• fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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    3 hours 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.

  • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours ago

    Of 73 documented attacks by polar bears from 1870 to 2014 in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States — which killed 20 people and injured 63 — 15 occurred in the final five years of that period.

    The bear shot on Thursday was the first one seen in the country since 2016. Sightings are relatively rare, with only 600 recorded in Iceland since the ninth century.

  • Ech
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    5 hours 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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      5 hours 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…

      • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 hours ago

        Most murders are committed by people. I say we reduce the number of people, perhaps through allowing them to destroy the environment so that they cannot survive. This will make the world safer in the long run, and it will also teach humans that their actions have consequences.

        As a side effect, polar bears will also die, so everyone will be happy (and dead)!

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    2 hours 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.