Bear Found Guilty in Macedonia!

[arnisador]

Bear Found Guilty in Macedonia Court of Stealing Beekeeper's Honey

A bear has been found guilty by a court of stealing honey from a beekeeper.

The animal was convicted of theft by the court in Bitola, in Macedonia, following a year-long case.


However, he was excused from attending court.


The case came after a beekeeper reported the bear for stealing his honey.
He told the court he had to protect his hives by playing thumping folk music.


Beekeeper Zoran Kiseloski told the court: "I tried to distract the bear with lights and music because I heard bears are afraid of that."


He said he bought a generator, lit up the area and played songs by the Serbian turbo-folk star Ceca.


The court heard the bear stayed away for a few weeks but returned when the generator ran out of power and the music stopped.


"It attacked the beehives again," Kiseloski said.


The court found the bear guilty, but since it had no owner and is a protected species it ordered the state to pay for the 140,000 denars (USD $3,545) damage it caused to the hives.



There is no information on the bear's whereabouts.

I read this in my local paper. That's too much! I wonder why we don't have the right to sue bears here in the U.S., yet those same bears have the 2nd Amendment right to firearms! It hardly seems fair.

 

[theletch1]

Um, Arni, ya know it's the right to bear arms and not the right to arm bears, right?:wink2: I'm kinda glad to see this story. It let's me know that the US isn't the only place in the world with completely crazy lawsuits.

 

[stone_dragone]

Yogi Bear would be SO screwed in Macedonia...

 

[exile]

What I want to know is, did the bear get official legal representation in court? I mean, otherwise the headline might have read, Bear convicted in kangaroo court, which would have conjured up some funny mental images..

 

[MA-Caver]

It's amazing that people would actually be stupid enough to try this.
For one thing the bear is doing what bears do. It'll rip open a natural hive in a hollow tree just as quick as it would a man-made hive.
The guy would've been better off putting up a low voltage electrical fence so that over time the bear would associate the thin wires with a shock and thus avoid it altogether.
Of course I'd avoid the music too until the genny went out on it.

 

[tellner]

Put one hive in the rhododendron patch for a couple weeks. Put the hive back with the others. That bear would be negatively reinforced like you wouldn't believe.

 

[Kingindian]

have read about this too...in my local newspaper..
the government will pay for the bear lol...