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Bear goes shopping in Khabarovsk

By 0 and 0 and 0
14 October 2015

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The Podsolnukh shopping centre was closed and empty of customers by the time the bear made his shock entry at around 10.30pm. Picture: Alexey Kaper

The after-hours retail therapy ended in death for the hungry wild bear which was presumably seeking food in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, the latest of many recent examples of the animals encroaching on settlements.

The Podsolnukh shopping centre was closed and empty of customers by the time the bear made his shock entry at around 10.30pm. He thrashed about on the floors, running at high speed, smashing doors and windows, and crashing through glass to enter shops. The rampage was caught on video

Bear in the shop


Bear in the shop


Bear in the shop


Bear in the shop

He thrashed about on the floors, running at high speed, smashing doors and windows, and crashing through glass to enter shops. Pictures: Alexey Kaper

Mall security staff and police numbering 20 in all sought to isolate the bear inside the shopping centre but without success. The panic-stricken animal eventually emerged from its frenzied excursion only to be shot by a waiting police SWAT team. 

'Police officers fired several times to kill the bear, because it was injured by the broken glass door and was a real danger to the life and health of citizens,' said a spokesman. 'The body of the bear we immediately passed to hunting inspectors.'

Bear in the shop


Bear in the shop


Bear in the shop

'First they gave the bear maximum stress while luring it from the shopping centre but when the animal already got out, and from terrible fear began to defend itself, it was shot.' Pictures: Alexey Kaper

Animal rights campaigner Natalia Kovalenko told AmurMedia the police deliberately made the bear angry, arguing it could have been contained then subdued inside the shopping centre, and its life saved.

'First they gave the bear maximum stress while luring it from the shopping centre but when the animal already got out, and from terrible fear began to defend itself, it was shot,' she said. 'In fact, this is wrong'.

Bear in the shop

Hungry wild bear which was presumably seeking food in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk is the latest of many recent examples of the animals encroaching on settlements. Picture: The Siberian Times

'There was the security in the shopping centre. The could have contained the beast within the building, while it was just scared and did not understand anything. Of course, in this case the bear could break displays and upset the shop owners. But they could have caught it in a humane way'.

'While the police was forcing out the animal to the street and chasing it, they brought it to this state of being really mad with stress and fear'.

She called for a special service to be set up which understands how to handle animals in such situations.

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