An Unlikely and Scary Intruder Is Canceling a Town's Outside Trick-or-Treating

With less than two weeks to go, children who celebrate Halloween are gearing up to go door-to-door yelling "trick-or-treat" clad in their carefully chosen costumes. But a small Canadian town has cancelled this activity — at least the outside portion — due to the threat of polar bears.

The Hamlet Council of Arviat, which is located on the Hudson Bay in northern Canada, issued a letter last week explaining that trick-or-treating and other activities would take place indoors this Oct. 31 to "[ensure] safety for our kids while still allowing our kids to have fun."

Polar bears have been crossing through the Inuit community more in recent years. This year, the community decided to host a trick-or-treating event indoors instead of the traditional door-to-door. (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

According to CBC News, polar bears have been encroaching on the community more often in recent years. Some blame climate change for warming weather that is driving them into the Inuit community.

"Picture 1,200 kids going door to door in Arviat in the middle of polar bear season," Steve England, Arviat's senior administrative officer, told the news outlet. "It's a pretty obvious conclusion of what tragedies could come out of that. We're just trying to safeguard the younger population by offering an alternative."

Watch CBC's report about the move, which the majority of the community supports:

Last year, Mens Journal covered the "polar bear takeover" that Arviat has been experiencing specifically as it lies directly along the migratory path of more than 1,000 bears. This path is something that the journal reported is the result of a warming climate that results in later bay ice and thus forces the bears through Arviat.

"We're the number one target," tribal elder Peter Alareak told Men's Journal. "You never know where they're going to pop up. You might be inside and want to go out for a smoke, and next thing you know, the bear is right there."

(H/T: Slate)

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Front page image via Shutterstock.