Friday, 03 September 2010 12:11
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The season for hunting bear started in Sweden last week and in some counties it has gone surprisingly fast to shoot the number of bears allowed. In Dalarna, northern Sweden, the hunters are allowed to shoot 35 bears until the end of October but since the start of the season half of that number has already been shot, according to local newspaper Dala-Demokraten.
When the Swedish government in February made a controversial decision to allow 27 wolves to be shot it stirred up a heated debate in the country. On one side were the animal right activists and conservationists and on the other were hunters and many people living in places where wolf exists.
But the bear hunt seems to be quietly accepted despite the fact that the bear is more popular than the wolf according to an annual study made by the Swedish School of Agriculture. Though animal rights activists and conservationists say they disagree with the idea that nature needs to be controlled they don't criticise the hunt mainly because Sweden's bear population is well and growing, while the wolf is still endangered.
Karin Åström, the vice-chairman of the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature, believes that another reason why the wolf hunt was so controversial is because Swedes seem to feel a strong hatred towards the wolves.
"We are not used to the wolf anymore in Sweden and if you go to countries where they have had wolves all along, they didn't shoot them off, you wouldn't find the same hatred. But its really hard to understand the really strong hatred."
But another explanation why comes from Björn Sundholm, the wildlife manager for the Swedish Hunting Association in Norrbotten, northern Sweden.
"First of all it was the debate about the wolf hunt is very much because it was the first for a very, very long time and the bear hunt has been going on as a license hunt since 1981 so people have grown accustomed to it."