26 June 2006
Written by Rainer
In memoriam, Bruno the Bear
Bear originally Italian but the adopted by the germans and named by the Press as Bruno, was shot early today by “Bavarian hunters”. The bear had avoided the partly Finnish bear hunting party who had tried to trap and stun the bear for several weeks. Bruno, aka JJ1, was a part of a project which tries to reintroduce bears to the Alps. They already live in the Alps of Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
What most struck me on the news was the difference between the Guardian‘s and Helsingin Sanomat‘s [FIN] articles. The HS’s article more or less just states the bear was shot after the officials reached the limit of their patience. “The bear spread terror by killing lambs and robbing chickens and rabbits.”
The Guardian takes the bear’s side bringing out points such as this was the first bear in Germany since 1838 when the last was rammed down by a Bavarian hunting party. The news sources disagree with the fact if the bear wan endangering the humans. According to the HS it might’ve become one and the Guardian disagrees.
I think the main reason for the different point of view is that although bears are endangered and protected in Finland, we still hunt about 30-40/year plus all the one’s killed by police after a dangerous bear contact. I doubt that the amount of bears in the UK exceed the one in Germany.