Norwegian shop selling wolfskin rugs 'under fire'

A Norwegian upmarket is about to go broke. The store received heavy vocal criticism after it was caught selling wolfskin rugs. The gray wolf is an endangered animal in Norway and any activity with the specie is forbidden by law.

The rugs were on sale for around 4,500 US Dollars each. Animal rights activist were the first to react. “Either the animal was shot somewhere, or it may be from abroad, where it is permitted to hunt wolves with a foot trap. This is a barbaric trapping method that involves hours of pain for the animal,” said Ingunn Lund-Vang, a representative of Norway's animal right organization.

The shop's manager claims the rugs were imported from Canada and that they were already removed from the shop. “We have now removed the skin, and it will never be for sale in the shop again. We apologize for the incident but the import was perfectly legal,” he also added.

Illegally killing wolves in Norway is usually punishable by jail. According to official figures, poachers have killed about 100 wolves in Norway over the last decade. The animal could soon be extinct with the population having left 30 to 50 wolves across Norway.