Environment Ministry Loses Court Case Over Bear Culling

Bratislava, 25 February (TASR) - The Environment Ministry has lost a court case concerning an exemption permit allowing the shooting of eight bears issued to the Poludnica Hunting Association, TASR learnt on Wednesday. The ruling is final. The news was shared on social media by Deputy Environment Minister Filip Kuffa and the civic initiative My sme les, which brought the lawsuit. The ministry is required to reimburse the claimant in full for the legal costs. The organisation said the senate reproached the ministry for the non-reviewable identification of the bears designated for killing, the absolute insufficiency of documentation for reviewing the issued decision, and the failure to examine alternatives to killing. Kuffa maintains that the ministry still sufficiently assesses technical options. "I don't know what they want - whether I should ask zoos every day if they want bears, whether I should ask those countries every day if they want bears. If this was what the court found lacking, we can remedy it, no problem," he said. According to Kuffa, the court also pointed out that the ministry had not sufficiently identified the bears, for example by failing to determine and state their sex. "I personally witnessed that when we posed a test question about culled bears regarding their sex, it was 50-50. Some say it's a male, others say it's a female. Until you actually spread the legs of the individual, you can never determine with 100 percent certainty whether it's a male or a female," the deputy minister said, adding that this applies to young, immature bears. 'My sme les' said this was the decision in the first of 33 lawsuits it has filed in cooperation with the Nadacia Aevis and Via Iuris organisations. mf/mcs