Bag A Polar Bear For $35,000: The New Threat To The Species

The Independent:

Boyd Warner treasures the memory of killing his first polar bear. It was 2003. For days he had stalked his prey on the frozen wastelands north of Pond Inlet, one of Canada's most isolated Inuit communities deep inside the Arctic Circle. His dog team picked up the scent of an eight-foot adult male and they hurtled over the ice: the hunt was on.

"It was one of those beautiful Arctic days," recalled Mr Warner. "We'd had about 14 hours of sunlight and were completely surrounded by nature. The moment of death comes quickly for the bear. You might track one for days through the ice but a single shot to the heart kills it instantly."

Read the whole story: The Independent

Comments

[wagadog]

07:56 PM on 03/22/2009

It's OK with me -- as long as they eat the liver.

[rosiebond007]

11:33 PM on 03/20/2009

Boyd Warner and his ilk ARE SICK - don't they know that these animals are threatened with extinction at this time ??

WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE READ AND KNOW OR ARE THEY JUST SO ENTIRELY SELFISH THAT THEY DO NOT THINK AT ALL ??

This practice should be outlawed IMMEDIATELY.

Please help all you can by putting us in touch with those who can do something.

[Frankie Kangas]

08:42 PM on 03/20/2009

If Mr. Warner enjoys the hunt but not the killing then why doesn't he hunt with a camera. He could still have the fun of the hunt but leave the bear alive for the next "hunter" to photograph. The Inuits could still get the money from these "rich" people for the hunt but not have to kill the bear. It'd be a win-win-win.

[doriath22]

07:10 PM on 03/20/2009

This is a big part of why I quit hunting. I don't have anything against hunting per se, but 99.9% of hunters are d**kheads---especially the rich ones.

[mick7191]

10:29 AM on 03/22/2009

I think it comes from small penises.

[gala1]

06:21 PM on 03/20/2009

Sigh.
Another instance of life outdoing Swift.
A gilded idiocracy armed for bear... right......

Maybe Green groups should place a $36,000 bounty for the pelt of each hunter.
Normally, I do not believe in any sort of violence. But this is utterly, gratuitously craven.
And eliminating the kind of person who would do this today is a Darwinian gesture of respect to future generations.
Inuit or not.

What absolutely should be done is to have pictures and names of these people out there in the world.
Boyd Warner's photo should be in every schoolroom as the enemy of those kids future.

Why not make new packs of illustrated in detail Villain Cards instead of baseball cards?
If those kids learn early why their future is lessened in so many ways, at least they'dd be more ready for it.

-gala1

[biskitdaddy]

04:12 PM on 03/20/2009

There was a very interesting line in the movie "The Matrix" recited by Agent Smith. The gist of it was that when moving into a new area every creature on earth except man adapts to and becomes a part of their new surroundings. Man is the only creature that moves into an area, strips it of all its natural resources, and then moves to another area. It's almost like man is a plague or fungus on this planet, consuming everything in our paths.

[SimJack]

11:17 PM on 03/21/2009

Not unlike Star Trek:TNG's antagonists, The Borg.

[surfcitysteven]

03:45 PM on 03/20/2009

I sincerely wish many of these "hunters" to suffer fatalities on their "hunts".

[Montezuma1973]

01:50 PM on 03/20/2009

Canadians have always had a holier than thou attitude when it comes to many issues. We like to think we are better than Americans, British ....

But time and time again this is proven false.

We are just a different type of f-uped.

[ChaiKat]

12:39 PM on 03/20/2009

I really wish HuffPost would do a better job of editing photo's. I did not want the image of the dead bear in my head all day. Put a warning for heaven's sake! MSNBC at least does that in their photos.

[psantiago11]

12:34 PM on 03/20/2009

They ought to have a special ops unit that secretly hunts hunters while they are hunting bears. This would raise the intensity of the game. I'll be rooting for the special ops.

Furthermore, tell the Inuits to eat hamburgers. We are no longer in the ice age, so the logic that polar bears are their main food source is absurd.

[biskitdaddy]

04:07 PM on 03/20/2009

I agree totally, tell 'em to go to McDonald's, this ain't the Ice Age. They need to move to the nearest town and assimilate.

[Vickster]

08:59 PM on 03/20/2009

So instead of relying on a local source of meat, the Inuit should buy beef that was raised thousands of miles away? And who are you to tell the Inuit what they should eat?

[shel3364]

11:40 AM on 03/20/2009

"Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot." - Mark Twain

[ReverseUniversal]

10:43 AM on 03/20/2009

I don't find it surprising that huffpost readers get outraged, but here's a quote from the article:

"Those 20 bears are going to get killed one way or another because the Inuits depend on them for food during the winter," Mr Warner insisted. "So it shouldn't really matter whether it is the indigenous population that is shooting them or outsiders."

When the animal is killed... ...the Inuits use everything apart from the liver, which contains toxic levels of vitamin A and has to be buried."

There you have it. The animals are killed for food by Inuit communities who allow outsiders to take part. As much as you want to demonize hunting, it's ingrained in our history and is part of our instincts. Are there people that hunt for the wrong reasons? Yes. Is this one of those situations? No.

I've never hunted anything and I feel like it is something that is missing from the human experience. Hunting is the oldest form of subsistence right along gathering. We've been completely disconnected from thousands of years of human history, so much so in fact that a large amount of people think hunting anything, ever, is inherently wrong. I guess this is what happens when all your meat is given to you in sliced and chilled plastic wrapped portions at a sterile counter at the grocery store. I have a feeling these Inuits have more respect for their polar bears than we do for our cows and pigs.

[starlady7]

12:36 PM on 03/20/2009

First, these bears that are killed are Not eaten or used by the Inuits...they are Trophies for the hunters! The difference between cows and pig And the bears...cows and pigs are raised domestically, i.e. increasing their numbers for food, While the polar bear is an Endangered species and was never meant to be a food source except in extreme circumstances.

I find it criminal to hunt and kill animals for sport!!! I would like to take these men and have them face a firing squad. This is what is wrong with the human race...joy taken out of killing innocent life!!! What they inflict should be inflicted on them! And for the Inuit selling death...move to a viable environment or become extinct yourselves!

[ReverseUniversal]

04:44 PM on 03/20/2009

I see from your bio you are a "STRONG" advocate for animal rights. Unfortunately, strength behind a cause should not make you spout lies and hyperbole. The article says the Inuits kill the bears for food and allow outsiders to take part in the experience. You say they don't, but I see no reason to believe you. Also, I can not find any information saying polar bears are endangered. Some have classified it as "threatened" or "a species of concern" but not due to hunting, rather due to shrinking habitat caused by global warming.

In your response you wished death upon two groups of people. I have a hard time trusting anyone that values animal lives over human lives.

[mergina]

10:32 AM on 03/20/2009

HUMANS WHO DO THIS SHOULD ALL BE LYNCHED OR SKINNED ALIVE.

[UbiVeritas]

10:40 AM on 03/20/2009

Don't you see the irony in your statement?

[jweider]

12:35 PM on 03/20/2009

I think they should be fed to bears. Then it would be a real sport to watch some try to kill a bear on a level playing field.

[obamanomics]

10:25 AM on 03/20/2009

do those 2 have polar bear pants on? lol

[Gasparilla]

11:13 AM on 03/20/2009

I think they used to be with the Village People.

[thepianodiva]

10:17 AM on 03/20/2009

To rail against the hunting of these polar bears-and I don't like hunting for sport one bit- when a person is still eating other kinds of animals-when they don't have to in order to survive-involves a bit of hypocrisy, couldn't one say?

[dozaa]

11:01 AM on 03/20/2009

Not all of us are.