Sick trade in polar bear skins

By OLIVER HARVEY
Chief Feature Writer

Published: 13 Feb 2009

THEY are the beautiful creatures that have come to symbolise the fight against global warming.
The endangered polar bear is struggling to survive in its shrinking Arctic landscape as temperatures rise.
But today The Sun can reveal dozens of the threatened animals are being BUTCHERED and their skins sold on the internet.

Vile ... bear skins website
A Sun reporter posing as a buyer was offered polar bear rugs, complete with snarling teeth, by two Canadian firms.
Both insisted they could ship the skins to the UK and that they had recently sold rugs to buyers here.
Shockingly, importing polar bear trophies is LEGAL in the UK.

Last night, following our exposé, Poorva Joshipura from animal welfare charity PETA Europe called on the Government to BAN the awful trade.
She said: "Polar bears already face many threats to their survival without adding to the equation their body parts being bought and sold like bags of rice."
Canadian website Bear Skin World - run by a company called Fur Source Canada - offered an 8ft polar bear rug for £6,300.