Disaster one year after Arthur was killed

One year since Arthur was killed

Female bear illegally shot and left to die in agony in front of her 3 cubs in Vatra Dornei

Bucharest, 5 May 2022 – One year after the giant bear Arthur was killed, Agent Green deplores the Romanian state’s inability to protect the brown bear and ensure coexistence and mutual adaptation with people. A recent tragic incident in Vatra Dornei, Suceava County, illustrates the disaster caused by the new Emergency Ordinance 81/2021 on rapid intervention and the failure to apply the national action plan for conserving Romania’s brown bear population.

Photo: the two rescued cubs of the female bear killed in Vatra Dornei. Credit: Casa lui Patrocle

In fact, a female bear with 3 cubs, for which no efforts had been made to drive them out of the built-up area, was shot on the evening of 19 April 2022. The killer was equipped with a single, poorly aimed bullet. Consequently, the bear endured agony and a painful, prolonged death before her cubs’ eyes. They could not be relocated because nobody was equipped and trained to do so. The cubs therefore remained beside their mother’s pool of blood for 3 days. After those 3 days, an individual arrived with a tranquilliser gun for dogs. The cubs were thus poorly tranquillised and left the area. Only 2 were subsequently found and captured, thanks to the efforts of the organisation “Casa lui Patrocle” in Suceava, which took every possible step to save them. The 2 cubs have already been taken to the private sanctuary in Zărnești, where it will be decided whether, following their trauma and habituation, they can be rehabilitated and returned to their natural habitat.

“The female bear killed recently in Vatra Dornei shows that the brown bear’s situation in Romania is out of control and that the species is in danger, although it is believed to number in the thousands in Romania. The threat from climate change and habitat degradation, combined with human persecution, trophy hunting and the habituation of bears, will inevitably lead to the species’ qualitative and quantitative decline,” warns Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

The Environment Ministry has failed to ensure the conservation of the bear population and the safety of citizens and their property because it has not implemented what was stipulated, approved, publicly debated and undertaken in the National Action Plan for the Conservation of Romania’s Brown Bear Population from 2018.

The National Action Plan provides coexistence measures included in a ministerial order from 2019, which Minister Tanczos Barna blocked this year. The “Coexistence” programme was to be funded through the Environment Fund Administration (AFM) and includes direct support for farmers to acquire protection against bears. Here are some of the ministry’s commitments, published in the Official Gazette:

1. a) ensuring reliable data as scientific support for decision-making,
2. b) maintaining a stable bear population,
3. c) protecting specific natural habitats and their quality,
4. d) maintaining natural behaviour and avoiding the habituation/conditioning of bears,
5. e) preventing and reducing conflicts,
6. f) ensuring ecological connectivity throughout the species’ range at national and regional levels,
7. g) informing and raising awareness among local people,
8. h) involving stakeholders in decision-making,
9. i) improving legislation and ensuring implementation and compliance with legal provisions,
10. j) integrating bear-population conservation measures into other sectors,
11. k) increasing institutional capacity and cooperation among the responsible authorities/institutions.

All these obligations fall to the Environment Ministry, which must ensure the legislative framework is supplemented/amended and provide the tools needed to implement the national action plan.

The Environment Ministry has also failed to apply the European Council’s request to avoid supplementary feeding of wild animals, especially bears, because such practices lead to habituation, excessive population growth that the habitat cannot support, and inevitable human-bear conflicts.

Because of its failure to implement the national action plan and numerous other failings, Agent Green launched the petition to dismiss Minister Tanczos Barna.

With the situation out of control and the ministry showing no sign of improving it, Agent Green announces that it has begun preparing the documentation needed to refer the matter to the European Commission with a view to initiating infringement proceedings.