Stop the Trophy Hunting of Polar Bears
By stvasile
@stvasile (7306)
Romania
September 8, 2009 3:30pm CST
The polar bears are facing extinction.
Their hunting grounds are melting from under their feet more and more every year as the global temperature keep on rising.
Their food gets rarer due to intense fishing (which affects the seal populations).
The oil rigs are a continuous threat, the oil companies pressing to invade the Arctic refuge.
As if it weren't enough, the Canadian government has allowed more than 600 polar bears to be gunned down over the past 10 years! Their body parts are highly valued as trophies: in one recent year, over 400 polar bear pelts and 160 skulls were traded internationally!
You can send a message to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service asking them to support an upgrade in protection for the polar bear. Tell the agency to list the polar bear as an "Appendix I species" under CITES, which would effectively outlaw the importation of pelts, skulls, claws and bones. It would also tighten controls on the trophy hunting of polar bears and could lead to a ban on trophy hunting altogether.
The agency is only accepting Comments until this Friday, September 11, so it's urgent you respond now.
Send a letter here:
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1559
3 responses
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
9 Sep 09
Hi stvasile, well you've certainly brought to light an issue I knew nothing about, I hadn't even realised they were existing in populated areas. The practice seems rather akin to the shooting of African animals for the trophy value and I believed that practices like that had been erradicated now, such as the ban on ivory trading. Who actually buys these trophies and which countries allow them to be imported?
If they are a threat to a human population and need to be controlled in that sense I could understand but if it is just killing for trophy value then I agree with you that intervention is necessary.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
8 Sep 09
I am not about to go telling another country how or how not to manage their wildlife. I don't even try to tell other states in my own country how to do it. they have to live with these animals and they pretty much know what they are doing.
1 person likes this
@stvasile (7306)
• Romania
8 Sep 09
Your opinion seems to be a pretty fair one, and I'm not about to criticize you for it because you are in title for your own opinions and actions, as we all are.
I will however comment on the "know what they are doing" part. I am aware of the fact that wild animals can be harmful for the people (and the polar bears are some pretty large and strong animals that can harm people), and, no matter how cruel it may seem for some of us, some of these animals must be shot down. But from shooting harmful animals to selling their body parts as TROPHIES, it's a long way. The petition is meant to ban the trading of polar bears as trophies, not for anything else. As this practice is an auxiliary threat for an animal on the verge of extinction, I really don't think "they know what they are doing", even if it's their country and not mine.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
8 Sep 09
I can see where trophy hunting can lead to some pretty big troubles in wild life management. I guess that point was lost on me when I first read the discussion.
In my state, we had a large increase in the moose population, which led not only to a loss of food for the deer population, but resulted in a lot of people being killed on our roads when they stepped in front of cars (moose are pretty big). The solution the state fish and game came up with was to re establish a hunting system by lottery for them, that way, they could let the local hunters take care of the population through hunting, for meat usualy, people here are pretty ethical hunters, though some did for trophy and gave the meat away either to friends or to local charities for feeding the needy. But it limited the number of moose that could be taken and still did well in thinning the heard a bit. I wonder if this would be a sutable solution for the polar bear. Allow the hunting of them for what ever purpose, be it trophy, neat or what ever, but in limited quantities. the other issue here is that polar bear are a source of food for a lot of the indigenous native opoulations in northern canada, the inuit, esquimo and others, who are also not subject to alot of Canadian law, as is also the case here in the U.S. Though these native first-nation populations are traditionaly far more ethical hunters.
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