Police kill polar bill, for fun apparently, after it swam 200 miles in search of land

C

Cypress

Well-known member
Uncool.



Iceland police kill polar bill, for fun apparently, after it swam 200 miles in search of land

This is a story about global warming - polar bears literally can't find ice to rest on anymore - and about human cruelty. They didn't have to shoot the starving, exhausted bear. They could have easily sent for tranquilizers. They shot the endangered species anyway, apparently for fun, and then posed with the dead bear for glamor shots.

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/06/iceland-police.html

A Polar Bear that swam 200 miles from either Greenland or a "distant chunk of Arctic ice" finally reached land in Iceland, where it was shot by a group of police, They said they were afraid it posed a threat to humans but couldn't wait 24 hours for a "correct tranquilizer" to be flown in.

Actually: "Sveinbjarnardottir's account was disputed by the chief vet in the town of Blönduó, Egill Steingrímsson, who said he had the drugs necessary to immobilise the bear in the boot of his car. 'If the narcotics gun would have been sent by plane, it would have arrived within an hour,' he said. 'They could keep tabs on the bear for that long.'"

And then the [cops] posed smugly behind it like some kind of trophy — a starving, exhausted, (not to mention endangered) animal whose life had just ended by their rifles.
 
I guess they figured a hungry bear might be a threat to the community. It wasn't clear how populated the area was in which the bear found itself. Would you, Cypress, be willing to be lunch for the poor endangered beast? If not, you should STFU and recognize that police have a job to do. Now go cry for the poor bear and maybe light a candle or two. Oops, sorry. Forget the candles. Carbon footprint and all.
 
While I am not thrilled with the idea of polar bears being killed on sight, there are some reasons that this is not the horror story it seems.

For one thing, polar bears are classified as a marine mammal. They have been frequently spotted 60 to 100 miles from land or significant ice floes. So if the ice floes this bear was hunting in floated even halfway, this bear was within normal swimming ranges.

A polar bear is also an especially dangerous animal around populated areas. Not only are they huge (this one weighed 500lbs - smallish for polar bears), but they have no fear of humans. In fact, it has been documented numerous times that polar bears will stalk humans as food. Eskimos have known that they will circle the hunters and stalk them.

Also, according to an article I read here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080605/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_iceland_bear
said the bear was moving into fog, and so would be both difficult and dangerous to keep track of.

I agree they should have tried to do something else. But this isn't the brutal "man is terrible" story that some people think.
 
I think the story is a shame, but not the horror it is reported as in the initial link.

Also, I was wondering what firearms the Icelandic police carry? Unless they carry something significantly larger than most law enforcement agencies, they were VERY lucky they did not end up with a wounded bear.
 
Solitary said:
I think the story is a shame, but not the horror it is reported as in the initial link.

Also, I was wondering what firearms the Icelandic police carry? Unless they carry something significantly larger than most law enforcement agencies, they were VERY lucky they did not end up with a wounded bear.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that, due to their tiny size and relatively low crime levels, the average Icelandic policeman is armed only with a medium sized stick.

They probably just borrowed the island's communal "big gun".
 
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