Italian animal rights groups were up in arms after an Italian brown bear who wandered into Switzerland was shot dead this week. JJ3 had been living in the Swiss canton of Graubunden for the last year, but Swiss authorities decided he was a threat to humans after he started getting too close to towns in his search for food. JJ3 was the brother of Bruno, who suffered the same fate at the hands of German hunters in June 2006 after crossing the Italian border into Bavaria.

Animal rights groups, who have said the destruction of JJ3 was premature, since the bear had not shown himself to be a threat to people, have called for a boycott of tourism to the country.

Outgoing environment minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio described the shooting as