A restaurant in Friuli’s Pordenone province has sparked anger from animal rights activists. Polenta with bear meat has also been on the menu for some time now. A portion of 250 grams of meat from bears from neighboring Slovenia, where these four-legged friends are not protected, unlike in Italy, costs 18 euros.
“The idea of offering a specialty with bear meat came about by chance. A relative of my husband, who often goes to Slovenia to buy meat, suggested we try bear meat, and that made me curious,” the owner and chef of the restaurant in the village of Travesio, Monica Paccagnella, told Il Gazetino”. The taste of bear meat resembles that of venison and venison, but is sweeter.
Restaurant owner: ‘Aroused the curiosity of the guests’
Apparently, Paccagnella has appealed to many guests with the new dish. “This special feature of our menu arouses the curiosity of the guests, many come to us from other provinces to taste the bear meat,” says the owner of the restaurant. At the same time, she emphasizes that bear meat is not an absolute novelty. “This has long been a specialty of Veneto and Friuli,” says Paccagnella.
Bear hunting strictly prohibited in Italy
The brown bear is a protected animal in the Alps whose hunting is strictly prohibited in Italy. In total, there are only about 100 bears in Italy. In Slovenia, the situation is different: the forests beyond the Friulian border are home to about 450 bears, the result of a well-organized conservation program involving authorities, environmental protection organizations and hunters. It is precisely because of this higher number of brown bears that hunting is allowed and regulated in Slovenia. Recognized butchers can therefore also sell bear meat.
Bear meat at the right-wing Lega party
For animal rights activists, the importation of boar meat from Slovenia is “a moral crime against nature”, as Michela Vittoria Brambilla, president of the Italian animal protection organization Leidaa, puts it. “Italians love animals and I don’t think they want to eat bears,” Brambilla continues. A similar situation occurred in 2011 at a festival of the right-wing Lega party in Trentino. At that time, the Carabinieri had banned the offering of boar meat because the certificates certifying the importation of the meat from Slovenia were missing. The 53 kilograms of meat were seized.
Source: Krone
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