Roberta De Carolis He had arrived in Iceland from Greenland probably on a sheet of ice and apparently was approaching a house where an 83-year-old woman lives. The police killed him because they had no other means to reassure him
The Icelandic police killed a polar bear from Greenland that had been found near Höfðastrand, Jökulfjörður fjord, close to the cabin of 83-year-old Ásthildur Gunnarsdóttir. The bear had most likely been drifting on an ice floe until it reached land. According to reports by Gunnarsdóttir’s granddaughter Katrín Gyða Guðjónsdóttir, the polar bear was spotted near the cabin.
“She had just gone into the house and then spotted the bear outside the window, quite near, by the clothesline,” Guðjónsdóttir told the Icelandic news portal Visir. “I think it was about 10 feet away from the house. So when it was outside, the polar bear was very close.”
Ásthildur Gunnarsdóttir, kona á níræðisaldri, var í nýkomin inn í sumarbústað á Höfðaströnd í Jökulfjörðum þegar hún sá hvítabjörn í um það bil þriggja metra fjarlægð.Sjá frétt í athugasemdakerfinu.
Posted by Vísir on Thursday, September 19, 2024
Understandably terrified, the elderly woman phoned police authorities. In what appears to be a regrettable case of all other means being equal in order to kill, police killed the bear: a member of a species already showing the impacts of climate change.
Police armed with rifles and the special operations team were sent out in the early morning hours,” said Police Chief Helgi Jensson of Vestfjörður. “The bear was located not far from where the sighting took place, just beside a small house in which one woman was inside. There was nothing else to do but shoot the animal.”
Was this the only avenue, or simply the easiest, as is usually the case?
