European Wildlife

Prague - Hunting represents a bigger risk for people than wild animals attacks. This is shown by statistics of Hunting and Fishing Union in Bulgaria. In 2009-2010 hunting season hunters in Bulgaria killed seven people by accident. In every case the victims were their colleagues at a hunt.

At the same time, nevertheless, Bulgarian representatives pushed through bear hunt quotas setting. By reason of a fatal accident when a bear killed one person. The comparison of statistics data, however, shows that hunting has more victims on its conscience than big predators attacks.

"We are terribly sorry for every needless death, be it caused by a wild animal or a man. The bear hunt quotas setting, as a reaction to the tragic event, seems inadequate to us, though. All the more as statistics show that hunters are a much bigger risk for human life than bears are," stated Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife conservation organisation.

The quota for seventeen bears shooting this year was set by the Bulgarian government after in 2010 a bear in South Bulgaria killed one person and seriously injured the other one.

European Wildlife conservation organisation has protested against the bear hunt quotas setting. This November the organization sent a letter to the Bulgarian representatives in which it asked to stop these big predators hunting as they are in many European countries endangered or completely exterminated.

According to present statistics there are about 550 bears living in Bulgaria. For more than twenty years their hunting was forbidden.