Time for a 'Dear Knut' letter

The cuddly polar bear's not so cuddly anymore

Posted by Sarah van Schagen at 12:38 AM on 11 Jul 2007

Read more about: wildlife | celebrity | green living

Knut

It's not you, Knut. It's him.

Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein, that is. The human companion to the polar bear "cub" (he's now 110 pounds!) has decided Knut is getting too big and boisterous for their daily play sessions.

Doerflein has said he "feels 'burnt out' after months of frolicking with Knut." (Um, is that possible?) Also, he's tired of all the attention: "People want autographs, to touch me." Really?

Oh, and there's that whole "safety" thing, what with Knut being a wild animal. Whatevs.

For story: Time for a 'Dear Knut' letter
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More trophies for polar bear hunters?

Folks concerned about polar bears might be interested that the public comment period is open for some permits that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering issuing. These permits would allow some individuals to import polar bears that have been sport hunted.

To find the call for comment, scroll down at this Federal Register page:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edo ...

I'm wondering if big-game hunters think the polar bear is headed for extinction and are rushing to get their own personal polar bear trophies. It seems to be rather odd for the government to allow people to import polar bear trophies less than a year after proposing they get threatened status.

(Please forgive the awkard link. I'm not conversant with HTML, and got an error message when I tried to create a more elegant link by following Grist's HTML help instructions.)

by Kelly at 1:33 PM on 11 Jul 2007

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