FLORIN HORIA BAROS WAITS OUTSIDE HIS TWO-STORY, wood-shingle farmhouse in Sătic, a village in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, his face like thunder. Around midnight the farmer was startled by a commotion from the sheds holding his pigs.
“The bear came along the street, over the fence, broke the door off the shed, and attacked the pigs. I chased him off with my dogs,” he says. Hours later, the brown bear circled back, targeting another shed. Now, two pigs lie dead in the yard. A third, though still alive, staggers stupefied around the pen, its back stripped by the bear’s teeth and claws. A fourth is missing.
Baros, also a veterinarian, is considering putting the wounded pig out of its misery but has decided to wait for a local commission to arrive.…