Polar Bear Pelts Selling for $11,000
January 4, 2012 at 5:18 PM Leave a comment
Oh geeze, I wish I hadn’t seen this. It’s enough to send me to bed in a fit of depression:
Northwest Territories, Jan. 4 (UPI) — Canada’s Northwest Territories has quadrupled the price it pays hunters for pelts of near-endangered polar bears, the National Post reported Wednesday.
The territory runs the only authorized retail source for the pelts, Genuine Mackenzie Valley Furs, which previously paid $400 per bearskin.
That has been upped to $1,750, which University of Alberta biologist Andrew Derocher told the Post reflected growing global demand from burgeoning economies in Russia and China.
In April, a Canadian auction company sold a polar bear pelt for a record $11,000, the report said.
Various international animal and scientific groups have designated polar bears as a vulnerable species, one step short of being classed as endangered as their pack ice habitat is shrinking.
Only indigenous Inuit hunters are allowed to kill the bears, although various regional laws throughout Canada’s north allow Inuits to “guide” visiting hunters.
This is just terrible news. Polar bears are already endangered. I have a feeling this will do them in altogether.
Can you imagine wearing a coat or jacket made of the skin (pelt is too benign a word) of a polar bear?
Really. This is so upsetting.
Entry filed under: Animals (Other Than Us). Tags: .
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