Stop trapping and selling polar bears NOW!
- by: Annalena Hicks
- recipient: Mr. Michael Spence, Mayor of the City of Churchill, Manitoba
The City of Churchill, Manitoba claims to protect their inhabitants by "humanely" trapping polar bears roaming too close to the town.
The animals are caught in live traps and then held in a hangar referred to as the "polar bear jail" for "bad bears". When the jail is full, they fly them tranqulised back into the wilderness.
Truth is:
The polar bears wandering close to the city are starving and looking for food (as polar bears regularly will not hunt people). The traps carry meat as bait, so the starving animal gets caught very easily. In the facility they are held with the lightsbeing constantly switched on and without any food. Camera teams inside or any picture taken are not allowed "because the animals should not get used to people".
The caught polar bears are a huge industry and attract thousands of tourists every year as they watch when a bear is "released".
The drugged animals are often half-conscious and thus aware of being caught in net and flying with a helicopter - a very expensive procedure, again, only to attract tourists. For the polar bear, this is a very traumatic experience and an unnecessary torture. Their hunger and their misery is exploited in an untolerable manner.
But worse, not all the bears are actually brought back into the wilderness. Many of them are sold to zoos worldwide, to live a miserable life in unfamiliar heat and maddening narrowness.
All this to bring money into the City of Churchill and to fulfill the greed of their inhabitants.
Dear Mr. Michael Spence,
the commercialisation of polar bears in your city is a disgarce to humanity. Every claim that the bears treatment is a necessity and being executed animal-friendly is highly unethical regarding the methods and the tourist industry that stand behind it. Canada proves again that it would do anything to it´s nature just to make more profit. We, the undersigned, demand that you take the responsibility given to you by your function and change this shameful procedure.
To give the world a sign that money is not everything. To protect the few last polar bears that we have and to not expolit their misery any further. And to show your responsibilty towards all living beings.
