Since Thursday, 12 November 2026, a false claim has been circulating: several “environmental NGOs” supposedly proposed “condoms for bears” to the new environment minister, Natalia Intotero of the PSD. Info Sud-Est writes that the real proposal is a pilot programme of contraceptive vaccines for female bears. The author is the veterinarian Ovidiu Roșu, founder of the Visul Luanei foundation. He says condoms were never discussed and that the word appears neither in the papers sent to the ministry nor in the talks with its officials. G4Media carries the investigation.

Roșu told Info Sud-Est that he handed the documents to a person he believes was the undersecretary, the one organising the meeting, and that the minister was outside at that moment. “During the speech I told them exactly that it was about contraception. I don’t know, I don’t think they let me speak for even two minutes. The word ‘condom’ never left my mouth for a second. How could I say such a thing about wild animals? It is a total insult to the profession.”

The paper Info Sud-Est consulted is titled “Proposal for a contraceptive management programme for habituated and food-conditioned bears.” It concerns brown bears that have grown used to people and to food from them. The text says the intervention would cover only adult females, over three years old, because males range widely and mate promiscuously, so contraception for them would not work. It would run each year between March and May, with forest districts and local authorities: identify and capture, tranquillise, give the SpayVac vaccine intramuscularly, fit ear tags and, optionally, transmitters, take biological samples, then follow the effect for more than ten years.

The proposal argues that the non-lethal methods used now — moving bears, driving them off with noise, car chases, water jets or rubber bullets, and sometimes capture and a sanctuary — are often expensive and do not last. Moved bears frequently come back. SpayVac is described in the text as a porcine zona pellucida vaccine that raises antibodies and blocks fertilisation, with a long and reversible effect. The document cites studies on several species, including the American black bear, and aims at a non-lethal model for habituated bears in Romania. That is the proposal’s wording, not a confirmation that the vaccine is already cleared for use in the field.

Roșu says he spent five months on the document. He had also sent it during the term of the former minister, Diana Buzoianu of USR. “She didn’t even take me seriously. She said, ‘Leave it, send them by email.’” The papers were already in the inbox; he left them again. Info Sud-Est contacted Buzoianu. By the time of publication she had not sent a comment.

On Friday, at the National Summit for Environment and Sustainability in Cluj-Napoca, asked by Cluj24 what she thought of such a proposal, Intotero said: “Civil society has its place and its role. I respect the work of civil society. I think it is very important that we come with pertinent proposals for protecting the environment and the fauna.” Gândul, also via Cluj24, reports that she also spoke about respecting the law, about people’s lives and about unblocking investment. Info Sud-Est notes that, in the remarks, she gave no further detail about the actual proposal.

The story started on Thursday afternoon on Știripesurse.ro, under a headline that Intotero was “amazed” by “condoms for bears,” citing anonymous sources. The article did not say which NGO, who uttered the phrase or what the method was, and it showed no documents. R3media added that the solution “drew laughter,” a detail that was not in the original text. Ziarul Top de Argeș headlined “The invention of the moment,” and Sinaia Group wrote in the headline itself that the minister had been “traumatised.”

Image: Wikimedia Commons — a brown bear in Transylvania (DenesFeri, CC BY-SA 2.5). The photo is not from the meeting with the Environment Ministry.

Sources consulted: From a contraceptive vaccine to “condoms for bears” — G4Media; What the proposal actually says — Info Sud-Est; The contraceptive-management proposal — the Visul Luanei document; Natalia Intotero’s reaction — Gândul.