Brown bear execution nullified in Slovenia

The Constitutional Court of Slovenia recently declared illegal a number of brown bear executions programmed for 2008, thus confirming an appeal by the the society for the rights and liberation of animals.

Althought in Slovenia brown bears are an endangered species and therefore protected by the EU Habitat Convention as well as by the Slovene Decree on protected wild animal species, the Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia set an annual quota for bears in years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (Rules on the taking of brown bear (Ursus arctos) from the wild ).

Althought it is not known, how many bears there are in Slovenia, the Minister ordered to execute 75 bears in 2008, for the previous year even 100. Following this decision, the society for the rights and liberation of animals successfully appealed to the Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court also decided that The Environment Protection Law is incompatible with Slovene Constitution, because it doesn’t regulate the participation of the public into the procedure of preparing sub-law regulations, that are issued in connection with protected animal species, in Slovenia.