The murder of a jogger last April moved Italy. A female bear was directly blamed for this incident. Wrongly, according to some associations.
By HR with AFP
© Michel Clementz / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/THE INDEPENDENT/MAXPPP
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IThe accused bear is not guilty, animal rights activists said on Thursday May 11. The animal is suspected of having killed a jogger in northern Italy. According to the associations, the teeth marks on the victim would prove that the killer mammal was a male. The 17-year-old bear (named JJ14) allegedly killed Andrea Papi, a 26-year-old young man on April 5. She was captured two weeks later before being transported to a specialized high security shelter. A court in the province of Trentino has yet to rule on whether or not to euthanize the animal.
“JJ4 is innocent,” assured the animal protection association Leal. This association, joined by others of this type, filed a legal appeal against the slaughter order signed by the president of Trentino Maurizio Fugatti.
Among the documents the court is due to examine on May 24 is a forensic report written by Mattia Barbareschi, professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Trento.
He found bite marks on the victim “characterized by a distance between them of about 8 cm to 8.5 cm, which is the typical distance between the canines of an adult bear”.
The Leal association, for its part, filed another medical-legal report with the court, produced by two veterinary experts who studied Mr. Barbareschi’s conclusions and who believe that the distance between the canines was “typical of a adult male bear”, and not a female.
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“We asked the court to order a specialized veterinary doctor to examine the specimen (JJ4, editor’s note), to measure his teeth,” Leal’s lawyer, Aurora Loprete, told AFP.
Leal also believes that finding traces of JJ4’s DNA at the crash site did not prove she was the murderer, questioning whether the collection process was done correctly.
According to Leal, the autopsy also showed it was a “prolonged attempt by the bear to drive away and deter the victim”, rather than a “deliberate or predatory attack”.
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Andrea Papi’s death has sparked a debate about the dangers posed by bears, which were reintroduced to the area between 1996 and 2004 and number around 100 today.
Mr Fugatti had previously ordered JJ4 to be taken down in 2020, after two hikers were attacked, but that decision was overturned by a court.
Animal rights organizations insist that bears normally keep their distance from humans and that it is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure people are kept away from areas where bears raise their cubs.