While an Italian restaurant is gaining popularity by selling a bear meat stew, it's being slammed by animal rights activists.
According to foreign media such as the British daily newspaper The Times and the Italian daily newspaper Il Gazzettino on the 1st, according to current time, recently, 'The Al Puntic restaurant' in Treviso, northeastern Italy reported that they are selling a menu using bear meat.
The restaurant manager explained that the price is 18 euros (about 25,000 won in Korean currency) for 250g, saying, “It tastes similar to roe deer and venison, but bear meat is sweeter.”
The restaurant emphasized that reservations increased thanks to this menu, saying, "Many people come from the provinces."
Although it presented an ambitious menu, the restaurant could not avoid objections from animal rights activists.
Italy is a country where bear hunting is strictly prohibited, and in particular endangered bears, such as the Marsican brown bear, have been designated as protected species.
"It's disgusting and immoral. Italians love animals, so you wouldn't want to eat a bear," said Michela Vittoria Brambilla, a former minister and animal rights activist. "he said.
Another animal rights activist said, "If the restaurant was in my area, I would have put the restaurant owner in the food, not the bear."
When the controversy erupted, the restaurant explained that it was importing from Slovenia, where bear hunting is legal.
In Slovenia, as the number of brown bears has increased in recent years, bear hunting has been allowed, and certified butchers can sell 'bear meat'.
Controversy is brewing over the sale of bear meat, but the restaurant side expressed its intention to continue selling it, and the lawyer in charge said, “The bear meat used in the restaurant was imported legally. there is," he said.