More than 200 attacks in one year and 6 deaths between residents
The Japanese government has approved a bill that authorizes the various municipalities to the “emergency felling” of the bears, after more and more numerous animal sightings, with over 200 attacks on residents within a year, and the death of six people : the highest number since the statistics started.
Based on new ordinances, any “interventions” can be made by hunters when animals deemed dangerous are sighted in populated areas. The revision of the law on the protection and management of wildlife, according to the executive, will allow faster and more effective responses than current measures, which allow to shoot dangerous animals only when they represent an immediate danger for people.
If the bill is promulgated in the current diet session, the Ministry of the Environment intends to apply it within autumn, when bears begin to be more active. The new measures will also allow municipalities to limit traffic and to issue evacuation orders in collaboration with the police to guarantee the safety of residents in the event of accidents with firearms. Local governments, for example, will provide compensation if a building is damaged by bullets. In addition to the brown bears, and the black mantle, the law provides for the designation of dangerous animals also wild boars. According to experts, mammals habits are increasingly climate change, which limit food sources and alter the periods of hibernation, together with the depopulation caused by the aging of society, an effect that leads animals to venture more and more often in urban areas.
Last December, in the north of the country, a bear, after injuring a 47 -year -old man, remained closed for two days in a supermarket, promptly evacuated, devastating the meat department.
He was attracted out with honey before being captured by local authorities.
