Canadians Fight For Polar Bear Hunt

A group of Canadian officials are in Washington to argue against the United States’ recent approval of placing the polar bear on the endangered species list.  Canada has not joined the United States in these efforts and are actually fighting to allow U.S. hunters the right to come to Canada to continue hunting the polar bear.

The United States has banned sport hunting of polar bears, but Canada still allows this practice.  Canadian officials are worried that the United States recent listing of the polar bear as endangered, will hamper hunters from being able to bring polar bear hides back to the United States.  The hides are what most hunters are after.

Canadian officials are arguing that if this practice is enacted and the United States disallows the transport of the polar bear hides across the border, that their sport-hunting industry may crumble.  They also mention that if hunting the polar bear is outlawed that many villages in polar bear country’s northern reaches could suffer from not having the income of such hunts.

Many other nations have questioned the United State’s intentions by listing the polar bear as endangered.  The United States lists habitat endangerment as the main focus with the ruling, but scientific evidence has not been provided to prove or disprove that global warming may be playing a part in the destruction of the polar bear’s natural habitiat.  To add more to the controversy, no one is even sure how many polar bears are even left in the wild.

It doesn’t look like this argument is going to go away anytime soon.  The American public has looked at the United States’ recent ruling as a sign that the country may be developing a different stance in regards to global warming, an issue that the United States has been pretty slow to develop an opinion on.  Others still argue that global warming has not been scientifically proven and thus should not be used to aid future initiatives as the sole reasoning without a proper foundation of information to base these conclusions on.

To read more, click on Canada’s stance towards the polar bear, from ABC News.