Canadian Seal Slaughter Starts Today

[HiredGoon]

First of all, I am not a hunter, although I am a gun owner.

Do any of the hunters here think that this seal slaughter is a sporting hunt? It certainly does not seem like it is. How about non-hunters...what do you think? I posted here instead of in the hunting forum to get opinions of both hunters and non-hunters.

Canada and its people should be ashamed of these so-called hunters and this yearly event.


This is the Year to Stop the Slaughter

March 19, 2009

by Rebecca Aldworth

My worst nightmare is about to begin again.

Next week, hundreds of seal hunters will move into the pristine harp seal nursery of Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence and club and shoot to death every defenseless seal pup in their path.

This is Canada's commercial seal slaughter, and it takes place every year solely to supply fur for the fashion industry.

It was just days ago that we stood on those ice floes, watching the newborn pups nurse from their mothers.

What Lies Ahead

It seemed unthinkable then that these pups could be killed so soon. But fate has been cruel.

Strong winds have pushed a large area of sea ice, covered in baby seals, against the shores of the Magdalen Islands. Trapped just a few miles off the coast of one of the key sealing areas in Canada, these pups have little chance of survival.

The babies are so young, and many are still covered in white fur. But their proximity is making the sealers impatient to start the kill. Today, the Canadian government tells us the slaughter could begin as early as Sunday.

Impossible to Imagine

This will be my 11th year in a row bearing witness to one of the most extreme forms of cruelty on the planet: the butchering of helpless, terrified seal pups.

The carnage is palpable—blood will spread across the ice floes, the small carcasses with vacant eyes staring up at us. Worse is what comes before—the beating of the terrified pups, their miserable cries, the wounded babies left to suffer in agony.

It is almost impossible to imagine it until you have seen it for yourself. Nothing prepares me for it, and nothing makes it easier to see. The only way to survive it is the knowledge that we are ending it.

Because that is exactly what it happening.

Shutting This Down

Even as Canadian sealers head for the ice floes, a change is in the air.

In weeks, the European Union will vote on a proposal to ban its trade in seal products—a move many believe could spell the final end of commercial seal slaughter in Canada. A primary market for seal products, the EU is also home to the trend setting fashion houses in Italy and France—if seal products are no longer shown on those runways, demand in other parts of the world will decline dramatically.

In the United States, a boycott of Canadian seafood—that will continue until the commercial seal slaughter is ended forever—is gaining tremendous momentum. More than 5,000 establishments and 600,000 individuals have pledge to avoid some or all Canadian seafood so far, and more businesses and people join every single day. It won't be long before Canada's fishing industry takes action to save the seals, if only to protect its profits.

[PocketProtector]

Funny how these same people DON"T come to the defense of defenseless human babies.

[adymond]

I don't know enough about seal hunting to say one way or another and don't have time to research it right now, but this reads like a VERY slanted article.

My worst nightmare is about to begin again.

If you start an article about anything short of wholesale slaughter of millions of humans with this line I write you off as sort of a nutjob.

If it is as this lady is saying and there is no bag limit or anything I don't know that I can defend it. Then again I doubt the population is being negatively effected by this or it would not be continuing for as long as it has.

[Virtus985]

I have mixed opinions on hunting... Where you're hunting animals that have the ability to rapidly vacate the area (flying or running) I don't dobut that it is a challenge both to sneak up on them and hit them with your weapon. I've yet to make up my mind on whether or not I personally want to go hunting, because tromping through the forest so you can off some animal and high five your friend just seems wierd- on the other hand, if you're going to be eating it, are following the game comission rules, etc. and generally being respectful to the balance of nature, I don't think there's much wrong with it.

When you just walk up to a defenseless little baby seal and kick the hell out of it, you're just being an asshole & that's not "sporting" at all. There is no challenge to doing so, and the damn things are just too cute... and yes I used the word "cute"


Seriously, you gotta have a screw loose to be like "Yeah, I wanna go hit that little white fuzzball until it dies! Woot!"

[Virtus985]

Somewhat dark humor:


Really though, you literally DO just walk up and whack the seals with a club.

[camper]

Abortion, human trafficking, Darfur, gun control, banking crisis, child abuse, drug epidemic, welfare, healthcare, aids, cancer, starvation, genocide...all kinds of horrible crap in the world that needs to end, and clubbing seals makes people incensed instead.

Huh.

Honestly, you solve just 2 problems off that list above and I'll be ready to care about seals. Until then, animals just don't rate in the list of priorities, no matter how big their eyes happen to be.

camper

[BIGSHOVEL]

I take no issue with the seal hunt, its tradition. I see no difference in the Native Indians running buffalo off a cliff or clubbing a seal. Killing is killing, no humanity involved taking life regardless of method.

Brad

[1861]

Funny how these same people DON"T come to the defense of defenseless human babies.

Exactly , wish I could REP you .

[LittleRedToyota]

i would not personally call this hunting.

shooting penned-in, farm-raised animals from the back of a pickup isn't hunting either.

now, whether or not baby seals should be commercially harvested is a different issue. i do have an adverse emotional reaction to seeing it, but i am intelligent enough to understand that just because i have an adverse emotional reaction doesn't mean something is immoral even by my own standards. and, even if something is immoral by my standards, i don't generally have the right to force my morals on someone else.

further, there is a side of the story that the anti-sealers don't bother telling you about...

what would happen to the ecosystem if all these seals were actually to make it to maturity?

what would happen to the small communities that rely on the seal "hunt" for their economy?

i dunno. i do know that whether or not it is wrong to kill a specific animal io a specific instance has absolutely nothing to do with how cute the animal is...

[NineseveN]

Funny how these same people DON"T come to the defense of defenseless human babies.

Oh, I guess we're clubbing red herrings now...