Shooting of bear to be investigated by Parliamentary Ombudsman

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Birdwatchers who observed the shooting of a bear in Hankoniemi on Sunday are not happy with the actions of the police and the Coast Guard. They intend to file a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman concerning the incident, which was said to have caused unnecessary suffering to the animal.
      A group of birdwatchers notified the Coast Guard on Sunday morning that they had noticed a bear coming ashore at the island of Granskär off the City of Hanko.
      Some officers from the Raasepori police department, two boats of the Coast Guard, and a helicopter turned up.
      According to one of the birdwatchers, Aleksi Lehikoinen, the bear, who was taking a nap at the time, got frightened and took off, swimming in the windy weather and freezing cold water of some 3° to 4° C for about three hours, until it was shot at a distance of 10 metres from the shore at 6.15 p.m.
     
"The treatment of the bear showed distinct signs of animal cruelty. If it was necessary to kill the bear, why was it not done immediately and not after hours of hunting?" argued Lehikoinen.
      Chief Inspector Esko Kari from the Hanko police department, who was in charge of the operation, regards it as the most important thing that people were protected.
      "All alternatives were bad, but I believe that this was the only right solution", said Kari.
      According to Kari, the sedation of the bear was not possible, and the landing of the bear onto the narrow Hankoniemi headland was out of the question, because it would then have run through the residential area. According to some information, the bear had already been seen moving in the city centre on the night before Sunday.
     
The police will now have to think carefully about their ways of action in similar cases in the future. Even the birdwatchers would welcome some instructions from the authorities.
      The subject of the bear's messy despatch has prompted a brisk exchange of views on Internet message boards, with one strain being the way in which Finns have become so divorced from nature that they cry a river at the death of a bear while having no qualms about eating pork or poultry. Others have made the same point in reverse, that we are so alienated from nature that we panic at the very thought of those wild animals that we put on our stamps and are supposed to be proud of having in the country.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Bear-hunt on city streets of Hämeenlinna (9.11.2006)

Links:
  The Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland

Helsingin Sanomat