Senate to vote on Canada’s polar bear pelt import

According to “Senate to vote on bill to import polar bear plants,” [News, Nov. 14.] the first piece of legislation to get voted on by the Senate between now and the end of the year has a provision that “would allow a small group of hunters who have been storing polar bear pelts in Canada to import them to the United States.”

Does this make any sense given that superstorm Sandy states are still begging Congress to release more money for disaster relief, the fiscal cliff is looming and both parties are supposedly focused on “jobs, jobs, jobs?”

The fact that Congress is spending even one second on this legislation now is even more repulsive than the bill itself. Who benefits from this provision? Forty-one people who can afford to hunt polar bears and store their pelts for four years.

Congress can’t figure out how to let millions of us benefit by importing cheap prescription drugs from Canada, but polar bear pelts? No problem.

– David Barker, Seattle

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