Paul and Heather McCartney Visit Canadian Seals

Hi, I'm canadain and i have to aplogize for the seal hunt. I don't condone it, unlike our minister of fisheries and I think it's terrible.

Your claim to status as legitimate journalists is greatly impinged by printing flagrantly inaccurate and outrageously biased propaganda. Might be worth mentioning that the seals they mislead McCartney to pose with are illegal to hunt, and have been for decades. Who hunts the young in any specifies, ever? Or that the seal population has grown 300% in recent years.

The political demise of seal hunting has caused intense financial pressure on thousands of families. Perhaps Sir Paul should pose with the unemployed, alcoholic, child and spouse abusing former seal hunters he helped to become the chronic unemployed.

Finally – please think of conservation. With the seal population going from 2 million to 6 million animals in a few years – there has been a corresponding destruction in the fish population they feed upon – and another decimation in fisherman’s families and communities.

You really should hire some fact checkers.

Michael Ellis

Hi I am Canadian too and although I used to be 100% against the seal hunt I recently realized people are not looking at all the information. Greenpeace has used the seal hunt as major propoganda because seals are so cute so therefore catch everyones attention. But in doing so Greenpeace has done a huge disservice to the arctic aboriginal people, the Inuit (whose culture Vancouver is appropriating for the 2010 olympic logo). I dont normally condone brutal killing of animals, especially not trophy hunting, but the aboriginal seal hunt is vital to their economy and maintaining their tradition as well as sustenance ands elf sufficiency. Sustainability is about social sustainability as well as environmental. In a society that has racism against native people so deeply imbedded into its institutions it is so difficult for native people to live economically viable lives. The Inuit worldview is one of respect for nature and conservation. I can see why people would be enraged by the killing of a seal but I think people need to have all the facts and consider other perspectives.

I think it is important the facts you are doing. I also think that sustainability is about social sustainability too. But I think you have gotten the wrong information about Greenpeace. Greenpeace is against the commercial hunt of seals but is not against the indigenous hunt of seals of the Inuit. Greenpeace only does actions against the commercial hunting of seals. Which I am sure most of us can agree is not justifiable. Greenpeace unlike some other environmental organisations work often closely with indigenous communities in actions and research. Greenpeace is now doing a year long journey around the world to raise awareness of the threats to our oceans. You can also be a part of this, its free and you will not receive any spam, you just have to sign up as an ocean defender. To read more look at
the oceans site and sign up today.

I think you have gotten the wrong information about Greenpeace. Greenpeace do not oppose indigenous hunting of seals but they do oppose commerical hunting of seals, which most of us can agree is not justifiable.
I do agree with you that sustainabilty has to include social sustainability. Greenpeace work often very closely with the indigenous populations in the actions and research prior to actions. You can make a change to the oceans today and it won't cost you more than a few clicks visit the oceans site. You can help to address the real villains who are stealing from the poor nations and ruining the health of our oceans.

I am so glad that the McCartneys
are bringing publicity to this issue.
The slaughter of these seals has to stop. It has been going on for too long.

I recommend all those opposed to watch Larry King tonight on CNN, the Premier of Newfoundland, Danny Williams, will be interviewed along with Paul McCartney on the sealing issue.



I also highly recommend all to watch "My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers", a documentary film by Anne Troake which follows her family history, who are sealers and fishers from Twillengate, Newfoundland.



Get back to me when they outlaw factory farming of animals. I would at least consider seal to be both an organic and free range food.

I am so grateful to Paul and Heather McCartney for going to the ice flows to see the seals and bring attention to this horrible practice. I am a Canadian woman in my mid 50's and I remember being upset about the seal hunts when I was in high school. I cannot believe this is still happening. I hope that Paul and Heather can bring some kind of pressure to bear on authorities who have the power to stop this carnage. I wouldn't count on Stephen Harper or any politician. They only care about money and their own reputations, especially among the power brokers. I hope they can solicit the aid of other celebs who can use their influence to bring about change that is so badly needed. I say, God Bless you both.

Stop this brutal and senseless killing.
I will never travel to or purchase any Canadian products until I hear that this form of hunting has stopped.

I am surprised at how narrow minded Paul McCartney is.

Seals in Atlantic Canada eat 267,000,000 lbs of fish a day. Harvesting 3% of the seals a year is hardly devastating.

This issue hides McCartneys hidden agenda. This is a veiled attack on harvesting animals for any reason because of his support for Vegetarianism.

He says one issue at a time....I could believe him if he was supporting an end to Abortion of innocent beautiful humans. I just can't get excited by him trying to save seals when he will next turn his attention to calves.

I'm sure that Newfoundlanders and other Canadians don't need to organize a boycott of Paul McCartney's products...he's organized it nicely by himself.

I am a Canadian and at times like this, not very proud to say that. Thank god for Heather & Paul McCartney's efforts to try and stop this cruel and inhumane practice of slaughtering the seals. It disgusts me. I can hardly bear to think about the brutal way in which the sealers club to seals to death (& a lot of the time they are not dead yet when they are skinned alive!)

This is the 21st century and this practice has been going on for hundreds of years - but now we should know better. This must stop!! This is not a humane practice. "Humane" means kind and with compassion. It does not mean clubbing and hack-picking and letting these animals suffer a horrible death.

Everyone please write and tell everyone you know about this practice - they can go to www.protectseals.org and try to help.

Congratulations and hats off to the premier of Newfoundland, Danny Williams. He did a superb job of dealing with the McCartneys - showing all who watched Larry King - just how misled (and misleading) they both are. For God's sake Paul did not even know he was not in Newfoundland but in P.E.I. doing the interview. Obviously the McCartneys did not want to touch foot in Newfoundland to do the interview nor will they likely take up the premier's invitation to see and hear the true facts surrounding this non-issue. Nice try McCartneys but you failed miserably in your attempt to discredit the sealing industry. Oh yes, Mrs. McCartney, please have the decency, if not courtesy, to shut up and give others a chance to make their views known ( even your husband Paul ). You took up enough air in the interview room to make everyone sick.How sad (but yet how fortunate) you blew your opportunity to mislead the viewers !
Stand firm Newfoundlanders and thank you for helping us understand the true facts regarding the importance and humanity of the sealing industry.

Hal Bartlett

I AM Canadian.

I feel strongly that Canadian sealers have a right to make a living and CONTROL the population of the animal that is also linked to devastating the east cost fishery.

Of course it is a baby seal and everyone loves those big black eyes... like then ones found on cows (meat, leather), horses (leather), chickens (meat, eggs - the unborn chicken!)... please I think we have far BIGGER issues to concern ourselves with then the seal hunt.

Thanks to Paul and heather mccartney. After reading the comments above I had to laugh. Some of these people must be from newfoundland. This hunt is very inhumane and disgusting. The hunt may not permanently end this march or maybe not the next. But all of the people that are against the hunt will get the last laugh when it is brought to a end. It might take time but we will get the last laugh. Look at the boycott of sea food. It has already done some damage. It is only the beginning, wait and see.

Dave Pollard has a post about it:

Here it is.

Warning: Disturbing photo.

Im not from Newfoundland but we stongly support them !! What seafood boycott are these people above (and the McCartneys talking about ). Asian and European countries and even here in the US continue to buy and support ALL Canadian fish products ! Must be the vegetarians boycotting and all the other bleeding hearts ( Oops I shouldn't have used the word bleeding - I might offend someone ).For God's sake where do y'all think your table meat comes from - slaughter houses of course. Why not take picures of all that goes on in slaughter houses around the world and make an issue of them to !! Heck don't stop there - let's ban all meat and hide products, fish products, bird products, reptile products and yes - insect products ! Oh - and stop all types of hunting while we are at it !! That way there will be no blood at all ( either in public or out of sight) and the world will be better. Sure. And it will soon be over run and over populated and the liberal purists shall inherit a better place to live. Try another planet to protest on! Leave sane folks alone !
Oh yes , when the overpopulated seals eat all the fish out there, what's going to happen to them then?? There will be nothing left for them to eat unless they are fed by those who are now protesting - what a laugh !! There will, however be massive culling of the overpopulated seal herds and that would be truly sad and a million times bloodier ! We'll take pictures then of the descendants of today's protestor's posing in all the gore !! And they can start protesting all over again ! Isn't it wonderful ?
Some people are more interested in the protesting process just because they are upset by some TV visuals. I'm interested in getting THE FACTS and looking BEYOND some pretty seal eyes on a bloody ice pack.

Hal

HI, I’m a Newfoundlander and I know personally what the seal hunt bring to our province and how it helps the people living here. Everyone seems to have the solution to just stop seal hunt but then what for the families living here what about our traditions and our way of life for many hundreds of years most of you see the pretty white seals on the ice and then think of them getting killed. i would like anyone to come to our province and tell a sealer that he as no way to support his family and he must rely on the government for the necessities of life and even though we may be in little communities we still have bills and families to support think about that before you suggest that we are to stop living our lives the way our fore fathers did.

To all the people (as above) that are trying to say that the seals have depleted the fishing industry. Where do you get your information from. Do some study time on your computer and get educated. The international marine mammal association in Onatrio will tell you that the depletion of fish is from humans and not seals.Read for yourself:
1. Did harp seals cause the collapse of cod stocks?

No. At the time of the cod stock collapse off eastern Canada in 1992 it was popular to blame seals, European fishers and a variety of other factors. Although the occasional claim that seals were involved in the collapse is still heard, that view is not supported by any available scientific evidence. As early as 1994, two scientists then in the employ of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) concluded "that the collapse of northern cod can be attributed solely to overexploitation [by humans]¼."1 Most of the interest groups (including fishers, sealers, federal and provincial politicians, government scientists and independent scientists) now generally agree that seals did not cause the depletion and collapse of any East coast fish stocks. It has also been proven that the seals did not cause the depletion of fish.

The seal hunt is a blight on Canada's name. I remember being appalled as a little boy of eight in the 1960s, when seeing a famous Kent Gavin photo in the British press. I've no sympathy whatsoever with seal clubbers. Most decent people would rather starve than be so cruel.

To those who posted their comments supporting Newfoundlanders and our endeavors, thank you, because it appears that you have all the facts, and no bias. To those who simply say 'this is brutal, and it has to stop", you're just not looking at all the facts, and those that have been presented to you have simply been bias views, and pre-regulation material. I challenge you to seek out all the information on the seal hunt and then formulate your opinion.

After watching the interview on Larry King live, I was struck by the McCartneys lack of education in the subject (as well as their geography). Although their stance is not from a conservation issue, they stabbed Danny Williams by bringing the demise of the Cod fishery into the conversation, stating that if DFO could not predict such a disaster, neither would they with the seal population. From what I know on the subject, estimating seal populations is a whole lot easier than estimating fish populations. It's done by arieal photographs, where one can see the dark dots on the ice pans, and they basically count them...throw in some statistics, and bam! You got yourself a resonable estimate on the population. Fish, however, are harder to estimate since there are so many more variables to consider. So, really, from a conservation stand-point...there is no issue.

If theres no issue in conservation...what's left? Oh right, the brutal, inhumane killing of these animals. As Danny said, 90% of the animals are killed by a bullet (and as Priemer, he KNOWS his facts). So that's not a problem is it? We kill animals every day! Gosh, just as I wrote this millions and millions of cows just had their throats cut! That's not very humane but I still eat beef. Even the traditional gaffs are very effective at killing its prey at a single blow. But still, keep in mind 90% are still killed with a bullet.

So...its not so inhumane as one thinks. Lets think of it as how it affects us....

The inauguration of the seal fishering was during the industrial revolution in 1815. Before then, there was NO newfoundland society. It was soley based on the migratory fishery, where all the by's would come down from Europe, fish for the summer, then take off home in the winter. Why? Because there was nothing really for them to do here during the winter. With the introduction of the seal fishery, people found reason to stay on the island and become full-time residents. Thus, a society was spawned and Newfoundland is the way it is because of it. Not only did people depend on the seal fishery for economic reasons (and still do today), but society depended on it.

Now, in 2006, the seal fishery is a very economic resource that supplies thousands of dollars to households every year. If you've never been to Newfoundland, or you don't know much about the province, please learn a few things about it....because this income can be the sole supporter of hundreds of families who live here. Without it, unemployment rates would go up, Newfoundland taxes will rise (which, by the way, is the highest in the country already), substance abuse, emmigration rates and all the nastys will be bound to explode.

So, taking that into consideration, people who are against the seal hunt support these animal rights....but my argument is...what about HUMAN rights?

Think about that.

The biggest threat to these seals would be global warming. The seal fishery won't hurt them as much as an increase in temperatures would. With increasing temperatures, the ice pans in which these seals depend on for reproduction..won't be there. In another 25 years or less you may find that the seal population will be dwindling on endangerment. I think that's a serious issue that the McCartneys should rally for....instead of saving the seals...why not just save the world?!

You may feel passionately about these seals, but please take an additional step and inquire more about the issue. It's ok if you change your perspective...you may just learn to support the hunt, or at least, not have such a bad taste for it.

For those of you who care to know what the McCartneys and PETA stands for check out urls below.

http://media.putfile.com/petaBS

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2986

http://www.animalscam.com/references/peta_fbi1.cfm

Also check out the Documentery scheduled to air on
CBC Newsworld
April 4th
10:00 p.m. EST
The Lens
- Documentary films that inform, provoke and entertain while giving fresh insights into contemporary Canadian society.

I'm so often suppried how quick people are to judge, when they know so little of the subject.

PS: Do you lot believed everything you see on CNN?

- as well... do any of you own something made from leather?

The anti-PETA people have been around for as long as PETA, and their anti-PETA arguments rarely address the real animals rights issues, it's almost always about the crazier things that PETA does (and they do a lot of them).

What you have to understand is that the bottom line is about animal death and suffering, and that in the world of the modern media, you get almost no airtime if you don't do big stunts, especially if your message is to tell people that they might be doing something wrong/might be complicit in something wrong.

so yeah, PETA does crazy crap, but have you read what they are about? Just read their FAQ:

http://www.peta.org/about/faq.asp

Larry King, Larry King Live, c/o CNN
Honourable Danny Williams
Sir Paul and Heather Mills McCartney

Re: Interview With Paul McCartney, Heather Mills McCartney Aired March 3, 2006 - 21:00 ET

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/03/lkl.01.html

Dear Sirs and Lady McCartney;
While CNN and you, Larry, tried to display a balanced perspective on the Newfoundland Seal Hunt, there were significant elements of “not letting the truth get in the way of a good story”. It is obvious that even the website mentioned by the McCartney’s www.protectseals.org is a false revenue generation front for the US Humane Society automatically forwarding to the URL http://www.hsus.org/

This latest onslaught against the seal hunt is little more than a socio-economic terrorism campaign against the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Who are the Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans you may ask? We are the Inuit and Innu who migrated east out of Africa eventually setting on the northeast extremities of North America; with the final leg of the journey avoiding the warring of the central pre Columbian tribes to a place where they could be free. We are the Scots, Irish, Welsh, French, Basque, English, etc... Migrating west out of Africa were; the highland Scots escaping the great clearances. The Irish escaping poverty, rebellion, the English crown and famine. The French and Basque escaping wars and rebellions, and Acadians hiding from the English clearances of Acadia. The West Country fisher folk who were left behind on our rock shores to fend for ourselves through cruel winters after the fishing admirals’ holds were too full of fish to ship those poor people back whence they came. Much of the inhumanity foisted on Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans was either directly or indirectly at the hands of pompous English Lords.

But on our rocky shores they were unfettered and free; the deer in the woods were not the king’s deer, the trees not the king’s trees, the fish and seals in the ocean not the king’s fish. What we had was ours to subsist upon and grow. In the post ice age trans-Siberian migrations, the millennia since Norse settlement and half millennia since English and Portuguese rediscovery we have become a unique society with our own culture, music, customs and folk lore. Two of the most recognized and best loved dog breeds in the world, the Newfoundland Dog and the Labrador retriever hail from our shores. We have thrived here by subsisting off nature’s bounty as men and women of steel in frail wooden boats.

Every season had its purpose in our symbiotic relationship with this New Founde Lande. One of those seasonal bounties were the seal herds following the ice flows in the harsh winters when the root cellars were nearly empty of the previous years crop and the fish and caribou were out of reach in the thick sea ice and deep woods snows. Seal meat rich in omega 3 fatty acids sustained families through the lean winters, Seal oil lit lamps against winters darkness, seal skins became parkas and boots against winters cold fingers. It was then and still is subsistence hunting. Seal meat today in addition to being a pure, growth hormone and antibiotic free beneficial food source, is as much a delicacy in Newfoundland and Labrador as Veal and Fois Gras is in Europe. Yet the seals live wild and free and that some of their number fall to the hunter’s bullet on a hazardous winter ice floe has none of the inherent inhumanity associated with the production of Foie Gras, veal or any other intensive factory farming technique. By comparison Sealing is a small scale near cottage level enterprise in which the sealers get a significantly larger percentage of the profit and healthy meat from the endeavour than workers with the Agri-food Multinationals responsible for the mass production of hormone and antibiotic laden Chicken, Beef , Pork etc…

Sir Paul tries to differentiate between Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans pursuing their traditional Seal Hunt and aboriginals who do it for subsistence. The Inuit seal hunter who leaves Makkovik or Cartwright in his boat to hunt seals is pursuing the same basic human right as the sealer who leaves Twillingate, Bonavista or St. Anthony; Feeding, housing and clothing ones family. To say there is any difference smacks of racial discrimination and elitism, claiming that one class of human being has different inalienable rights than another. If you were to completely map the genome melting pot of Newfoundland and Labrador society after the past millennia, the boundary between those whose ancestors exclusively migrated from the East out of Africa are as rare as those who exclusively migrated west from Africa.

These are the same small boat, inshore and near shore fish harvesters whose 500 year history of sustainable fish harvesting has been destroyed by the foreign offshore draggers and factory freezer trawlers. Primarily from the European Union, these wealthy and powerful multinational corporations have vacuumed the fish stocks before they came ashore to feed these rural families. Despite decades of outcry by our rural communities, no high profile bleeding hearts like the McCartney’s ever lead the banner march to stop the corporate pillage and return that world heritage resource of the Grand Banks to its former abundance.

I am an engineer in the Petrochemical Industry and my westward migrating ancestors have been on Newfoundland’s shores since the mid 1500s. Despite my ancestors of the recent two centuries being Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors, Nurses, School teachers, Merchants and Artists, we all farmed, fished, hunted and ate what we hunted and fished. I have had a personal use sealing licence, for mature adult seals only, whenever I lived in Newfoundland and ate what I hunted. I am very conscious of what I eat and stick to organic, naturally raised or sustainable/wild caught animal and fish products.

Likewise I am conscious of the clothing and products I buy, gravitating towards cotton, hemp, silk, flannel, leather, fur, etc. all biodegradable. In fact when my seal skin boots of 18 years service were finally beyond repair, the boots and felt liners were put into my compost heap to eventually be recycled into fresh vegetables. I wonder what could be said of Lady McCarthy’s much touted synthetic boots, manufactured from non-renewable petrochemical resources in plants that use many carcinogenic compounds and are often cited for fugitive emissions polluting the air, soil and water. Such synthetic clothing items are exceedingly difficult to and rarely recycled usually ending up in the morass of land fills or burned to release their constituent toxins into the air, soil and water.

Rather than focus on the plethora of inaccuracies in most of Sir Paul’s and Lady Heather’s arguments, I would prefer to direct you to the governmental web site for Fisheries and Oceans responsible for the Seal hunt.

http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/seal-phoque/myth_e.htm

I think Lady Heather and Sir Paul would find it difficult to accuse the same Government of Canada of lying about a small rural cottage industry as the seal hunt, while being such a stalwart supporter of Lady Heather’s ban on land mines and its 40 year history of international peace keeping activities.

Sir Paul your desire to completely stop the Seal hunt is not a one issue campaign, but a case of tunnel vision brought on by the propaganda of those who reap enormous financial benefit from using you and Lady Heather as the poster children for their cause alongside a newborn Whitecoat Pup. Speaking of which, I think is it time that Premier Williams launches a lawsuit against using the Whitecoat pup image associated with campaigns to ban the seal hunt as fraudulent misrepresentation, since the federally regulated hunt does not permit hunting and killing of these seals in the Whitecoat stage.

Furthermore, Premier Williams should request Congress and the FBI to do a forensic audit of the Humane Society of the US and any other agency that uses the seal hunt as a revenue generation mechanism to show what proportion of the seal hunt revenues go towards the seal hunt campaign, and what portion are diverted into general revenue, as none of these monies are ever directed towards the rural communities whose fabric has been ripped apart by the fishery collapse. If found guilty of such misappropriation of cause specific funds, then these agencies should be stripped of their taxable donation status.

Sir Paul, if you are looking for a just cause in your golden years, then put your weight and wealth behind stopping the EU based over fishing on the Grand Banks. Help restore a sustainable Cod Fishery of 500 years to its former abundance and the outport Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans reliance on the Seal hunt will taper off accordingly. Plus the seals won’t have to scour for food on the Trans Canada Highway far from the sea.

Desmond McGrath
A Newfoundland Patriot
Living in Political and Socio-Economic Exile in the Bayous of Louisiana

I CANNOT BELIEVE US CANADIANS! This has to stop!

Stop Cultural Prejudice! Sealing is our way of life. Read the book Sacred Hunt by David F. Pelly. It explains the relationship that Inuit have with seals.

McCartney's, Greenpeace and all you bias people out there are not welcomed in our lands!

Know what you are talking about and find out the affects it has on people, way of life and way of living before you start ranting about something you know nothing about.

You may not be against Indigenous hunting but just like Greenpeace's campaing in the 70's, it will hurt Inuit again.

We still eat seals, use them for clothing, use all parts of the animal. We sell it and market it. We don't have an economy like people in Southern Canada.

Our grocery store prices are 5 times more expensive than it is in Southern Canada. We need to make a living some way. Go to Nunavut and see what it's like.

Get to know the truth!

Here's a link to help silence Lady Heather McCartney. I think most would enjoy this.
www.ninetywhiteway.ca/shutherup

I support anyone who is willing to go out on a limb to protect wildlife. I hope you bastards don't procreat. It's a fightening thought that there might be more of you in the gene pool. The world is not going to exist for much longer because of the likes of you.

Hi!

First, please allow me to congratulate you for the significant
impact that your blog makes in supporting animal welfare. Your work
truly makes a difference, and is such an inspiration to others.

I am writing to ask if you would consider adding this website link,
www.StopTheSealHunt.com, to your blog.

www.StopTheSealHunt.com is specifically designed to increase awareness and
help fight the annual Canadian commercial seal hunt, which is, as you might
know, the largest mass slaughter of marine mammals in the world. And as you
also might know, unfortunately this year's total allowable catch has been
raised to 325,000 seal pups shot or clubbed for their pelts (and some
skinned while still alive), starting at the very young age of only two
weeks.

You'll see that StopTheSealHunt.com explains several easy ways to
help stop this annual baby seal hunt, including signing petitions to Prime
Ministers and Senators, and simply emailing our friends to help spread the
word.

Thank you very much in advance for spreading the word (it WILL make a difference), and for sharing this info!

Cheers,
Nicole

nmiller@r-effects.com

Pleaase pass onto Paul and his wife, that they should keep their noses out of the seal hunt on the east coast....Stay home in their life of luxary....
They have no ideal what so ever it is all about....they are being used because they think their celeb status and money will work.....Well it doesn't work here .....Stay away....
Such phoneys they are....
Seal pups have not been killed here in over 20 yrs.....
What a farse you people are...
People like you make me sick....your no better than anyone else on the face of this earth...in fact I would say that I would trust Newfies and East coasters well before ever trusting you people

Keep your pretty noses out....

I find it very sad and ironic how the newfoundland fisherman are justifying their killing of seals and even blaming seals! for what they themselves have done. Overfished the damn waters. They depleted the cod, not the seals. And please, give me a break, they and their families are starving? Listen, I come from a fishing community on the east end of long island. Way east, the very tip where regular modest living people live. When these local fisherman overfished our waters as has happened with the netters and the strriped bass and money in their eyes a while ago, they had to do something else to earn a living. Maybe something they didn't necessarily love to do since they were fisherman. But they did. Carpentry, cooking, back to school, whatever it took. Welcome to adulthood. They had to maybe practice, ahem, birth control and have less kids to feed. Not create another ignorant generation that can't sustain themselves for instance. And than like the newfoundlanders, murder seals. They had to take charge of their own lives. It is made to sound as if the "poor" fisherman will have to be on the dole and so they have no choice but to slaughter seals to survivie. Why not stop their pisssing and moaning and be real men. Men who aren't killers of creatures they are lucky enough to live side by side with. Put their stories of newfoundland to good use so tourists will want to go there. I wouldn't go near the place now. I am disgusted with the people there for lettign the government and the fisherman away with this babaric event. If anyone thinks the seal hunt protestors are going to go away, think again. Insults are not going to do it. The seal killers say it is their way of life. Way of life, shmife! Grow up and see it for what it is. Greed. Cruelty. Bet there's no shortage of alcohol buying in the pubs after the hunting. Have any alcohol related probelems? Or is that the seals fault too? Hmmmm? I know the drill. I live in a fishing community. They go straight from the boats to the pubs. Some of them forget to go home. I'm sure it's no different there. Work on a commercial fishing boat is very rough. And dangerous. And a very different thing. They are eating the fish. Not leaving dead carcasses and bashing in skulls. To sell the pelts no one should be wearing anyway. We have other materials to keep us warm and fashioable. Who the hell wears real fur anymore? That went out with the old grannies. We don't need the pelts. So we don't buy your story of woe is the poor fisherman in newfoundland. Nope. He's a greed monger. And the karma facing him and his lot will be tremendous. But we can't do anything else, they cry. We must hunt innocent seals.. Nice try. Tell it walking.... Nanci

I am not writing this to sway people to either side of this issue. I just want to provide food for thought.

The whole seal hunting issue is just a subset of a larger issue, or question that each and every person living in a developed country on this planet needs to ask themselves.

How do we justify the taking of a non-human life?

Most people are against the killing of any creature for the sake of fashion, using the reasoning “we do not need to wear furs or skins”. Many of these people believe in the sustainable killing of animals for food, after all we need to eat meat for survival but we do not need leather goods or furs, right? WRONG! In the developed countries of the world there are other sources of protein than meat. Most of us need a piece of flesh on our plates no more than we need a mink coat or leather boots. The truth is people who have the choice to go to the super market and by tofu do not need to contribute to the direct killing of any living creature. The same is true for people who do not by leather goods. This is a fact.

We value animals based on their aesthetic appearance and their level of intelligence. The more of ourselves that we see in the animal, the more we empathize with it.
Funny, we sustainable SLAUGHTER the cute and cuddly seals but we unsustainably HARVEST various species of slimy, scaly fish.
Ask yourselves this question; is the life of a seal worth more than the life of a cow, chicken, or fish? We say “oh the poor things suffer so much” Really? Does the barn raised cow or bull, that never sees the light of day, or chickens that are stuffed so tightly into cages that they loose their feathers simply from the friction of their neighbours suffer less?
The only reason people other than vegans fight the killing of any animal is because they are cute. Most people would not think twice about squishing an ant under foot. Tell me, where was Greenpeace and all the other tunnel versioned environmental radicals of the world when we (not the seal) fished the Atlantic cod into near extinction?

I do not support the seal hunt for the simple fact that the animals are skinned, and/or have their penises removed, and often the carcass is dumped over board. This is a sickening waste of resources. If every seal was processed into food I would be all for it.
The seal hunt is a tightly controlled hunt. Why? Because we value the seals simply for existing, and because we want to ensure that the hunt is sustainable. Seal hunters are not blood thirsty money hungry people.

When I was walking through the super market the other day my attention was drawn to a can of tuna. There was a big label on the can announcing that “this product is 100% dolphin friendly!” I wonder, if tuna fish ever becomes scarce will we start canning dolphin and putting labels on the can proclaiming “this product is 100% tuna friendly!”
Doubtful. I wonder what makes people think that the dolphin was in any greater danger or is less expendable than the tuna? I do not know if dolphins are an endangered species or even if tuna stocks are declining, but I doubt that most people that choose to by the dolphin friendly tuna know this either.

We are so removed from nature that we want to shield ourselves from anything that is not pretty. Death is not fun or pretty but it is a part of the nature of things. We are not above nature we are part of it and the sooner we understand this the sooner we will treat the planet as our habitat, not our possession.

Don’t get me wrong. I consider all of the facts and questions in my choice to remain omnivorous. We are naturally an omnivorous species. But perhaps vegetarianism or even veganism is the next step in our evolutionary development. Perhaps I will convert myself one day.

Anyway, that’s my two cents, take it or leave it.

Trevor Thistle