Restaurants in Slovakia will soon be able to serve delicacies such as bear burgers after the government approved the sale of bear meat in retail outlets, Euractiv reports.
As part of efforts to select around 350 of Slovakia’s approximately 1,300 brown bears, which are a protected species under EU law, the government has said it will sell the animals once they have been killed.
“We will supply every captured individual [bear] that meets the conditions for consumption,” said state minister Filip Kuffa this week in a social media post.Â
Since “bear meat is edible,” the ministry “will offer the caught animals for sale,” he added.
On Saturday, Kuffa announced that the government had killed another bear with the help of the armed forces, bringing the death toll to 23. Brown bears can weigh up to 600 kg, which means that several tonnes of bear meat could be put up for sale.
The Slovak Ministry of the Environment has turned into a “meat shop, and protected animal species into a dish on a plate. This is tragic and shameful,” said Slovak liberal MEP Martin HojsÃk.
“This isn’t about protection or regulation. The real goal is trophy hunting and a pot of goulash,” he added.
The meat, known for its small round worms that infect the digestive tract, must be cooked at a temperature of at least 75 °C to be safe for consumption.
The bear culling programme in Bratislava has been sharply criticised by Slovak environmentalists, and the European Commission has not yet raised any objections with the government over a potential breach of EU habitat directives.
In March, a bear mauled a tourist to death in a Slovakian forest, prompting the government to begin the cull.
