Or a tasty little baby seal, maybe?

The D.C. bomb squad was called out to deal with a piece of global-warming street art in the nation’s capital on Wednesday: a mannequin dressed up as a homeless polar bear. File this one under Your Tax Dollars at Work:

The bomb squad rolled in with their armored vehicle, and out waddled the stiff, spaceman-looking officers ready to protect the capital yesterday morning.The situation?
A homeless polar bear was rummaging through a trash can. . . .
“It’s a suspicious package,” police spokespeople declared.
So in came the bomb squad and all the precautions of a post-Sept. 11 world. . . .
Wooster Collective, a group of street artists, posted two photos of other sightings of the Columbia Heights polar bear. In one, the bear stands in traffic holding an “SOS” sign. In another, a bear matching the height, weight and fur color of Tuesday’s dismantled bruin begs for change near a Metro stop, holding up signs such as: “Oil addiction wrecked my life.”
Homeless polar bears are a real issue, said Joe Pouliot, director of climate and policy communications for the World Wildlife Fund.
Pouliot said his group had nothing to do with the Columbia Heights bear, but they believe they know what the artist meant.
“Polar bears are losing their homes. They live on Arctic sea ice, and it’s melting,” Pouliot said. “It’s not much of a stretch to say that we face an epidemic of polar bear homelessness.”

No, not a stretch at all.