Tourists Kill Bear Cub

Yesterday the Prosecutor’s Office in Zakopane charged three tourists with killing a 1.5-year-old bear in Dolina Chocholowska. The residents of Lubawa in Warminsko-Mazurskie Province are accused of “causing damage to wildlife on a large scale”. They were threw stones at the bear and then drowned the animal. An expert stated that the bear population in both the Polish and Slovakian Tatra Mountains fluctuates between 50 and 60 animals. Thus, the killed bear accounted for 2% of the population. Zbigniew Lis, a public prosecutor in Zakopane says that the crucial factor is that the bear was already self-reliant and had adapted to conditions in the Tatra Mountains. The tourists say they acted in self-defense but the court-appointed physician stated that their injuries after contact with the animal were insignificant. Forest rangers from the Tatra National Park found crumbs from sandwiches that the tourists had been feeding the animal with. “The accused will face up to 2 years in prison,” according to Lis. The trial should commence within a month in Zakopane.
Gazeta Wyborcza