Czech zoo files complaint to EU over ‘barbaric’ cull of bears in Slovakia – POLITICO

The Tabor Zoo in the Czech Republic has filed a complaint with the European Commission over the relaxation of rules for the controlled killing of bears in neighboring Slovakia.

“It is not surprising that Slovakia followed the path of the Middle Ages, when in the forest it was customary to shoot anything that moved and (that was) only slightly hairier than a person of that time,” said Evžen Korec, director of the zoo, in a statement released Thursday for POLITICO, added that he considers “the mass killing of endangered species to be barbaric.”

“The brown bear is a protected species in the European Union,” he noted. “The EU quite rightly spends the most money on protecting endangered species of any kind.

“Slovakia has chosen to ignore European legislation,” Korec continued, calling the Slovak Ministry of the Environment, which is responsible for bear shooting regulations, “a ministry of reckless extermination.”

Slovakia corrected its rules for shooting bears in May after an increase in attacks on people. To speed up the issuance of permits to shoot bears, legislation is now allows declare a state of emergency, as in the case of an earthquake or terrorist attack, when a bear approaches a populated area.

“We managed to solve a major legal problem that did not allow the bear to be shot even in cases where there had not yet been an attack on a person. We will no longer have to react after the fact,” Slovakia’s Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said in May. “Executions (now) will be carried out in the interests of protecting the life, health and property of citizens preventively and in advance.”

Slovak legislation overrides However, EU law governing protected species requires a bear to exhibit “problematic” behavior before a killing license can be issued. Taraba said POLITICO previously reported that the Commission approved the Slovak government’s bill in exchange for the country’s support for the nature restoration law. Commission denied this account.

Bears have become a hot political topic in Slovakia ahead of presidential and European Parliament elections this year, prompting the far-right Slovak National Party, to which Taraba belongs, to blame the situation about EU bureaucrats and the bloc’s green rules.

According to analysis According to several universities, there are between 1,000 and 1,300 brown bears in Slovakia. Ministry of Environment of Slovakia confirmed by the end of this year it will issue about 100 licenses for shooting bears; 86 animals have already been killed.

POLITICO has contacted the European Commission and the Slovak Ministry of Environment for comment.