Fema­le polar bear and cub shot at Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set: case goes to Trom­sø

The sad shoo­ting of a mother polar bear and her first year cub has been the mat­ter of the last news pos­ting on this web­site. A trap­per wan­ted to sca­re the polar bear away with a rub­ber bul­let, but by mista­ke he took a sharp car­tridge and fired a lethal shot at the bear. The cub was later on the same day shot by the poli­ce, as it did not have a chan­ce for sur­vi­val on its own in the arc­tic wil­der­ness.

Now the aut­ho­ri­ties in Lon­gye­ar­by­en have deci­ded that the case will not be nego­tia­ted local­ly within the insti­tu­ti­on of the Sys­sel­man­nen, which would be the nor­mal pro­ce­du­re. Ins­tead, the case will be for­ward­ed to the public pro­se­cu­tor in Trom­sø. It was said that this is becau­se of the lar­ge public inte­rest in the case. Addi­tio­nal­ly, the trap­pers are using a hut owned by the Sys­sel­man­nen. It may be that the Sys­sel­man­nen wants to pre­vent any cri­ti­cism of being pre­ju­di­ced at an ear­ly stage.

The hut at Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set in Wij­defjord was ori­gi­nal­ly built pri­va­te­ly as a trap­pers hut but has now been sta­te pro­per­ty for a num­ber of years. Out of the many huts owned by the Sys­sel­man­nen, this is the only one which is lent to pri­va­te per­sons who want to live the­re for a year as trap­pers. The pur­po­se is to keep the tra­di­ti­on ali­ve. It is a con­di­ti­on that the trap­pers have to hunt actively, which does of cour­se not include polar bears. The­se are strict­ly pro­tec­ted. Spe­ci­es that are hun­ted include main­ly reinde­er, polar fox, ptar­mi­gan and seals.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

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