Treaty may restart polar bear hunts in Russia: WWF - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Treaty may restart polar bear hunts in Russia: WWF
Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:34am EDT

By James Kilner

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A new Russia-U.S. treaty could allow
hunters in Russia to kill polar bears, a species already
under threat from global warming, WWF said on Monday.

Russian and U.S. scientists and authorities drew up the
treaty to improve cooperation and standardize treatment
of polar bears living across the Bering Strait -- which
stretches from Russia's Chukotka region to Alaska in the
United States.

But it may force Russia to reintroduce polar bear hunting,
50 years after the Soviet Union banned it, to match
legislation in Alaska, said Viktor Nikiforov, WWF Russia's
polar bear expert.

"It's not a treaty about hunting, it's about cooperation
and management but on the negative side it is a potential
gate for the reintroduction of hunting into Russia," he
said of the treaty enforced on Sunday but drawn up
seven years ago when global warming was less topical.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2435998220070924

[ashling]

1. They'll be extinct soon anyway

:sarcasm:so better hunt, hunt, hunt, while they still can :sarcasm:

[Nihil]

2. W.T.F.?

> But it may force Russia to reintroduce polar bear hunting,
> 50 years after the Soviet Union banned it, to match
> legislation in Alaska

So just f*cking WHY are the Russians to regress by 50 years
instead of getting the Alaskans to join the real world?

"Civilised people" my fucking arse.

:grr: