Stop the Seal Hunt!

[Rusalka]

Canada's Seal Hunt: "Unacceptably Inhumane"

"The Canadian government insists that the seal hunt is an animal production industry like any other. They say that it might not be pretty, but basically it is just like any abattoir except on the ice. But we found obvious levels of suffering which would not be tolerated in any other animal industry in the world."

-Ian Robinson, British Veterinarian


Two separate veterinary reports that studied the 2001 seal hunt, one commissioned by the Canadian government, show numerous instances where animals were clubbed or shot and not rendered immediately unconscious.

Together, the two reports also document that a number of animals each year are hooked and dragged across the ice while still conscious and some of these are still alive by the time they reach the decks of sealing vessels.

Here’s what one such international team of five independent veterinarians found:

• 79% of the sealers did not check to see if an animal was dead before skinning it.
• In 40% of the kills a sealer had to strike the seal a second time, presumably because it was still conscious after the first blow or shot.
• 42% of killed seals examined were found to have minimal or no fractures, suggesting a high probability that these seals were conscious when skinned.

The veterinarian team concluded that the existing regulations were neither being respected nor enforced, and that the seal hunt is resulting in considerable and unacceptable suffering.



More Than 660 Probable Seal Abuses Caught on Tape

IFAW has submitted video evidence of more than 660 probable violations of Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. These abuses include skinning or bleeding live seals, stockpiling dead and dying animals, dragging live seals across the ice with sharpened steel hooks and shooting seals and leaving them to suffer. To date, not a single charge has been laid in response.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it is committed to proposing new regulations to address what it sees as the critical hunt issues. The International Fund for Animal Welfare stresses, however, that it is impossible to effectively regulate any commercial seal hunt. Unpredictable weather and ice conditions, combined with the difficulties inherent in killing a large number of wild animals very quickly, will always add up to cruelty.


You can sign the petition to stop seal hunting, please do :
http://www.stopthesealhunt.ca/site/p...PFIqE&b=437193

[Phlegethon]

There is only one seal that should be clubbed to death:




Filthy scar-faced race trading seal!

[etoile noir]

why did you turn this into "seal the singer"?

this is a horrid thing and Rusalka was right in posting it here. in fact i'll post some more from IFAW maybe it will jog some of you into some form of action - at least sign the petition - please.


The Biggest Seal Hunt in 50 Years

Many people mistakenly think Canada stopped hunting baby seals decades ago. But as many seals are killed today as during the 1950s and 60s when overhunting significantly pushed seals down the road to extinction. In this section you'll find out the real story about what's happening on the ice each year, and why the Canadian government doesn't want you to know about it. Each spring, the East coast of Canada is host to one of the world’s most beautiful wildlife spectacles. It is here that female harp seals gather by the hundreds of thousands on newly formed sea ice to give birth to their pups.

The seals give birth from late February until mid-March, transforming the once barren ice floes into a huge, white nursery. The newborn pups will be transformed into fat, fluffy ‘whitecoats’ in about a week, thanks to the high-fat content of their mother’s milk.

After about 12 days, the mother leaves her fully fed pup to join adult males for the annual mating ritual. The baby seals remain on the ice, crying for their mothers at first, then becoming extremely quiet and still.

During this time the seals survive on the thick layer of blubber they have accumulated during nursing. A few days later, their white coats are lost to reveal the sleek, black-spotted, silvery pelt of the young harp seal known as a “beater.” A pelt they will soon be clubbed or shot to death for.

From Beauty to Devastation in Just A Heartbeat

The scene is stunning – a world built entirely of blue, grey and white. The only sounds are the wind, the ice cracking and heaving, and the soft mews of the pups.

Yet just days later, this pristine wonderland is transformed into a makeshift factory for the mass killing of baby seals as sealers descend upon them in boats, helicopters and snowmobilies, armed with clubs and guns.

This year's annual hunt will continue until the industry reaches its quota of 319,500 dead seals. But many more will die and never be accounted for, leaving more than a million seals bludgeoned or shot to death in just three years, all in the name of profit.

[Phlegethon]

I think it is a funny coincidence that most of those folks who want to save the seals have no problem with abortion and so-called "euthanasia". Therefore they are not really in a position to claim a moral high ground.

What about the whalehunters? What about dolphins trained to carry explosives by the U.S. Navy?

[Rusalka]

I think both whale hunting and explosive carrying dolphins are valid issues. So are the fate of the Iberian lynx, snow leopards, wolves and rain forests. I put up this article because it was a recent issue, and there's a petition that can be signed.

As for abortion and euthanasia, I really don't think it has anything to do with this Phleg, and it's a strawman. Abortion is something people decide to have themselves, no one is forced to abort a baby, they're merely given the choice. Whether it's moral or not is open to debate, but it is definitely not out of the person's control. Euthanasia is a more debatable subject along these lines, because not all euthanasia requests are made by the patients themselves. Still, both these instances are mostly, and in the case of abortion all the time, require a consenting adult. I don't think the seals would be thrilled about being clubbed to death or skinned alive. As human beings, since we're so all-powerful and love to have control everything in our environment (and since we seriously screwed up the earth so far) we have to be more responsible in what we do. Most fauna and flora are now dependent on the humans; men decide their fate. What right do we have, though?

I don't want this article and petition request thread to turn into a "what about abortion? isn't it equally valid?" piss contest; this is not even an issue about people but animals. I don't think the two are comparable. To try to carry the argument there is nothing but demagogy.

[Phlegethon]

The moral relativism of a heathen.

[Rusalka]

Again, please don't steer the issue to a completely irrelevant subject. My morality or lack thereof has nothing to do with the fact that wildlife is under danger, almost everywhere in the world, and if not in danger, is abused by the mankind. This is not about human life, it's wildlife. People are responsible for the environment and what lives in it. I didn't even claim that euthanasia and abortion are not valid issues, they just don't have anything to do with this. I don't think euthanasia is okay or abortion is great. I'd rather that people didn't have either one, but they do. And they're people who can think and decide for themselves.

Besides, you are stepping on dangerous ground by comparing human life to animal life, I don't think the Bible would approve of that.

[etoile noir]

Phlegethon, as a traditional catholic you would make St Francis of Assisi proud. or would you?

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

I live in the country and my daughter is a forest ranger and I can tell you some horror stories about hunting and hunters.

My main point would be that out of the immediate eye of the authorities, things happen which are not supposed to happen. The proper authorities cannot be everywhere monitoring a seal kill. Many of these little animals met horrifying ends which were filmed in the 1960s which started this whole movement to spare them. I am sure some still goes on today as long as there is still a legal seal hunt.

As far as the US Navy and its sonic testing killing sea mammals goes, the really big thing is that this testing has been going on for decades. The Navy undoubtedly knew everything about it and knew that this was a primary cause for beached whales and dolfins, yet they remained silent. We would still be in the dark today if it were not for some activists. This practice should be banned. Perhaps in times of war but by that I mean real war declared by our Congress, not some little piss-ant political adventure.

[Gil]

Phlegton: Seal will ++++DESTROY+++!!!!

Back to topic, it's unnecessary cruelty and should be stopped. They are not needed as a food source so it's the hunter who should be clubbed, the damn sods. I wouldn't mind clubbing a seal if that meant having dinner, but making a whole commerce out of it is just....typically human.

http://rense.com/general58/sealhunt28.jpg
http://rense.com/general58/sealhunt19.jpg
http://www.canadiantouristboard.com/clubbed.jpg
http://www.canadiantouristboard.com/canada.jpg
http://www.hsus.org/web-files/Seals_Sealions/281x144_IFAW_Aldworth_seal_blood.jpg

[Viewer discretion is advised for the above photographs -Rusalka]

Even more disgusting, in Norway some blokes promote "baby seal hunting" as tourist package.....sodding bastards.
Here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservati...318631,00.html

[bocian]

Thousands of people butchered everyday, unborn children murdered, ill and elderly people discarded...

Seals just don't seem as important.

Had to get that out of my system. Sorry.

The problem is that by turning peoples attention to seals, we're turning them from the more important issues that I mentioned above...a good counter-argument would be that by bringing up the seal hunt we're really just trying to get people to understand what's happening to the enviroment, which will, sooner or later, effect all of us...supposedly.

[Rusalka]

Originally Posted by bocian

a good counter-argument would be that by bringing up the seal hunt we're really just trying to get people to understand what's happening to the enviroment, which will, sooner or later, effect all of us...supposedly.

That was my main point, yes.

[bocian]

Originally Posted by Rusalka

That was my main point, yes.

I know.

[Gil]

Bocian: the point is I'm not saying with should discard human problems and care only about animals, i'm saying that killing an animals because of it's fur in a day and age when that is not necessary is just dumb. I did not stated that we should all be tree-hugging fanatics who help baby seals but discard the elderly and the sick. If you told me that for every baby seal killed there was an elder taken cared off, a poor man given job, I would club them to death myself. Alas, that is not the case.

[bocian]

Originally Posted by Manji

Bocian: the point is I'm not saying with should discard human problems and care only about animals, i'm saying that killing an animals because of it's fur in a day and age when that is not necessary is just dumb. I did not stated that we should all be tree-hugging fanatics who help baby seals but discard the elderly and the sick. If you told me that for every baby seal killed there was an elder taken cared off, a poor man given job, I would club them to death myself. Alas, that is not the case.

I get your point Manji, and my reply wasn't directed at you or anyone else in this particular thread.

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by bocian

Thousands of people butchered everyday, unborn children murdered, ill and elderly people discarded...

Seals just don't seem as important.

Had to get that out of my system. Sorry.

I actually share this view as well.
I know people who are pro-abortion yet are vegetarians because "Meat is Murder".

I don't bother wasting much time on such people, unsuprisingly.

As for the issue of animals - Rusalka is correct. In theological terms, an animal life and a human life are not comparable. However, an animal still suffers and I do not condone their suffering unless it is for a damned good reason (such as eating them )