posted on April 12, 2004 10:01:33 PM new
You Canadians should be ashamed...
Canada Begins World's Largest Seal Hunt
By BARRY BROWN
Associated Press Writer
TORONTO (AP) -- Some 12,000 sealers armed with rifles and spears headed for the ice floes and islands off eastern Canada on Monday in the world's largest seal hunt, followed by protesters condemning the $20 million harvest as barbaric.
Hunters are allowed to kill 350,000 young seals this year, the largest amount since the government instituted quotas in the 1960s. The harp seal population is growing at 5.2 million and pelts are garnering record prices of about $50 each.
"I believe this hunt is inherently cruel and the regulations to protect the seals are woefully inadequate," said Rebecca Aldworth of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which will monitor the cull.
The hunt off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador received international attention beginning in the '60s, and bloody television images of baby harp seals being clubbed to death led to bans on white seal fur and boycotts of Canadian fish products in many European markets.
Since then, the Canadian government has tried to ease protesters' concerns by banning the killing of seal pups under 12 days old - when their fur changes from white to gray - and implementing regulations designed to make the hunt more humane.
Many countries, including the United States, still ban imports of seal products, but the Ottawa government has supported the hunt to help Canada's economically suffering coastal towns. The industry earned about $15 million last year, primarily from pelt sales to Norway, Denmark and China.
Earlier this year, the Humane Society of the United States took out full-page newspaper ads urging Americans to cancel trips to Canada and boycott Canadian products.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced a resolution condemning the hunt, and some of those attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier this year wore T-shirts reading: "Club Sandwiches, Not Seals."
However, some of the major activist groups that targeted sealing in the past said they have more pressing issues to address this year.
Andrew Male of Greenpeace Canada said the organization was "not actively campaigning" against the hunt, instead focusing on issues such as genetically modified foods and climate change.
Despite its newspaper ad, the Humane Society does not oppose the hunt itself, only some of the methods used by sealers, spokesman Nicholas Braden said.
Although most seals are shot instead of clubbed, many wounded animals are left to drown, he said. Also, an organization study found that 40 percent of the seals killed were still alive while being skinned, despite rules designed to prevent this, he said.
Aldworth said hunting guidelines have been routinely ignored during her five years of monitoring the hunt, and her group has documented nearly 700 violations of hunting regulations since 1998.
She said she has seen "seals whimpering in agony after being clubbed, and even though we begged the sealers to finish them off, they refused."
posted on April 13, 2004 09:34:22 AM new
Oh good god - would you guys grow up already. Canadians at large are no more to blame for the acts of a few than Americans at large are responsible for what many consider to be the inhumane act of using claw traps.
This entire forum has turned into a damned sandbox and half the people here are more interested in insulting each other like a group of rabid 8 year olds than portraying any of the intellect everyone screams of possesessing. Grow-up already
And no, I'm not just speaking of you two.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by fenix03 on Apr 13, 2004 11:14 AM ]
posted on April 13, 2004 10:08:01 AM new
Of course I think it's barbaric. I think killing any animal is barbaric but no more so than what goes on in slaughterhouses. If you eat meat, you've all got blood on your hands, so what's the difference?
posted on April 13, 2004 12:35:21 PM new
Awww fenix... truth be known if I found out someone harmed kraft, kiara, or even helen, I would kick their ass...
posted on April 13, 2004 01:17:48 PM new
Twelve - I do know that and I and a little good natured bickering never hurt anyone. I just lost it this moring when it was in every thread.
I come in and read right after I wake up and I got a full days dose of bickering and personal attacks in the first hour of the day and just kinda lost it.
I appologize... but damn guys - can we at least keep the personal type attacks to say...only 25% of open threads. Of course we all get to attack at will on the topics
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on April 13, 2004 03:33:32 PM new
heck, at least the canadians are not baby killers...........and had the courage to tell the US war machine to shove it up your a#s
[ edited by skylite on Apr 13, 2004 03:43 PM ]