Environment Ministry Says It Will Grant No Exceptions in Bos Wildlife Case

Lithuania’s Environment Ministry says the law did not order Daina and Antanas Bos to kill the animals kept at their Gamtos Perlas facility. It says the decision belongs to the owners, but only if their permit to keep the animals is revoked.

The ministry responded after the business owners said environmental authorities had told them that seven lynxes and three bears at Gamtos Perlas had to be killed or transferred to institutions with the legal right and suitable conditions to keep them. The owners said, according to the description of the dispute, that no such institutions existed in Lithuania.

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The Environment Ministry does not participate in decisions on specific permits or sanctions.

Ministry representative Viktorija Dačinskaitė said the ministry prepares legislation governing the use and welfare of wild animals, including animals held in captivity. The main requirements come from Lithuania’s Wildlife Law, the Animal Welfare and Protection Law, and rules approved by the environment minister.

She said reforms approved in 2023 gave operators a maximum period of 18 months to bring conditions into compliance. The ministry itself, however, does not decide on specific permits or sanctions. Those responsibilities belong to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Environmental Protection Department.

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These are the operator’s options for how to proceed, not an instruction from the authorities.

The ministry cited a provision stating that, after a captivity permit is cancelled, animals may be transferred within 30 calendar days to people who have the right and suitable conditions to keep them, or may be killed or euthanized in accordance with animal-welfare requirements. Dačinskaitė said this describes the operator’s options, not an instruction from the authorities. Until a permit is cancelled, she said, the main route is to improve the facilities or secure permission to keep the animals at another suitable location.

Asked about an EU law, the ministry said it lacked enough information to comment properly. It noted that a 1999 EU directive sets requirements for zoos, but said Gamtos Perlas is not a zoo and does not hold a zoo-establishment permit.

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Until then, the main route remains to bring the keeping conditions into compliance, or obtain a permit to keep the animals in another suitable place.