Wildlife charity backs policy of exploitation of small number of some endangered species for economic purposes – such as trophy hunting.
The wildlife charity WWF has been working to support the trade in polar bear fur at the same time as using images of the bears to raise money, it can be revealed.
Polar bears are severely affected by the loss of Arctic sea ice, which makes seeking prey harder and forces the bears to use more energy. In some regions, polar bears are showing signs of declining physical condition, having fewer cubs, and dying younger.
Despite their endangered status, polar bears are hunted commercially in Canada, the only country that still allows the practice after it was banned by Russia, Greenland, the US and Norway. An annual average of 300–400 skins are exported, primarily to China, where a full pelt sells for an average of $60,000 (£48,000) and is often used for luxury clothing or as a rug.
What the fuck?! I’m Canadian and I had no idea.
I’m trying to go to Canada and I also did not know this. I’ve been active in some Canadian lemmy communities lately, and there are plenty of frustratingly ignorant people there too, I’m sad to say.
I mean, US and Anglo Canadian cultures are pretty much exactly the same except for not living in the other’s country (even Trudeau said that the first thing that defines Canadians is not being from the US) so yeah, don’t be surprised if the idiots are the same, they feed on the same medias. Hell, most Anglo Canadians probably know more about US politics than Canadian one!
This is a product of a few things. Example: Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch absolutely fucking up media across the anglosphere. Another example: the Protestant Work Ethic and excessive individualism, causing people to scoff at the idea of improving working conditions, and blaming the poor for their fate. Australia and the UK are having similar experiences.
Notably Québec, despite being in Canada, is not experiencing this problem to anywhere near the same degree. This is the hint that something is deeply wrong with English-speaking media.
We also allow it for grizzlies.
It’s part of a population control system to make sure they don’t end up in human controlled areas or killing each other due to competing for limited resources.
Same reason they do this in Africa for elephants.
There are some 16,000 polar bears in Canada, and if a fifth of those have two cubs every second year that’s a lot of extra pressure on the food supply for them, which is already having issues.
They’re endangered because there’s not enough food to support a larger population in the areas they live, not because they can’t have babies.
And that’s because the areas they live in are shrinking due to climate change.
edit: wtf autocarrot?