Canadian Seal Hunt Inspires Local Boycott

Canadian Seal Hunt Inspires Local Boycott
Only On 4
Canada Allows The Hunt Of Young Harp Seals

Jennifer Santiago
Reporting


(CBS4 News) MIAMI You saw Jennifer Santiago's exclusive report on the legal and controversial hunting of seals in Canada earlier this week. Wednesday, local business owners who also saw the report announced they are taking action and it comes in the form of a boycott of Canadian products.

The urging for a boycott comes from the Humane Society Of The United States, which is calling for a worldwide boycott of Canadian seafood. Already on the list of South Florida Businesses joining are Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, Pacific Time Restaurant in South Beach and BED nightclub.

This year alone, an estimated 325,000 seals are expected to be slaughtered. The International Fund For Animal Welfare (IFAW) predicts that 95 percent of these seals will be between 2 weeks to 3-monhts-old.

Full story and several others at link: http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_081163334.html

The hunt starts Saturday.

http://www.stopthesealhunt.ca/site/pp.asp?c=dhKPI1PFIqE&b=437929

I grew up on a dirt farm in S Texas and Dad raised 7 kids on 40 acres and some rented land.

Making food and stuff just isn't all that pretty. Been there and done that. Strung them up by the back legs, knocked 'em in head with a hammer and opened 'em up. The chicken we had for dinner was free ranging an hour before.

Yeah, they're cute with the big eyes and all but so are baby chicks. Remember that when you pick up boneless skinless breasts at the mega mart.

The first thing you learn is that you don't name the farm animals . . .

This hunt does not have anything to do with feeding people," said Sante. "It’s purely about feeding people's vanity."


Also, I grew up on a farm and raised hogs and cattle that paid my way to college. I named each and every one of them...including the 256 head of hogs I had when I graduated from high school.

I know you've seen a newborn baby calf with wobbly legs and pink nose.

A few years later and he's a belt.

The biggest problem we had was keeping the turkey vultures from eating the newborns because there wasn't enough natural prey for them after we (the editorial we) cultivated all the available habitat.

How do you feel about killing rats? Different from killing squirrels? Same critter, fluffier tail.

Just like pretty blond girls who go missing in Aruba.

domestic livestock, but I did name them and was attached to many of them. Cried my eyes out on the days that they were sold. Loved each of my Black Angus steers and showed them at the country fair. And I hate shoes! Make myself wear tennis shoes to work and when I go out shopping, but other than that, I'm barefoot.

There are lots of things that can be made into shoes that weren't animals.

Again, not necessary.

quit kidding yourself

or any other animals. It isn't necessary. The suffering you write about is unnecessary. So I choose not to participate.

I just remember that these are living creatures, with fully-functioning sensory neurons. It's called empathy. People without it scare me.

I think you need to take a good, long, thoughtful look at your own sig line.

Compassion for all creatures, is that such a bad thing to strive for?

Of course not. Strive for what you want. Just put things into perspective.

It's all a continuum. At some point it is okay to kill critters. Viral infections, bacterial infections, vermin, food vegetation, food animals, (forgive me please it's only for illustration!!!) unborn fetus, convicted capital criminals, soldiers at war, terrorists and so it goes.

Where each of us draw the line on this continuum is an individual decision.

I personally can't get excited about harvesting animals with white fur and big eyes just because they're cute. Hell, horses have big eyes and I can tell you from personal experience that what you see when you look into their eyes is the back of their head--there's nothing else in there!

If you don't see that as being wrong, there is something seriously wrong with you.

they are not "raised for food". This is a disgusting practice for which I can find no defense.

It's the only way it works.

which kills helpless baby animals for pure greed. These are infants, who must be killed before their fur changes color at about 4 weeks. I find anyone who supports this practice totally out of line, DUer or not. What right do we have because we grew a thumb to take it upon ourselves to murder other creatures who share this earth? Many of the animals we murder are ones that could bring joy into our lives, if we were not so unspeakable as a species. And this is murder. I too grew up in a small town and my grandparents and parents owned farm land and raised cattle. This is different

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's annual seal hunt, the focus of a major protest effort by animal activists, will start on Saturday and could last longer than usual because the ice floes on which the seals gather are in poor condition, officials said on Thursday.

Canada says a total of 325,000 harp seal pups can be shot or clubbed to death this year. The first stage of the hunt, which takes place on ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Canada's East Coast, will account for just over 90,000 animals.

<snip>

Full story:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-03-23T210645Z_01_N22382147_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SEALS-DC.XML&archived=False

If only "clubbed to death" was accurate, since many of these seals are literally skinned alive after some sealer with piss-poor aim and ablity takes a whack then has at the animal.

May this be your last year, sealers. Oh, and keep those lifeboats handy. I understand Capt. Watson and Sea Shepherd are headed your way...

THERE ARE NO REASONS FOR HUNTING SEALS

unless you are an Inuit

besides he needs them for plenty of other purposes. He hunts them with a gun. He doesn't skin alive babies on the ice to make stupid artifacts. And he doesn't kill on industrial scale.

First of all I'm against that disgusting seal hunt.Then you seem to think that the Inuits live like they did 50 years ago.When an Inuit wants meat,the Inuit goes to the grocery store.They hunt baby seals for the money.Just like the evil white man.I seen them club seals to death and skin them alive too.I should know because I live in north Quebec and I personally know some Inuits who hunt seals for extra cash.The rest of the time they have a regular job or for the less fortunate,they live on welfare.C'est la vie !

but there still are people that "live" of ancient seal hunt (Groenland) and in Siberia. I can imagine that some Canadians Inuits do to. It the hunt is restricted to adults and to a certain number in those cases, it's OK. I can even think of a monitored regulating of populations due to lack of natural predators.

Frankly, I feel like that's the ONLY justification for killing seals. (Then we'd call it a cull, not a hunt, and we'd feel OK just shooting them, not clubbing them.) The government just has this idea that you might as well let people make money off it because a) it's cheaper for the government, because otherwise the government would have to pay people to do it instead of having what amounts to a privately financed cull, b) it's (supposedly) not like the bad old days and things won't get dramatically out of hand. I'm not qualified to assess the accuracy of these ideas. They are, however, the clearly articulated public view of the government.

Back when the seal hunt resumed, the population had exploded and the natural predators of seals were lagging far behind. That's nature for you. Killer whales in particular, tend to eat seals but don't just grow overnight.

It'd be nice if this was all done humanely. I imagine it's not all done humanely. That's too bad, but in the great scheme of things, the hunt is more offensive than damaging. I understand people taking offense at the breaches of what are good and decent official regulations. I don't sympathize with glossing over the fact they're breaches and shouting to the world that the government virtually orders its citizens to slaughter white pups or some such nonsense, or is exterminating rather than regulating the seal population. I know people are going to argue it anyway, whether or not they know of the factual mistakes in such arguments. I just wish people wouldn't insist that resisting the siren call of propaganda means advocating inhumane treatment of seals or other species such as Iraqis or left-leaning Americans.

They go apoplectic at the use of that word.

I'm not sure why, but they don't consider it a "cull". It's a "hunt".

Not that the nomenclature makes one whit of difference to the seal bleeding to death on the ice floes.

yeasrs ago people were protesting this crap and they still are doing it. It's horrible and brutal

It's Euro-Canadians with good old fashioned blood-lust

:spank:

different organizations in opposition
to this.

Did those petitions have any impact
whatsoever?

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/protectseals/?qp_source=gabaoi

Why in the hell is this continuing when most
Canadians are opposed to this?

domestic spying, the war in Iraq, etc, yet it goes on. Those in power, with the money, don't care.

In this issue, the Canadian government is no different than ours. Bow to the special interest, line your pockets.

Thank you for signing those petitions, they DO mean something. They build a case for boycotts, show numbers, etc.

A hunt implies pursuit or challenge of some sort. This is slaughter of the worst, most cruel kind.

I hope others consider what you've stated.

I saw that on another thread, quoting activists. I asked myself, why two weeks to three months?

Because after two weeks pups lose their white coats.

So activists are indirectly conceding that there's at least a 95% compliance rate with the ban on killing white seal pups? Certainly aren't admitting any such thing, but it simply took a quick crack at Google to find out about the "molting" that occurs prior to 2 weeks .

...

And that Sea Shepherd part is downright disturbing.

that clubbing an animal, then skinning that animal alive is okay because, well, Google returned a positive result?

So, poster, you see no issue with killing these animals inhumanely, yes? Simple question...

What about Sea Shepherd was "downright disturbing" anyway? One might offer more info...

Which is probably the impression most people would get from reading without further explanation "95% of the seals killed are between 2 weeks and 3 months of age", especially if accompanied by a poster with a cute white seal.

I'm only conceding the inhumane killing issue in your own mind because I'm not agreeing with every shock value story I hear.

What I've heard is that properly clubbing a seal kills it instantly, which shooting probably won't do. I wouldn't know if it works. I haven't tried it or seen it up close. I'm not that kind of person.

As for disturbing: Did you read the part about the hunt might take longer because the ice flows are unstable? What the hell would any sane man do sending an icebreaker into those conditions like a bull in a china shop? (A: A sane man wouldn't.) I hope that's not what's going to happen or something equally stupid like ramming ships. Watson is a Canadian citizen, right? No jurisdiction issues if he tries anything funny this time.

at 2 weeks to 3 months of age.

And as for never having seen the clubbing of one to death, there's plenty of video on the 'net. Go to IFAW or hsus.org Last year hsus.org had a day by day film posted of the hunt. Take a look.

Do you understand?

I'm saying I have no idea if a seal is killed instantly by such a measure. I'm well aware it looks ugly. I've no idea if I'm feeling the pain more than the seal being clubbed, though.

You took what I wrote as ignorance of what it looks like for a seal to be clubbed. Um no. What it looks like to me as a bystander isn't really the point. Killing animals is ugly no matter what. If I have a concern, it's for the suffering of the seal.

what about "that Sea Shepherd part" is "downright disturbing" I ask????

barbaric event such as this. But, the U.S. is currently doing worse things than that in Iraq.

I'm working to stop BOTH the war in Iraq AND the seal hunt.

The less violence in the world, the better, regardless of who's responsible or who the victims are.

In the boonies of S. Vietnam, I saw the results of man's inhumanity (which most of you should never be unfortunate enough to see). I'm not someone who cringes at the sight of a few drops of blood. Yet, the videos and photos I've seen of the seal slaughter make even this old veteran disgusted and heartsick. How any so-called veterinarians can proclaim this humane is beyond me (do I smell a bribe). Humane: adj. - characterized by kindness, mercy, and compassion. How is clubbing a 20-day-old seal pup with a hakapik any less inhumane than smashing a puppy-dog on the head with a baseball bat?

I'm guessing that's the difference.

:mad:

March 24, 2006

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I – Heather and Paul McCartney have issued a video statement today through The Humane Society of the United States to mark the start of the annual Canadian seal hunt tomorrow morning. Earlier this month, the McCartneys visited the harp seal nursery on the ice floes to observe the newborn pups.

"We're devastated to learn that 325,000 of these harp seals—almost all of them defenseless babies—will be clubbed and shot to death," said Heather McCartney. "Compassionate people from all around the world are opposed to this seal hunt, including the majority of Canadians, and we urge them to contact their Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and ask him to ban the hunt."

"Heather and I chose to come out to the ice floes before the hunt began because it would break our hearts to have to see the cruelty of the hunt," said Paul McCartney. "But we are absolutely committed to making sure this is the last slaughter of baby seals in Canada anyone will ever have to witness."

NEW McCartney Video and full story at link: http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/mccartney_statement_start_2006_seal_hunt.html






A copy of the McCartney video is available for viewing at:

Windows Media: http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/hsus/2006-seal-hunt/mccartneys-06-seal-statement.wmv&type=wmv

Real Media: http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/hsus/2006-seal-hunt/mccartneys-06-seal-statement.rm

Broadcast quality footage is available on request.

We could not buy anything. Period.

Including and especially stuff made in The United States.

Oh and the boycotters best ask where the gas in their tank comes from. Word is a lot of it comes from Canada.