Macedonian court convicts bear of stealing honey
A Macedonian court convicted a bear of theft and damage for stealing honey from a beekeeper who fought off the attacks with thumping “turbo-folk” music. “I tried to distract the bear with lights and music because I heard bears are afraid of that,” Zoran Kiseloski told top-selling daily Dnevnik after the year-long case of the bear vs. the beekeeper ended in the beekeeper’s favour. “So I bought a generator, lit up the area and put on songs of (Serbian ‘turbo-folk’ star) Ceca.” The bear stayed away for a few weeks, but came back when the generator ran out of power and the music fell silent, Kiseloski said, adding, “it attacked the beehives again.” A court in the city of Bitola found the bear guilty, and since it had no owner and belonged to a protected species, ordered the state to pay the 140,000 denars ($3,500) damage it caused to the hives. There was no information on the whereabouts of the bear. (Reporting by Ljilja Cvekic; Editing by Ellie Tzortzi and Mary Gabriel)
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