The northern regions of Liptov and Turiec in Slovakia share a problem with brown bears and residents in the Liptov village of Jakubany have repeatedly reported encounters with a bear that has caused damage to their harvest, beehives and orchards while another brown bear has reportedly been threatening citizens of the village of Podhradie in Turiec and has killed a dozen sheep at a local farm, the SITA newswire reported.
"Those were the main reasons for the Environment Ministry to issue an extraordinary
permit to shoot these problematic animals," stated the ministry's spokeswoman, Beatrice Hudáková, as quoted by SITA.
Environment Minister Jozsef Nagy added on November 21 that protection of people is a public priority and that these two bears can be hunted and shot until the end of November.
The ministry has issued a total of seventeen extraordinary permits to shoot brown bears this year while three have actually been killed.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
