RIP JJ3

The bears in the photo live in the bear pit in Bern, which is tradition in the town of Bern. This bear pit has grown old and no longer meets with a bear-friendly environment, so it is being re-built on the shores of the River Aare in Bern. The bears will be able to swim in the river in a special enclosure.

The bear JJ3 did not live in such a friendly area. Further to my blog yesterday about our Bear JJ3 which was killed, here is a translation of an article in our local newspaper today. It was on the front page with the headlines "The Bear risk was too Big".

Grisons JJ3 was killed near Thusis on Monday morning
The bear JJ3 is dead. For many weeks the Grison (Eastern part of Switzerland, very mountainous) population were holding their breath because the bear was not afraid of people. On Monday he was killed by rangers.

The shooting was the end of an inevitability, that we all knew would come" said Reinhard Schnidrig, commander in chief of the rangers to the media in Chur (capitol town of Grisons). After his hibernation the bear JJ3 plundered again and again refuse bins and containers in villages in the area of Lenzerheide-Albulatal-Savognin. The several efforts to get rid of the bear with explosions and ribber bullets did not impress the bear at all. According to the Grisons president Stefan Engler he became more and more impertinent. The cantonal authorities did not want to risk an accident involving humans. On Monday evening JJ3's fate was sealed.

He earned more chances
Environment and animal welfare organisations condemned the shooting as a course of action which jumped to conclusions. From their point of view JJ3 hat earned a further chance, the scaring away of the bear should have been carried further. The animal had never been aggressive towards humans. "We are of the opinion that the authorities should have developed a clearer strategy before they classified JJ3 as a risky bear and condemned him to be shot" said Kurt Eichenberger, Project chief for WWF in the interview. "The potential danger was at a minimum and in our eyes would not have grown. JJ3 had never shown himself to be aggressive. And also in the expectancy of the immigration of further bears the shooting was no solution." The WWF are now examining further legal steps, also to make adjustments to the "Bear concept".

The responsible persons of the Federation and the Kanton resisted the accusations that they had not done enough and referred to the other bear in Grison, MJ4, that was causing no problems. They had seen no possibility with JJ3 to influence his actions. To catch the bear and put him in a bear park was no alternative for the Grison hunting inspectors out of animal ethical reasons.

That JJ3 would become a problem must lay in the family. 2 years ago his brother Bruno caused panic and havoc in Baveria before he was shot.

To keep bears away from human settlements the Kanton Grisons had decided to introduce a bear proof disposal system."

So those are the facts in Switzerland at the moment. There is a movement against the local government decisions. When I came home from work today, Mr. Swiss said when he heard the bear had been shot it shocked him. He was listening to people speaking on the radio today and many are against the shooting. It seems to me the Swiss just don't know how to deal with the problem and have had no experience with this sort of thing. Bear JJ3 was a bit cheeky and was sitting outside the front door when a mother went out in the morning to take her children to school - Why, because she had left the dustbin outside. Or there is the bee keeper whose complete bee hives had been destroyed by JJ3 because the bear was after the honey. Here again the Grison authorities are going to give help for the bee keepers to be able to protect their bee hives with barbed wire and an alarm system. Slowly people are waking up to how to deal with bears. It's just a shame that a beautiful bear had to die first of all. The Swiss wanted the bears to return and now they are here they realise they just don't know how to cope.

I am for preserving all animal life and there are always ways and means to do it, sometimes the decision makers just don't seem to be able to see the forest for trees.

Bits and Pieces

This was early Monday morning in the office. It was early because we were dealing with details before the daily work began. What do we see - on the right and left two of my colleagues and in the middle a third colleague concentrating on some important work. I did mention on one of my last blogs that the Panini sticky photos for EU2008 had now arrived in Switzerland. Over the week-end my colleagues and I had been sticking our photos of footballers into the album and had managed to sort out the photos that were double. I even took time to make an Excel list with filter, so that I did not have to take the album to work but just the photos. We were then busy exchanging our double photos - after all for one franc for a packet of five pictures, it is not a cheap hobby. I seem to have the Turkish team complete and quite a few Swiss, but the Italians are few and far between.

I was reading in a magazine under the title "Panini fever hits Switzerland" that the Swiss are buying the most and even 83% of the infected are over 15 years old - is this possible?. The biggest problem that Panini had was to pick the 20 footballers from each team to put in the album. Yes, Panini are very sly. In the 2006 world cup they apparently chose the German goalie Oliver Kahn as being the goalie for that team, only to find that Jens Lehmann was the chosen goalie. No problem, they quickly issued a sticky of Jens to replace that of Oliver Kahn. They even brought out a special edition to accommodate the new photo with information about Jens Lehmann.

Well I have about 300 pictures to go, so I am sure I will get there in the end. Even Mr. Swiss offered on Saturday to go half way with the pictures I bought. Yes, although the Swiss team have zero chances of winning anything the fever is there.

And now for something a bit sad. Now and again a bear finds its way into Switzerland. Not very often and it still gets into the headlines. The photo is bear JJ3 (we give them names) who has been drugged before being shot. There is of course a big uproar in certain groups of the population, so what did this bear do wrongly. He has been around for some time and decided why hunt for food when the human population leave enough lying around, so he started going too near to the villages. People living in bear countries know the problems with bears, basically they are scavengers taking what they can, but the Swiss do not realise this and leave their rubbish in bins outside. JJ3 thought this was meant for him and was getting too near to civilisation. To make sure that he didn't take any humans with him on his food hunting trips, it was decided that he days should come to an end. I was listening to a radio report where one of the wildlife keepers said that the trouble was JJ3 was getting too intelligent and was avoiding the wildlife keepers and going more to the houses where people were living. The authorities found that this was getting out of hand and shot JJ3. There is a bit of a discussion in Switzerland about this act of "terror" as the WWF found that our hunters should have waited a bit before making such a decision (wait for what - the first dead cat/person/child?). He was even offered a roof over his head at the bear pit in Bern, but this was turned down. Anyhow JJ3 will be preserved for the following population of the Swiss. He will be stuffed and exhibited in one of the museums.




Further to a blog I once wrote about politics in Switzerland and a lady, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, that was elected into the government of Switzerland as a minister, things are not going so good, or perhaps they are. Her own political party did not want her in the government as there was a strong fraction still supporting the minister that had to leave. This party, like any other, has rightwingers, and moderate wingers. The politician that had to go was extreme right, and this lady is more moderate. The situation was sharpened up last week. Her party said she no longer had their support and should quit the parliament immediately. The rest of the government were sort of split ideas, and she herself said she would stay. Well one thing must be said for the women of Switzerland. There was a bit demo in Bern (over 10,000 people which is a lot for Switzerland) came together and made their thoughts clear that the lady should stay. She came herself eventually, accompanied by loud applause and said "You came here not only for me, but because doubt has been cast on our democratic institutions". More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition in support of the justice minister (that is her department). Her party has said (i.e. the right wing) that they will expel her from the party, but I don't think this will go that far. You see we even have a bit of wild west in Switzerland from time to time.

Monday Blog

This is how I felt this morning when the alarm went at 6.00. I hate Mondays, especially Monday morning, but don't we all - what did you say Tabby?

Tabby: I don't know what the fuss is about. Any morning is ok with me. When I arrive home after a night out with the cats, I just have a lay down and a few hours sleep.

Yes, being a cat at my place is a good life. You don't have to go hunting for the food, it all comes prepared and is always there.

Deutsch: So habe ich mich gefühlt heute morgen wenn die Alarm um 6.00 los ging. Ich hasse Montags, besonders Montag morgen, aber ich glaube so geht uns aller - was has du gesagt Tabby?

Tabby: I weiss nicht was so schlimm ist. Jeder Morgen ist ok mit mir. Wann ich zu Hause komme, nach ein Abend fort mit die Katzen, Ich liege ab und schlafe für ein paar Stunden.

Ja, eine Katze bei mir hat es gut. Sie müssen nicht jagen für Ihre Futter, es kommt alles bereit und ist immer da.

At 7 in the morning I left my cats and Mr. Swiss for a day in the office. It turned out to be one of those days that are better left out. Not going into too much detail, but work in an export department can sometimes get a bit hectic. My days of looking after Asia are now past, thank goodness. I am getting on in years and preparing the way for the younger generation, so concentrate more on Europe. Sometimes Europe is too near for my liking and the words "just in time" apply to business these days. The customer orders today and gets the goods delivered tomorrow - sounds good, if you are not responsible for seeing that it all happens. Today I don't think anyone left the office before 05.30 in the evening.

Deutsch: Um 7 morgens ich verlass meine Katzen und Herr Schweizer für ein Tage in Büro. Es hat sich bewiesen, dass es besser wäre wenn diese Tag nicht existiert hätte. Ich will nicht in Detail gehen, aber Arbeit in ein Exportabteilung kann sehr hektisch werden ab und zu. Meine Tage wo ich Asien betreut habe sind vorbei und ich bin froh. Ich gehe langsam zum "grufti"Alter (mein Sohn hat diese Wort ab und zu benützt - ja die junge Leute erfinden die Sprache neu) und mache der Weg frei für die jungere Generation, ich betreue jetzt mehr die Länder in Europa. Europa ist etwas zu viel in der Nähe heute und die Wörter "just in Time" sind anzuwenden in der heutige Tagen. Die Kunde bestellt heute und bekommt die Waren morgen - tönt gut, wenn man nicht verantwörtlich ist das es so passiert. Heute ich glaube niemand hat das Büro verlasse vor 17.30 Uhr.

On my way home from work I was listening to the news on the car radio. They were talking about the storm "Emma" that we had over the week-end. In the town of Bern we have a bear pit as the bear is the symbol of Bern. The bears have lived there for more than 100 years, but today, in keeping with the kindness to all living things that we are developing, the bear pit is no longer considered good enough for the bears, and a new bigger and more luxurious place is being constructed along the River Aare where they can even go swimming in the river. Big deal for the bears, I just hope they don't swim too far and eat what gets in their way - in summer there is a swimming pool along the river for humans.

Deutsch: Auf meine Heimweg von der Arbeit ich hörte die Nachrichten in Autoradio. Sie habe gesprochen über die Sturm "Emma" das vobei ging am Wochenende. In der Stadt Bern wir haben ein Bärengraben, weil der Bär die Symbol von Bern ist. Die Bären wohnen da seit mehr als 100 Jahren, aber heute, in Zusammenhang mit die Entwicklung am Sorge zu alle lebendige Sachen, die Bärengraben ist nicht mehr gut genug für die Bären, und eine neue grössere und luxuriöse Platz wird gebaut an die Fluss Aare, wo sie können sogar schwimmen gehen. Sehr gut für die Bären, Ich hoffe einfach, dass sie nicht zu weit schwimmen und fressen was im Weg ist - in Sommer es hat ein Schwimmbad für Menschen an die Aare.

Back to the radio report. One of the bear keepers was being interviewed as the large fir tree on the right in the picture was blown down by the wind and broke into 4 pieces. This is for the Swiss a bit tragic, because the fir tree belongs to the bear pit. The keeper said that the bears would not really miss it as they are very adaptable animals and are really only interested in their food and not the surroundings. In this case the tree will not be replaced, so I suppose we have many disappointed Swiss who will miss their fir tree. I visited the bear pit last year in Summer and looking at the photos I took, they seem to have enough trees left.

Deutsch: Zurück zum Rdiobericht. Ein Bärwärter war befragt, weil die Tanne auf die rechte Seite in der Bild stürzte um von der Luft und zerbrach in 4 Stücke. Das ist ein kleine Tragödie für die Schweizer, weil diese Tanne gehört einfach zum Bäregraben. Der Wärter sagte, dass die Bären würde es nicht unbedingt vermissen, weil sie sind anpassungsfähiger Tieren und sind eigentlich nur interessiert an Ihre Futter - nicht die Umgebung. Deshalb wird die Baum nicht ersetzt, so es ist nur die Schweizer was Ihre Tanne wird vermissen. Ich besuchte die Bärengraben letzter Jahr in Sommer, und wenn ich die Photos anschauen, sie haben immer noch genug Bäume.

July 23, 2007 - still 5 weekdays to go

If you live in Switzerland and have a visit from London, then a visit to the capital city of Bern is always welcome. My schoolfriend has been in Switzerland a few times and her wish was to again visit the bear pit in Bern. Apart from having banks, gold bars and Heidi we also have real live bears which have been kept in Bern for many years in a bear pit. As you can see above the Bern coat of arms shows a bear and the bears are found in all corners of the town, in chocolate, china, metal, Bern = bear. Probably the animal friends are already crying out in protest. The bears are very well cared for and according to the birth rate there can be as many as 4-5 bears. However today there are only two brown bears kept permanently in the pit. In Spring it is particularly attractive as if there have been any births the baby bears are then introduced to the spectators.

A bit of history – the bear pit today has been since 1857 in the same place. If you arrive at the main station, you can take a nice walk through the main road (a blog follows next time) and eventually you cross the River Aare over the Nydegg bridge and the bear pit is just after the bridge. In 1995/96 the bear pit was renovated to enable the bears to live their bear life to the full. Food can be bought to feed the bears and they always seem to be very hungry. I am not sure as I could find not record on Internet, but I believe there have been accidents with people leaning over the wall and falling in. Although my photos seem to have been taken very near to the bears, I can assure you I did not lean over to get closer but used the zoom lens on the camera.

As belongs to every tourist attraction, just behind the bear pit there is a souvenir shop where nice little fluffy bears can be bought.

The restaurant and souvenir shop was actually the tram end station at one time, but was converted and my friend and I had a cup of coffee in the restaurant. Beer is brewed on the premises and here follows a photo of the brewery protected by a glass window in the basement (just next door to the toilets – there must be a link somewhere?)

I think we attempted to leave the bear pit twice, but each time the bears pulled another trick so our photo safari continued. They are quite active and have water for a bath and a high area with trees to walk around in. To appease all who find this is not right, a new bear park is being built in Bern to replace the pit. I have “borrowed” this text from an Internet site:

“Bear Park: The existing Bear Pits are to be turned into a Bear Park in the future. The project was launched in April 2003 and aims to create two bear enclosures measuring over 10 000 m2 in which the bears will be able to be outdoors all day throughout the year (in winter caves).

Furthermore the new enclosures will provide the bears with the opportunity to swim and fish in the water of the River Aare for the first time ever. A new feature of the Bear Park will be that it is open 24 hours a day and visitors will be able to gain a good insight into "bear life" from paths running round the enclosure. Furthermore there will be technological equipment to help locate the bears.”

If anyone ever strays to Switzerland and visits the town of Bern, then I can only advise to visit the bears. It was at least 3-4 years since I was there and I really enjoyed the visit.