While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been denying requests by hunters to import legally taken polar bears north of the border, it seems Canada sees polar bears in a different light. In fact, Canada’s government only added the huge bears to the country’s “Species at Risk Act”, according to a November 2011 report by the Center for Biological Diversity, an animal rights group. Canada’s action, or inaction, essentially placed polar bears under no protection for the next three years—thus the bears remain open to hunting in Canada.
The CBD also calls Canada’s action “illegal,” faults the government’s studies, and notes “a lack of understanding of science.” The CBD report goes further and mixes climate change and global warming as the causes for polar bear habitat loss—odd but there was no mention of hunting as a reason for the bear’s decline. Several anti-hunting groups have opposed efforts to permit import into the U.S. of legally taken polar bears from Canada—and then claimed hunting was leading to polar bear population declines.
Below the border in the U.S., the CBD has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and through court action, is forcing the agency to make initial or final decisions on whether to add hundreds of imperiled plants and animals to the Endangered Species List by 2018. The CBD has asked that 757 species—from butterflies to bears to walruses—be added to the threatened and endangered species list. This enormous overload of the USFWS will be funded by tax dollars—not the CBD.
No word on whether the CBD plans to sue Canada over polar bears.