The Romanian government adopted on Wednesday the Emergency Ordinance providing for intervention in case of bear attacks. According to the ordinance, the intervention in the case of bears that reach the built-up areas of the localities will be done “gradually”, the extraction by shooting being mentioned if “the safety and security of citizens or property are endangered”.
“The mayor or deputy mayor, knowing the local circumstances, analyzing the professional expertise and the degree of risk, will decide on the means to remove the bear”, said the Minister of Environment, Tanczos Barna, after the adoption of the normative act.
The GEO stipulates that “immediate intervention on bear specimens in urban areas is carried out gradually” by the following methods:
- removal by various means;
- tranquilizing and relocation;
- extraction by euthanasia or shooting.
If the specimen removed by expulsion is repeatedly returning, the intervention team proceeds to the intervention by tranquilizing and its relocation. Tranquilizing will be performed by the veterinarian.
However, if the bear endangers the safety of citizens, property or the intervention team, it can be killed.
The intervention team is led by the mayor / deputy mayor and consists of a gendarme, hunter and veterinarian, and the decision whether the animal is killed or not belongs to the intervention team.
Also, the project stipulates that “the impediment by any means of immediate intervention constitutes a contravention and is sanctioned with a contravention fine between 7,000 and 10,000 lei.”
The ordinance stipulates that she bears with cubs can also be shot, in which case the cubs will end up in a shelter. The Minister of Environment says that the Ordinance “decentralizes” the intervention procedure.
“I am firmly convinced that it is not us in Bucharest who must not decide which is the bear an entire locality fears, but precisely for these reasons we have decentralized the decision-making procedure: the mayor or deputy mayor, knowing the local circumstances, analyzing professional expertise and degree of risk, will decide by what means to remove the bear.
At the same time, the normative act approved today provides a legal basis for mayors to protect their community from danger under the law, without fear “, the Minister of Environment posted on Facebook.
After the bear is shot, the fur and skull of the killed specimen are handed over to the Forest Guards, remain the property of the state, and the carcass of the specimen extracted by shooting belongs to the manager who carried out the extraction, i.e. hunting funds.
The costs of managing the extraction of the specimens by euthanasia or shooting will be covered by the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, through the local public authority that has a permanent contract with the Manager or through the Forest Guard, if the intervention was carried out by the latter.
The Romanian Government’s move to adopt such a GEO comes amid increasing bear attacks in the mountain areas as the bear population has concernedly grown, but also after the scandal of Bear Arthur’s being killed by an Austrian prince.