On the menu, the ‘We are the Forest’ environmental group found ‘bear goulash’ being served with ‘potato dumplings stuffed with cranberries and juniper berries’ for €19.90.
The menu also offered ‘homemade spicy bear crackling with garlic toast’ for €8.90.
The organization has now filed a criminal complaint against the eatery, claiming the meat came from bears that were shot illegally.
Brown bears are a protected species in Slovakia, and the law expressly forbids “keeping, breeding, transporting, offering, selling and exchanging” the animal, whether alive or dead, including products made from it.
Michal Haring of ‘We Are the Forrest’ told the Nový čas website that the organization had “serious doubts” that the practice was legal.
“It is surprising that the restaurant staff claim that contacts at the Tatra National Park Administration (TANAP), which is headed by a legally convicted wolf poacher, are sufficient to obtain bear meat,” Haring said.
In January, the director of Slovakia’s biggest nature reserve was forced to resign after it came to light that he had illegally killed a wolf in 2012.
A TANAP spokesperson said the organization was unaware of the controversial menu and denied that the meat came from their hunting grounds.
Bear attacks
The ‘We Are the Forest’ organization highlighted that permission to kill brown bear can only be granted by the ministry of environment under special circumstances.
The organization also argued that weakening of animal protection laws in Slovakia could lead to a rise in the illegal trade in endangered species.
The animal’s protected status was reassessed in Slovakia last year following a spate of attacks, some of which were fatal.
Videos posted on the X platform have highlighted how bears are increasingly coming into contact with locals in the Slovakian highlands.
Between January and July this year, more than three dozen bears were killed by hunters and national authorities under a relaxation of national animal protection laws.
Slovakia's State Nature Conservancy office said authorities had shot 30 "problematic" bears while a further 11 were killed by hunters.
The European brown bear is protected under the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention, but its status is coming under greater scrutiny across Central and Eastern Europe.
As a result of increased safety concerns, Brussels gave Bratislava the green light in June to amend its laws, Euronews reported.
But ‘We Are the Forest’ maintain that the bear cull is unlawful.
“In connection with the shooting of bears, which is carried out under the supervision of the State Nature Conservancy, we filed a criminal complaint about facts indicating the commission of a mass criminal act violating the protection of plants and animals,” Nový čas quoted a spokesperson as saying.
“The criminal complaint contains more than 90 pages of documentation, which, in our opinion, proves that the shooting of specific bears was carried out in violation of the law."
The European brown bear was hunted almost to extinction in the 1930s with only a few dozen remaining in Slovakia.
