Iceland, ancestral home of fearless Viking explorers and whale killers committed another senseless act of brutality against wildlife yesterday. A starving polar bear swam 200 miles from Greenland to Skagafjordur in northern Iceland where it was promptly killed by police. It was the first ice bear to reach Iceland since 1993 when a swimming bear was spotted by sailors and also shot dead. The so-called environment minister gave the go-ahead to kill the bear allegedly because it would have taken 24 hours for the correct tranquilizer to arrive on the scene. Police were supposedly concerned for the safety of gawkers. But the chief vet in town, Egill Steingrímsson, told reporters he had enough tranquilizer in the boot of his car to do the job. A dart gun could have been sent within an hour, and police could have kept the bear under observation for such a short period of time in the opinion of the doctor. Steingrimsson added, "I'm very unsatisfied that the police did not try to catch it alive and did not close the road."
Thursday, June 05, 2008
An Outrageous Act
Iceland, ancestral home of fearless Viking explorers and whale killers committed another senseless act of brutality against wildlife yesterday. A starving polar bear swam 200 miles from Greenland to Skagafjordur in northern Iceland where it was promptly killed by police. It was the first ice bear to reach Iceland since 1993 when a swimming bear was spotted by sailors and also shot dead. The so-called environment minister gave the go-ahead to kill the bear allegedly because it would have taken 24 hours for the correct tranquilizer to arrive on the scene. Police were supposedly concerned for the safety of gawkers. But the chief vet in town, Egill Steingrímsson, told reporters he had enough tranquilizer in the boot of his car to do the job. A dart gun could have been sent within an hour, and police could have kept the bear under observation for such a short period of time in the opinion of the doctor. Steingrimsson added, "I'm very unsatisfied that the police did not try to catch it alive and did not close the road."