Polar bear shot in Iceland

One has to feel some sympathy for the polar bear that was recently shot in Iceland.

After a 200-mile swim in near-freezing waters, the bear had just made it ashore, at Skagafjordur, and was no doubt dreaming of feasting on disgraced bankers, puffins and rancid shark, when it was terminated with extreme prejudice.

Icelandic police spokesman Petur Bjornsson said: ‘There was fog up in the hills and we took the decision to kill the bear before it could disappear into the fog.’

Apparently the animal could not be tranquilised because it would have taken 24 hours for the tranquiliser to arrive.

However, a vet in the town of Blönduó, Egill Steingrímsson, said he had drugs capable of immobilising the bear in the boot of his car. 'If the narcotics gun would have been sent by plane, it would have arrived within an hour. They could keep tabs on the bear for that long,’ he said.

One problem the police had was that around 60 people had gathered on a mountain road to watch the bear land. When the animal started heading towards these adrenaline-loving citizens the police had to act or let the bear eat its fill of tasty Icelanders.

The first record of a polar bear arriving in Iceland dates to 890, 16 years after the first settlers arrived.

That animal was killed by arrows fired by two Vikings, Ragnar the Swift and Olaf the Jumpy, who later used its fur to make linings for helmets.