• Ech@lemm.ee
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    15 days ago

    As unfortunate as this is, afaik, polar bears are one of the most aggressive animals around, intent on eating pretty much anything that moves. I don’t doubt that it did pose a threat.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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      15 days ago

      Polar bears actually stalk humans, so they’re super dangerous.

      It’s too bad that big oil has fucked up the earth so bad we have to kill them, just because they floated across the Atlantic and landed on a foreign shore…

  • SassyRamen@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    From the article for those not wanting to read it: "Police realized the polar bear was a threat after viewing a documentary, which informed the officers that polar bears are indeed black under their white fur. One officer is quoted as saying ‘I feel betrayed and hurt.’

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Shame there isn’t some kind of polar bear rescue that can swoop in in instances like this.

    It’s not like he attacked anyone, he was just a bear doing bear things like rooting through garbage.

  • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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    15 days ago

    There’s a few things going on here.

    I think this particular polar bear is “rare” simply because it happens to have come ashore in Iceland, which doesn’t often happen. It’s species is merely “threatened”.

    Also, this isn’t wanton wholesale slaughter. This particular animal was a threat to humans and after considering the options euthanisation was determined to be the least bad. As humans, we’ve observed this practice literally since the dawn of time. We regularly euthanise sharks which have attacked humans, we regularly cull “pests” including large cute ones like Kangaroos, and smaller cute ones like foxes and rabbits.

    Encroachment of humans on the habitat’s of threatened species is certainly a problem, and one which needs to be carefully managed, but this is not that.