Death of mother bear spurs Italian protests

Animal sedated after scuffle with man; cubs now orphans

ROME— Animal rights groups called for the resignation of Italy’s environment minister Thursday, as the country’s forestry police opened an investigation into the death of a mother bear during a capture operation ordered after she scuffled with a mushroom forager as her cubs slept nearby.

Daniza’s fate has captivated Italians ever since mushroom forager Daniele Maturi reported the bear had attacked him in mid-August near Pinzolo in northern Trento province. Maturi suffered bites and scratches to his wrist, leg, knee and back.

The bear’s death gained attention because Daniza was part of an EUfunded operation to reintroduce brown bears to the region after they were nearly wiped out decades ago.

Animal rights activists have praised the reintroduction project, but area residents say it has been too successful and too many bears are now roaming a densely populated area, killing livestock and increasingly running into humans.

Those tensions fuelled the debate over what to do with Daniza. Eventually, officials ordered her captured and transferred, overriding protests by activists who said she should be left alone since she was merely trying to protect her 8-month-old bear cubs.

Trento officials said Daniza had been captured and tranquilized Wednesday, but never woke up from the sedative that the searchers administered.

Italy’s national forestry police opened an investigation and speculated that criminal charges could result for the mistreatment and death of an animal.