A polar bear spotted in Skagafjördur, Iceland this week has been shot by police after a farmer in Keldudalur saw the bear walking along a mountain road and called the police.
The killing of the polar bear was front-page news in Iceland's newspapers Wednesday.
'Unwelcome polar bear killed in Skagafirði' was the headline. Underneath was a picture of the bloody polar bear hung up by its legs.
Stefán Vagn Stefánsson, the police chief in Saudárkrókur, made the decision to kill the bear after consulting Þórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, the minister of the environment.
Stefánsson said no tranquilizer darts were available, so it was necessary to kill it.
The animal was moving and we could not risk to lose it out of eyesight, Stefánsson said to Morgunbladid. The weather conditions were foggy and the bear was moving quickly.
A biologist told RÚV that Iceland lacked all the necessary equipment to catch a bear alive and keep it alive.
However, the chief veterinarian in Blönduós, Egill Steingrímsson, said he was not satisfied with the actions taken by the police.
He said he disagreed with policeman Stefánsson and Sveinbjarnardóttir about the lack of tranquilizers.
I even had narcotics in my trunk and if the narcotics gun would have been sent by flight it would have arrived within an hour
News of the polar bear was broadcast all around Iceland and by the time the police arrived, a considerably large crowd of people in cars had gathered at the mountain road where the bear was found roaming.
Steingrímsson said he thinks the police should have closed the road.
There were around 50 to 60 people there watching. The police did not have many options when the bear ran down the hill, approaching the crowd. Im very unsatisfied that the police did not try to catch it alive and did not close the road, Steingrímsson said to mbl.is
The oldest record of polar bears in Iceland is from 890, 16 years after settlement, when a farmer in Vatnsdalur spotted a she-bear with two cubs. The last visit was in 1993 when sailors saw a bear swimming off the coast of Strandir. It was killed.
Polar bears were frequently tamed during the Middle Ages, but since then, no bear has been captured alive in Iceland.
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Wandering bear shot
After swimming 300 kilometres from Greenland, a polar bear is shot by police in Iceland.
Published: 05.06.2008 12:47
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