New Swiss bins come with bear necessities

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. So after a bear was shot earlier this year for entering a village in search of food, Swiss towns are testing new "anti-bear" bins to deter more foragers.

Environmental group the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Thursday that the new bins come equipped with special locks which cannot be opened by bears, even when they are filled with tempting goodies like honey, fish or meat.

The group carried out tests on two types of bin over 10 days in a bear enclosure, but their contents remained untouched.

The bins will be introduced into villages in the mountainous Grisons region of eastern Switzerland and neighbouring Italy over the next four to six weeks, the WWF said.

The move comes after...