Don't shoot our bear, Poles urge Slovaks
Date: 21-Aug-01
Country: POLAND
National park authorities in Slovakia's Tatra mountains have threatened to kill the 18-month-old female, which crossed the border between the two countries a month ago and has since attacked five hikers and raided a food store.
"I heard that this was one option to deal with this problem. But we as national park keepers are against the shooting of animals," said Stanislaw Mielczarek, deputy director of Poland's Tatra National Park.
Mielczarek said there were two ways of sparing the 50-kg (110-lb) bear - either to try and frighten it away from inhabited areas or to capture it and release it again in a more remote location.
Slovak animal rights campaigners have called for the bear to be saved, but Slovak park authorities have that a rescue operation could be too expensive.
"We have obtained permission to shoot the animal," Polish daily Rzeczpospolita quoted Jozef Kovacz, a Slovak national park safety official, as saying.
"We don't want to kill the bear, but first of all, no Slovak zoo has offered to take it in. Secondly, an operation to tranquillise the animal and transport it in a cage by helicopter to remote mountain terrain would be too costly."
