An Italian regional administrative court suspended on Friday an order to cull a 17-year-old she-bear that killed an Italian jogger in the northern Trentino region, pending a hearing next month. Authorities said it also attacked two other people in 2020, but not fatally.

The order to shoot the bear had been signed by the president of Trento province, Maurizio Fugatti, on April 8.

Addressing the media, Fugatti said on Friday that his administration had repeatedly reported JJ4 to the relevant authorities as a "dangerous bear," but that they had disagreed and had ordered it be allowed to go free for the moment.

The administrative court has scheduled a full hearing for May 11.

LAV, a non-governmental animal rights organization, welcomed the order's reversal. It said the court accepted a call for an injunction it had filed, describing it as a "LAV VICTORY."

It described the decision as a "setback to the arrogance of President Maurizio Fugatti."

"Bears and Trentino citizens have the right to live in peace," the organization said.

Spared once again

It's the second time Italian courts have offered the bear, known as JJ4, a reprieve.

In June 2020, JJ4 attacked two hikers on Mount Peller, a father and son. The father was badly injured in the attack.

Fugatti at the time also ordered the bear's killing, only to have the court also revoke his order.

A bloodied tree branch retrieved from the scene of the recent attack was tested and led to identifying JJ4, local media reported.

A bear population project gone wrong?

The family of the deceased, 26-year-old Andrea Papi, said they did not demand the bear's death, nor did they hold her accountable. The family is instead suing the Italian state and the Trento province, local media reported.

Wild brown bears were imported from Slovenia and reintroduced to Trentino in 1999, as part of a wider project to resettle the animals to the Austrian and Italian Alps.

Some observers have recently complained that the bear population has gone out of hand, reaching more than double the number the project aimed to achieve.

Papi is believed to be the first person to have died of a bear attack since the project's launch.

Sister of Bavaria's Bruno, the 'problem bear'

JJ4 is a sibling of another problematic bear who was given the name Bruno in Bavaria. Shooting to fame in the early 2000s in Germany, after moving via Austria and Italy, Bruno's reputation soon turned sour.

More and more attacks reported on other animals in Bavaria were blamed on the bear. The government eventually signed a shoot-to-kill order against him, and the region's hunting community obliged on the same day open season was declared.

rmt/msh (dpa, Reuters)