”, M49 went on the lam Saturday after scaling a four-metre (13-foot) high and 7,000 volt electric fence…
Three teams from the state forestry corps with sniffer dogs were set on its trail. The search was complicated by the fact that the bear’s tracking collar was apparently removed after its capture. “If M49 approaches inhabited areas, the forestry service is authorised to kill it,” said Maurizio Fugatti, governor of the Trentino region. “The fact that the bear managed to climb over an electric fence with seven cables carrying 7,000 volts… shows how dangerous it is,” he said.
But Environment Minister Sergio Costa was quick to countermand that order. “M49’s escape from the enclosure cannot justify an action that would cause its death,” he said: ‘Escape genius… superhero’.. The League for the Abolition of Hunting (LAC) said it suspected the bear had been allowed to escape, so that it could be declared a danger to humans and killed. “M49 is, of course, an escape genius… endowed with superpowers like a Marvel Comics hero,” it said.
“He just happened to climb over the fence, unharmed by electric shocks, by chance without his radio collar — and, what do you know, he can be declared public enemy number one and the escape sparks a maximum security alert”. Michela Vittoria Brambilla, president of the Italian Defence League for Animals, told M49 to “run and save yourself!” “We are on the side of the bear, and of freedom,” she said’. SOURCE…
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