And you thought GRIZZLIES were violent...

August 27, 2003 7:00 PM

Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns - authors of a popular book and the subject of a fascinating and well-recieved documentary - have been living for months at a time with bears in Kamchatka, demonstrating that man and grizzly can, in fact, inhabit the same landscape without violence - at least, no violence on the part of the bears... Their work has been brought to a tragic and all too human end... (Via Rafe Colburn, who notes, appropriately, "People suck.")
posted by JollyWanker (14 comments total)

. . .
posted by Shane at 7:07 PM on August 27, 2003

People do suck. Fuckheadgreedmobsters.
posted by ashbury at 7:14 PM on August 27, 2003

I'm speechless with anger.
posted by konolia at 7:25 PM on August 27, 2003

Reminds me of the people who go and hunt newly reintroduced wolves in the US, but worse, because instead of stupidity and irrational fear, this appears to have been a "business" decision. People suck.
posted by Nothing at 7:36 PM on August 27, 2003

Mr. Russell said he is tortured by the mental image of the giant bears happily approaching their killers.

"I can see how easily they were killed. That's my nightmare image," he said, his voice dropping almost to a whisper.

Yep, that's going right on my list of nightmare images, too. Ugh.
posted by hilatron at 7:50 PM on August 27, 2003

Damn.

Time to buy one of those "Mean people suck" stickers and cut off the "mean" part.
posted by notsnot at 7:50 PM on August 27, 2003

This is really depressing, but it's not really surprising. No wild animal can inhabit the same landscape as humans without violence becomes there's always some fucking useless asshole who is going to kill them. I hope these poachers are tracked down and have their own gall bladders nailed to the wall. The world would be better without them and with more grizzlies.
posted by homunculus at 7:53 PM on August 27, 2003

"Alive, the grizzly is a symbol of freedom and understanding - a sign that man can learn to conserve what is left of the earth. Extinct, it will be another fading testimony to things man should have learned more about but was too preoccupied with himself to notice. In its beleaguered condition, it is above all a symbol of what man is doing to the entire planet. If we can learn from these experiences, and learn rationally, both grizzly and man may have a chance to survive."

- Frank Craighead
posted by Dreamghost at 8:57 PM on August 27, 2003

To put it another way: Killing the grizzlies, and maintaining a cycle of violence, was necessary to keep up the culture of fear and division on which hunting and gunplay in general are based. This is one disgusting occurrence, yes, but it's only an exaggerated example of the larger situation.
posted by soyjoy at 7:21 AM on August 28, 2003

fug

Excuse me while I go puke.
posted by Outlawyr at 9:01 AM on August 28, 2003

God awful. I did my master's research at this lodge on the coast of British Columbia, and got to observe some of these incredible animals up close. (100-page thesis sort of summarized here, self link of course, and I was with this author when we were charged by one.)

Smart as dogs, cute as puppies, faster than horses, scary as sharks, with personalities as individual as any pet - and hated by so many, or seen as just a gall-bladder life-support mechanism.

Things like this make me think fuck "traditional medicine," or at least the kind that leads to shit like this. Bears, rhinos, tigers - how many have to die to keep Asian dicks hard?
posted by gottabefunky at 9:03 AM on August 28, 2003

That's the first time I've exclaimed "That's disgusting" from something I saw on the internet in quite a few years. I think I know who's gall bladder needs nailed to the kitchen tree next.
posted by daver at 10:08 AM on August 28, 2003

This was the subject of a column in the Guardian Online's Worm's Eye View today, written by Andrew Brown
posted by darsh at 10:49 AM on August 29, 2003

wow. what a horrible, horrible story. i wish they knew who the fucks were that did that..

...
posted by shadow45 at 3:54 PM on September 10, 2003