Mixed Feelings

I was a little hesitant about posting this picture, and I still feel ambivalent towards it. Also, I am feeling more than a little mortal these days.

This polar bear was shot yesterday out on a small island in Hudson's Strait. It is not a full grown bear by any means, but not a baby either. Rather, it is a bruin. Pictured are Adamie, who shot it, and his mother Uiviru.

Up here the first shooting of a species is an important event in a young person's life, a kind of rite of passage and entry into adulthood. Admittedly, more men are hunters but there are some women who like to hunt. The meat from this bear will be divided up and eaten, except, I am told, for the liver which has such high concentrations of Vitamin A as to make it toxic. I am also told the meat is not overly gamey, and quite edible.

The skin will be treated and sold, although this is a small animal and not overly marketable. The going price appears to be $100/foot measured tip of nose to tail. In the movies polar bear rugs have been glamorized as the epitome of romantic sensuality. I find this strange because the fur is rather coarse and would probably irritate the back of whomever was on the bottom. But we men have rarely let our lower partner's discomfort get in the way of a good time.

Much has been written lately about the fate of the polar bear in light of global warming. These animals eat seal almost exclusively, and to sneak up on a basking seal they need ice. My current belief and fervent hope is that this species will adapt to changing climatic conditions and survive. After all, temperatures rose high enough a thousand years ago so as to allow a haying season in Greenland, which is impossible right now. Polar bears as a species apparently broke away from grizzly bears about 225,000 years ago - and the emergence of a hybrid species (dubbed a polargriz) is evidence of just how closely the two species are related.

I have basically given up on hunting and fishing, though I still eat meat. I get absolutely no pleasure in killing another animal, but in the end all that is alive is consumed in some way or another and if I were to ever experience true hunger I would have no such compunction about killing. But now I have the luxury of someone else do the slaughtering for me, and I hope to keep it that way.

My wish is that we call all pass on the next level of existence with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity.