How much does it cost to kill a bear illegally in Romania: the case of the hunter who confused the bear with the wild boar

The law on hunting and the hunting fund establishes the conditions under which hunting can be practiced in Romania, but it also establishes the value of the compensations that must be paid in case of illicit deeds. Thus, an annex to the law sets out the compensation to be paid for species for which hunting is prohibited.

The highest compensation provided by law, 40,000 euros, is in the case of the bear. By a sentence pronounced in July 2020, which is not final, being attacked on appeal, a hunter from Mureş was forced to pay 40,000 euros after shooting a bear that he mistaken for a wild boar.

It all happened in November 2016, during a hunting party authorized to hunt wild boar, when he shot a bear. Following the incident, a criminal case was opened against the hunter.

After half a year of investigation, the hunter was found not guilty, the prosecutors considering that “they are not fit to prove the form of guilt required by law for committing the crime of poaching, respectively direct or indirect intent, the defendant being in error when he did use of a weapon believing it to be a wild boar. ”

Sued to pay the bear

Even though he escaped the criminal charges, the hunter was sued by the Forest Guard, through a civil lawsuit, in order to be obliged to pay the 40,000 compensation provided by law for shooting the bear.

The Târgu-Mureş District Court accepted the request and obliged the hunter to pay damages of 40,000 euros. “In order to engage in tortious civil liability, it is necessary to cumulatively fulfill four conditions, namely the existence of an illicit deed, of a prejudice, a causal link between the illicit deed and the prejudice, as well as the existence of guilt, which is assessed in relation to the slightest guilt.” , showed the Târgu-Mureş Court, which considers that in the case of the bear shot after being mistaken for a wild boar, all the conditions required by law are met.

“The guilt of the defendant took the form of guilt in the case. Thus, from the statements of the witnesses heard during the criminal investigation, it results that the defendant fired the gunfire that knocked down the bear. The defendant, heard as a suspect in the criminal investigation file, stated that he fired two shots at a wild boar and did not intend to shoot a bear, being surprised that he confused the two animals.

The defendant did not foresee the result of his deed, although he should and could have foreseen it, given that the hunting took place in an area where there were wild animals, there being the possibility that there were other animals than those listed in the hunting permit “, showed the judge who forced the hunter to pay compensation of 40,000 euros.

The sentence of the Târgu-Mureş Court was appealed, which was judged at the Mureş Tribunal. After the successive postponement of the ruling, the judges decided to reopen the case to request additional details about the circuit of some documents related to the case. The next deadline in the trial was set for June 15.