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Shooting of `fugitive' triggers lawsuit threats

For seven weeks the two-year-old had led an idyllic existence, swimming in lakes, eating honey and killing the odd sheep. But the adventures of Germany's most famous fugitive -- Bruno the Bear -- came to an abrupt end early on Monday morning when a group of Bavarian hunters shot him dead.

Bruno stayed a step ahead of his pursuers for weeks, becoming a sort of fugitive hero -- his legend growing as his forays into populated areas became more brazen. Last week, he sauntered into a lakeside resort and sat down in front of the police station, before vanishing.

Media hype had reached a frenzy over the weekend after officials gave the go-ahead for the bear to be shot. Some newspaper editorials had pleaded for clemency.

Bruno was the first wild bear to be sighted in Germany since 1835. Part of an Italian program to reintroduce bears to the Alps, Bruno had roamed the Alpine border region between Germany and Austria since last month.

The 100kg animal had been blamed for killing dozens of sheep and raiding poultry and rabbit hutches along with beehives.

Officials confirmed that Bruno had been killed at 4:50am near a lake close to the town of Zell.

"It's not that we don't welcome bears in Bavaria. It's just that this one wasn't behaving properly," said Otmar Bernhard, an official with Bavaria's environment ministry. "The bear kept wandering into populated areas. Its death was regrettable. But we didn't have much choice."

However, the killing has raised constitutional issues in Germany -- the only country on Earth where the rights of animals are enshrined in the nation's Constitution.

The hunters who shot the bear have expressed fears of reprisals from radical animal-rights activists; their names have not been released.

Animal-rights activists have threatened to file legal challenges.

"This is the stupidest thing that could have happened," said Hubert Weinzierl, president of the German Naturschutzring, an animal-rights group. "The killers of Bruno have not heard the end of this and we will pursue legal avenues."

"In other countries, humans and bears coexist in relative harmony. But only in Germany do the authorities resort to liquidation. How tragically typical," he said.
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