In October 2019, a court in Italy ruled that an Alpine brown bear would not be euthanized for killing a runner in the Italian Alps, despite the fact that the killing is considered an exception under Italian law and usually bears are put down after such incidents. While the exact cause of the attack remains unknown, experts speculated the animal may have mistakenly seen the runner as prey. The ruling has created tensions among officials experts, who are divided over whether the bear should remain alive or be euthanized in order to protect the public, as well as whether killing a bear should be legal in any situation. Animal welfare experts, for their part, have argued that the bear should be relocated to an area with less human contact and that better preventative measures should be taken to reduce the risk of similar attacks in the future, such as better warning systems in remote areas.