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March 18, 2010

Feed PETA to the Polar Bears!

Posted by Gregory of Yardale at March 18, 2010 8:01 AM

Affluent white liberals were denied an opportunity to culturally and economically impoverish native people's earlier this week. The UN denied a push from the United States to ban the international trade in (non-endangered) polar bear pelts and other parts.

A U.S.-backed proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear skins, teeth and claws was defeated Thursday at a U.N. wildlife meeting over concerns it would hurt indigenous economies and arguments the practice didn't pose a significant threat to the animals.

"We're disappointed," said Jane Lyder, the Department of Interior's deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks. "But we understand that CITES is still trying to understand how to incorporate climate change into its decision making."

Canada, along with Norway and Greenland, led the opposition to the U.S. proposal. They said the threat from trade was minimal and the hunting done by Aboriginal communities was critical to their economies. Only 2 percent of Canadian polar bears are internationally traded and the country strictly manages the commerce, Canada said.

Now, people who understand natural resource economics know that the best way to preserve a species is to make trade in that species legal and economically valuable. Cows and pigs are not endangered precisely because people eat them. If species cannot be legally traded and managed by people with an economic state in continuing their numbers, it creates an incentive for poachers to destroy their populations, as is the case with African Elephants and Lowland Gorillas.

Meanwhile, in Russia, some dumb naked chicks engaged in a pointless protest against seal harvesting.

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