A prince from little Liechtenstein has gotten into a serious eco-scandal after killing the biggest brown bear in Europe, and will be investigated for illegal hunting, the Daily Mail reported.
This happened during a trophy hunt in the Carpathians in Romania in March. The fatal shot rang out and the huge bear became the trophy of an aristocrat from one of the smallest countries in the EU. Romanian environmentalists have accused the prince of killing Europe’s largest bear to “hang its skin on its wall”.
Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein received a four-day hunting permit in March in Romania’s Covasna County and shot the 17-year-old bear on March 13. According to official documents, the nobleman paid 7,000 euros to rattle animals.
The prince is a resident of the Austrian town of Riegersburg and belongs to the royal family of Liechtenstein. It is believed that he “wrongly” killed the massive bear during the trophy hunt, but according to animal rights activists, the king was aware of what he wanted to be at the forefront.
Von und zu Liechtenstein
received
specially
approval from
the Romanian
ministry
of the environment to shoot a female brown bear, but instead killed the male specimen known as Arthur.
An environmental NGO that monitored the bear for nine years said it lived “deep in the wild” and had no contact with human settlements.
“Arthur was 17 years old and was the largest brown bear seen in Romania and probably in the European Union,” said Gabriel Paun of the environmental NGO Agent Green.
Romania’s National Environment Agency has launched an investigation into the death of a protected animal in central Romania and said poaching was one of the suspicions in the case.
“We knew a female bear had to be found, but later we found a (dead) male bear,” said Octavian Bercanu, head of Romania’s National Environment Agency.
Environment Minister Tanjos Barna said a permit had been issued to hunt a female bear in Covasna because it was bothering locals, but did not reveal to whom the permit had been issued.
NGOs made repeated attempts to contact the prince’s estate, but were unsuccessful. The Swiss newspaper Blick quoted the prince as saying he would not comment.
Romania
officially
ban hunting
of trophies
in 2016,
but permits to kill “problem” bears – which damage crops or kill domestic animals – can be issued to hunting associations, but only as a last resort after measures to relocate the animals fail. This type of permit is sold to trophy hunters.
Romanian media reported that a local farmer complained about a problem with three females and their young some time ago in the village of Oidula in Transylvania last summer, but Arthur’s murder did not solve the problem.
Environmentalists wonder how the prince confused the biggest bear, living deep in the wild, with the much smaller female, harassing the village.
Due to Arthur’s large size, it was called a “golden” trophy in hunting language. Such
exceptional
copies are
appreciate over
20,000 euros
“Every farmer I spoke to in the village of Oidula said that nothing had changed since the bear was shot and the female continued to come to the village every day. This is poaching, this is murder, “said an animal rights activist.
According to him, the prince did not go to solve the problem of local farmers, but to kill the bear and take the biggest trophy to hang on his wall.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that the aristocrat hunted on the territory of a protected reserve in the Carpathians. And in general, he faces severe punishment. There is already a petition calling for a total ban on trophy hunting in Romania.
Brown bear expert Chaba Domokos says Arthur’s murder is not surprising. According to him, for many hunters, killing a female with cubs would be contrary to their ethics.
“Hunting associations use raids on villages as a pretext for shooting trophy bears,” added Domokos. He says the associations are simply forcing a Romanian peasant to give evidence that there was a bear in the area that was causing problems.
Immediately after that, a hunting permit was issued and the rich went and shot a large predator.
Hunting organizations, on the other hand, receive more money for such animals than less is shot.
Romania is home to the largest population of brown bears in Europe, officially around 6,000. But some scientists dispute these figures, arguing that their census methodology was inadequate.
Prince Emmanuel is lord of Riegersburg Castle, which is owned by Liechtenstein. He is the eldest of the two sons of Princess Anemari and Prince Friedrich, a
it’s his uncle
the ruler
prince of
the principality
Hans Adam II
Emanuel is a doctor by profession, and some of the older people in Austria turn to him with Your Highness.
However, von und zu Liechtenstein is far from the first victim of a royal scandal during a hunt. In August 2007, Prince Albert II of Monaco shot a red deer in the Russian Baikal-Lensky Nature Reserve, although the hunting season did not open until the autumn.
In October 2006, then-King Juan Carlos I of Spain, while hunting in the area of the Russian city of Vologda, shot a domesticated bear that had previously been intoxicated with vodka. The animal then died in hellish torment as the king failed to hit it properly.
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