Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

RANKIN INLET - A 10-foot polar bear was killed just outside of Rankin Inlet June 27.

The kill was a first for 18-year-old Katelyn Tatty, who won the game of spin the bullet to see who got to shoot the bear.

"I just wanted to go down and see the polar bear," said Tatty. "I didn't expect to be the one to kill it."

Rankin Inlet's Hunters and Trappers Association held an emergency meeting to decide what to do with the animal that was refusing to leave town.

The animal had been hanging around Thompson Island, less than one kilometre outside of town.

Catherine Pilakapsi was drying caribou meat at her cabin on the island when she spotted the bear.

A few people tried to scare it away with snomobiles and rubber bullets, but the bear was refusing to move.

"If we don't kill it right away, it will go right into town and hang around if it's not getting scared off," said Jerome Tattuinee, according to the minutes of an HTO meeting.

The HTO held the emergency meeting to decide what to do about the bear.

They could not get a hold of the wildlife officer who was busy monitoring the Melidine River fishers.

They also looked for tranquilizers but could not find any in town.

"The only thing to do now is to have the polar bear destroyed because it's so close to the cabins where they are drying meat," said Matthew Innukshuk, according to the minutes.

After the motion was passed to have the polar bear destroyed, the group played a game to decide who would get to kill it.

Everyone who wanted to kill the bear gathered in a circle, and they threw up a bullet in the middle.

Each time the bullet pointed to someone, that person was eliminated.

The game came down to three, Paul Pissuk, Darcy Kablalik and Tatty.

As the bullet dropped, the two others were eliminated giving the 18-year old a chance at her first polar bear kill.

An experienced hunter, having already hunted narwhals in Repulse Bay, Tatty said she wanted a polar bear kill like her father, who already had one.

"Once I got down there, I was bugging them to kill it," said Tatty.

Tatty got the bear on her first shot. The meat was distributed to the 30 to 35 people who were gathered on site, and Tatty took home the fur.

Tatty said the animal must have been very old, as they noticed a lot of scars while they were cutting it up.

She's not sure what she's going to do with the fur yet.

Her father, Ross Tatty, said the fur could sell for $150 a foot, and more if they got it mounted on a rug and sold it in the South.

Norman Ford, manager of HTO, said the animal will go against the community's credit of allowable polar bear kills.