70 Bears to Be Killed in Slovenia
The Slovenian Environment Ministry has approved a wild bear kill of 70 animals. The country has between 430 and 480 bears according to one estimate.
Some environmentalists put the number slightly lower. In 2008 the Environment Ministry approved a kill of 75, and in 2007 it was 100. In 2006 it was also 100. That will make 345 wild bears killed in the last four years. The number of cubs born each year is estimated at 60-90.
(Brown bears in Slovenia are a protected species.)
For 2009, 70 out of 430 bears killed will make an annual mortality rate of 16% and 480 bears is 14%. However, it was reported on the site for Radio Free Europe that the international standard for maintaining stability is only 10%, ” According to international norms, 10 percent of the bear population can be hunted annually to maintain a healthy stock.” If that percentage is correct, only 43 or 48 bears should be available for culling. So why were 100 bears approved for killing in 2007 and in 2006, a rate of at least 20 percent?
The number of bears killed due to government quotas is not the whole of the bear mortality rate. Each year 20-40 are killed when they are hit by cars and trains. A 2006 report from the World Wildlife Fund noted a dramatic difference in the number of government approved bear kills from the time that Slovenia joined the European Union. In 2001 a 59 bear kill was authorized, and in 2002 the number was 116. The overall bear population had remained the same, but the kill number was nearly doubled. That year the International Association for Bear Research and Management wrote a letter to the Slovenian government in which they stated, “We are very concerned that the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food has allowed a harvest that is almost three times the sustainable level based on best available data.”
OK, so if there really is a serious bear problem in Slovania…Instead of killing them and reducing the brown bear gene pool, why not relocate them? If you dont want your bears dont kill them, move them somewhere else. Hell move them all. But killing them is bad for future sustainability of the species.
What is the purpose of this?
What is the point, in doing this to any animal.
Infact, they’re not the animals.
We are.
We humans, who have been gifted with being the greatest species on this earth.
and also, the most pathetic species.
these bears, are yet another victim of humanity’s greed.
I’m not an activist. I don’t go out looking for cruelty to animals, but when I see it, I can’t help but be reminded of how pathetic some F*****S actually are.
and as for Slevia, I hope this country gets fucking screwed.
Matej, you seem to be of the mindset that humans are somehow more important than all other life.
If you’re concerned about your children being attacked by bears, move away from the bears’ natural habitat.
We do not have the right to just murder anyone who inconveniences us. We, as a species, do to all other species what we have done to ourselves throughout history. “I want this land. You live here. Therefore, you die.” Why can’t it be “I want this land, but you already live here, so I’ll move on and find somewhere else.”?
Humans. They truly are the cancer of Earth.
Matej i completely agree with you. I like how everyone here is saying how horrible it is and saying that it shouldnt happen and such and yet we have someone who LIVES in the area where this is going on and says it needs to be done. People who say that bears only attack when provoked have never been attacked by a bear, or charged by one. Hell me and my friend had a grizzly charge us when we were sitting in his truck.
and David Howe, your an idiot. First off if your going to say that you hope a country gets “fucking screwed” you can spell the name right. Get off your high and mighty throne.
Terry, i love when people do what you do, the good ol’ “war is a human invention” talk. Animals kill each other ALL the time to take land. Hell, if a male bear walks into the territory of another one is going to die. Does that mean that that bear is also “the cancer of the earth”?
Matej i completely agree with what you are saying. Everyone here is saying how horrible it is from their nice and comfortable houses and apartments and yet we have someone telling us who LIVES where this is happening and saying it needs to be done.
David Howe, if your going to say “i hope this country gets fucking screwed” you can atleast spell the name of the country right. Fucking ignorant bigots, you want a cancer of the world terry thats it right there, people who think that the only right way is there way.
I live in a town, Juneau, Alaska that has plenty of human -bear interaction. The bears have unlimited access to wild food and habitat but fairly often will enter people’s homes to get into stored food or freezers. My own children have encountered bears on their way to school, only a few blocks from our home.I have had to run off bears with gun shots, and pepper-spray, thrown rocks, and even an axe handle. My state Game Department has euthanized or relocated many bears from town. If bears and people can not co-exist in peace then the solution is not to make special allowances for bears. My children are worth more than any animal. Usually local authorities are most in touch with local issues.
Let the government of Slovenia do it’s job and protect it’s people.
To David Howe
Quite sad to read you rather scary – and at the same time pathetic – entry. Bears are magnificent animals and I am sure that most Slovenians (and countless others who don’t have the privilege to live with them) would love to have as many as possible living in their country in a safe co-existance. As for Itsme’s suggestion – Slovenians in fact do run a relocation program – bears being donated to France and Spain, in an attempt to reintroduce them to habitats they once inhabited. Sadly, as far as I know, most of them have been killed by local farmers (see e.g. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,434014,00.html).
While there surely must be a space for legitimate discussion on what should be the share of culled bear population, your sad and militant statements reflect poorly on you rather than doing anything against perceived cruelty against animals. I can just hope some poor soul doesn’t get in your way in local organic shop when they run out of your favorite 100% nature made bee honey, so selfishly stolen away from natural bear population (alas) only existing in a handful of European countries that you are so so at ease
Killing bears in large numbers does NOT reduce any incidents of them coming into towns looking for food.
Research has backed this fact up. The reason they come in there is that they have been most likely fed by someone at some time, or they learned to find leftover food from campers.
If you don’t like bears, then move away from them. We are now too much in their territory, and we have almost killed all of them by taking away their space.
They need their own space.
I repeated bear culls DO NOT reduce bear incidents. Education does that mainly.
In Yosemite it was education of the public that reduced bear incidents by over 50%..and they don’t kill 24% of their bears every year, year after year.
Yosemite gets 3.5 million visitors per year, in a space smaller than Slovenia.
Eye for an eye. 70 bears? Sure but bears get to maul 70 children first