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Germany regrets shooting Bruno

Wearing a bear costume and carrying a German flag, Toni Engelhardt appears during a press conference in Schliersee, Germany, on Monday. Engelhard was protesting the killing of bear Bruno. PHOTO: EPA

A vast majority of Germans regret that the southern state of Bavaria allowed the first wild bear seen there in 170 years to be killed, a poll showed on Wednesday, while newspapers and television reports questioned whether "Bruno" actually needed to die.

Top-selling Bild newspaper on Wednesday joined the chorus decrying his death, printing an entire broadsheet picture of Bruno with the banner "farewell." On Tuesday, the paper devoted half of its front page to the shooting of Bruno, and an entire inside page with the "last photo of the bear" with gun sights drawn in around him next to a hand-drawn plea from a schoolchild: "Let The Bear Live!"

Meanwhile, Munich prosecutors said they had received a flood of requests that criminal charges be brought against those responsible for the decision to allow Bruno to be killed.

Markus Soeder, secretary-general of Bavaria's governing Christian Social Union party, told the Muenchner Abendzeitung newspaper that it was the right decision, though an "especially difficult" one to make.

"In the end, security interests rightfully prevailed," Soeder said. "What would have happened if the bear had attacked a child?"

On the Web site of leading weekly Der Spiegel there was a flowery obituary for the two-year-old brown bear, who was killed by hunters authorized by the Bavarian government on Monday after all attempts to capture him over the last month failed.

Bruno was part of a project to reintroduce bears in northern Italy, but wandered away into Austria and Germany where he killed sheep and other livestock. Though he was the first wild bear to be seen in Germany since 1835, both Bavaria and the Austrian state of Tyrol gave hunters permission to kill him, saying he posed a danger to humans. Italian authorities have questioned the move, saying they offered to capture and repatriate the bear.

"Bruno, at the tender age of just two, made a decision: He wanted to see the world," Spiegel wrote. "He would travel, taste new pastures and explore yonder valley. How many among Europe's docile, apathetic youth could boast such admirable qualities today?"

But, instead, the magazine said: "Bruno was murdered, shot down in the prime of his young life, executed in cold blood. We should reflect now on whether we feel happy with what we have done. We share a collective guilt for Bruno's demise, our inability to coexist with nature has yet again prompted us to reach for the trigger."

A poll by the Forsa institute for Germany's N-TV news station found that 70 percent of Germans disagreed with Bruno's shooting, finding it regrettable. Twenty four percent said they were relieved that there was not more bear threat.

Even in Bavaria, 68 percent said they regretted Bruno's death while only 26 percent said they were relieved. The poll surveyed 1,009 Germans.
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