Chinese hunting enthusiasts have unearthed a macabre new pastime, intended for all the new rich who are willing to pay big bucks for a ten-day trip to Canada to spend on the trail of polar bears. A club dedicated to hunters, based in Beijing, offers, through an all-inclusive package worth around 60 thousand euros, the possibility of being able to shoot without fail at a polar bear, whose fur will be used to make a carpet of high commercial value. You are surely wondering what are the reasons that push both men and women to participate in one of the crazy hunts. Fun, first of all, but not only.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Chinese hunting enthusiasts have unearthed a new one macabre pastime, intended for all the new rich who are willing to pay big bucks for a trip dthe ten days in Canada to spend on the trail of polar bears. A club dedicated to hunters, based in Beijing, offers, through an all-inclusive package worth approx 60 thousand euros, the possibility of being able to safely shoot a polar bear, whose fur will be used to make a carpet of high commercial value. You are surely wondering what are the reasons that push both men and women to participate in one of the crazy hunts. Fun, first of all, but not only.
The flyers advertise the hunting trip as the chance to finally hunt down the most dangerous and formidable member of the animal kingdom in Canada and North America. Male polar bears would be, thanks to their white fur, the best prize that a hunter might receive for his own courage and skill. The president of the Chinese hunting club, Scott Lupien, of Californian origins, points out, among the pages of the Daily Mail, how the price incurred for the hunting expedition is equivalent to the purchase value of a bearskin rug, with the guarantee of being able to experience the thrill of personally killing your chosen prey.
Unfortunately, the absurd justifications do not end here. According to Lupien, in fact, the killing of a certain number of male polar bears would guarantee the survival of the species, as they would often follow the instinct to attack the puppies recently brought into the world by the females. Furthermore, in his opinion, the complete extinction of polar bears would now be near, due to the increasingly widespread melting of the Arctic ice caps. Hence, hunting them down would simply mean speeding up a process that is already destined to come to an end.
But polar bear hunting would be nothing more than a new one luxury hobby. The participants of the expeditions are offered hotel rooms equipped with every comfort and real ones hunting lessons, which usually take place under the guidance of an Inuit expert. Available to hunters are guns, bullets and dog sleds, on which each of them will climb to follow the tracks left by the bears in the snow. Their - unheard of and criticizable - experience will always remain a memory thanks to the photographs collected in a special album, where each hunter will be portrayed next to his prey, and DVD movies dedicated to each participant.
The story did not leave i indifferent animal rights groups Americans, British and Canadians, who are trying to fight for such enterprises to be immediately prevented. Polar bears are one of the most endangered species and their reckless hunting can only pose an additional danger. Robbie Marsland, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, hopes to be able to persuade the Chinese population to give up being part of the polar bear holocaust, instead contributing to initiatives aimed at their defense.
Il Canada is the only nation to allow the hunting of polar bears for the pure purpose of entertainment, pursued in order to transform the poor animals into real trophies. Due to this, around 500 bears are killed each year on Canadian territory. Norway has completely banned the hunting of polar bears, while Russia, Alaska and Greenland allow native populations to hunt them as food source. Meanwhile, Chinese activist groups have started protest actions against the club founded by Scott Lupien, in the hope that sooner or later such hunting tours will be outlawed.
Marta Albè
