Do Environmentalists Think Tourists Should Have Let A Polar Bear Maul Them?

Environmentalists are outraged after a guard hired by a German cruise line shot and killed a polar bear that was attacking another guard Saturday. The M.S. Bremen cruise ship, operated by the Hapag Lloyd Cruises company, had anchored at the largest and northernmost island of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, CNN reported. An advance team of four guards hired to protect tourists from polar bears landed on the island to see if the area was safe, according to a company Facebook post after the incident. As the guards were preparing to leave, “one of the guards was unexpectedly attacked by a polar bear that had not been spotted,” the post said. “Attempts of the other guards to evict the animal, unfortunately, were not successful.” “There had to be intervention for reasons of self-defense and to protect the life of the attacked person,” the post continued. The cruise line does not let tourists go ashore in areas where polar bears are present. The advance team of guards is responsible for surveying the area to limit the interaction of polar bears with cruise tourists, according to the company’s post. That policy did not curb any criticism from conservationists and celebrities who slammed the cruise company for bringing tourists to an environment populated by polar bears, a species in danger of extinction, the World Wildlife Fund says...MORE