Parliament Holds Special Session on Law for Euthanizing Dangerous Bears

By Romania Journal Last updated Jul 10, 2024

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Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced on Wednesday that an extraordinary session of the Parliament will be convened for the law that will allow the euthanasia or shooting of bears in “very high risk areas”. The decision comes after a young woman was killed by a bear on the Jepii Mici trail in Bușteni on Tuesday.

“I spoke with the Minister of the Environment and the most involved and knowledgeable people in the field. It is crowded in certain areas (for bears). They don’t have enough food anymore and that’s why they go down (…) Such a change can only be made through Parliament. We start the initiative and that’s it, we’re going to ask for an extraordinary session. It is obvious that the life of the human being comes first, but it will not be free to shoot bears on Romanian territory whenever and however we want, only areas with a very high risk will be addressed,” said Prime Minister Ciolacu.

Mircea Fechet, the Minister of the Environment, proposed a ministerial order on prevention and intervention quotas to regulate the number of bears that can be shot to prevent attacks on people.

President Iohannis: It’s obvious Romania has too many bears

President Klaus Iohannis commented on Wednesday, from Washington, the tragedy of the young woman killed by a bear, during a mountain hike, claiming that Romania has too many bears and emergency legislative measures should be taken.

“I was shocked when I found out about this tragedy, especially since I was also on a trail near that place a few days before. It is not natural for people to be killed by bears. It is obvious, however, that we have too many bears, people killed or injured by bears, and it is necessary to come up with a legislative solution that respects European norms”, declared the head of state.

He says that if we want to have “healthy tourism in Romania, we must not let animals kill people, but neither should we kill animals for pleasure.” He blames the political class for not taking the necessary legislative measures, that “they only stir when a tragedy happens”, and then nothing happens.

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