Vita gazette – First, we took their country; now, we take their lives. Amarena the bear was killed. It symbolised the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. It was killed by a shot fired by Mr. LA on the outskirts of San Benedetto dei Marsi, outside the Park and the Contiguous Area. Amarena the bear has never attacked anyone.

“The bear Amarena was shot and killed”. This is the communication that the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise gave on the night between 31 August and 1 September. The Abruzzo Lazio and Molise National Park provided the news on its Facebook page: “Killed by a shot fired by Mr LA on the outskirts of San Benedetto dei Marsi, outside the Park and the Contiguous Area. The Park Guards promptly intervened on the spot, on surveillance service, given the area where Amarena had gone down with her puppies. The Park veterinarian intervened on the site with the emergency team, who, however, could only ascertain the bear’s death, given the wound’s seriousness.

The she-bear was a specimen of the Marsican brown bear that populated the national park areas, which is why it was known and monitored. Over the years, she had become famous for her forays into the towns of the Park, often with her puppies following her, just as we saw a few days ago. Raids in search of food: mainly fruit “stolen” from trees. It has never created or caused harm to people.

The perpetrator of the killing was “identified by the park rangers and then subjected to the findings by the carabinieri”. And again: “The episode is a severe fact, which causes enormous damage to the population of about sixty specimens, affecting one of the most prolific females in the history of the Park”. A gesture for which, concludes the Park, “obviously there are no reasons for any reason to justify the episode given that Amarena while causing damage to agricultural and livestock activities, always and in any case compensated by the Park even outside the boundaries of the Contiguous Area, it had never created any kind of problem for man”.