Now it's your turn to bash some sense into the heads of the Canadian government and the EU Governments who may ban the import of seal products.
Find out more on the Humane Society website, where you can also see some seal pictures by noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker.
Or read more about it right here:
International organizations all agree that this large scale commercial seal slaughter is unsustainable, does not economically benefit Canada (it provides a miniscule return and is partly government subsidized), perpetuates the unnecessary use of fur in fashion, is cruel and is not engaged in by aboriginal groups.
This link to the Humane Society has a list of the things you can do to help save seals https://community.hsus.org/hsi/hsi_protectseals_actions.html. This includes contacting the Canadian government, supporting a boycott on Canadian seafood, and supporting the EU's proposed ban on seal product trade.
Or read more about it right here:
International organizations all agree that this large scale commercial seal slaughter is unsustainable, does not economically benefit Canada (it provides a miniscule return and is partly government subsidized), perpetuates the unnecessary use of fur in fashion, is cruel and is not engaged in by aboriginal groups.
This link to the Humane Society has a list of the things you can do to help save seals https://community.hsus.org/hsi/hsi_protectseals_actions.html. This includes contacting the Canadian government, supporting a boycott on Canadian seafood, and supporting the EU's proposed ban on seal product trade.
This link is a quick one which makes it easy to send an email to the PM. https://community.hsus.org/campaign/global_harper_protectseals08.
This is a link to the International Fund for Animal Welfare where you can support a senate bill to end seal killing. http://www.stopthesealhunt.ca
6 comments:
As someone from Newfoundland, Canada, I had just spent the last hour writing up a long, detailed retort to this, full of statistics, and then realized, no. It really doesn't matter.
Because unless you're a vegan, you're a hypocrite.
"Awww, seals are SO cute!"
That's your argument, in a nutshell. Do you eat meat? Cows are killed with a sledgehammer. Good thing they're ugly...
Right?
I don't blame you for it. Most of the information out there regarding the seal hunt is not only incredibly biased, but completely fictional.
I'm assuming that since you posted this, you care about the issue, so logically, you would want to know the truth about the matter. So please, watch these videos. It's a debate from Larry King between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills and Newfoundland and Labrador Premiere Danny Williams.
Part one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b24rGJpjMoY
Part two - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft1wSUxZf5M
Part three - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmL-oSm5G3c
Part four - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrtdcz6ugU&feature=PlayList&p=E7C737EACC2083C3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
Watch them.
You took the time to publicly condemn something you don't understand, you posted inaccuracies and called them facts, so please, please, watch that debate. It's the least you could do.
I'm choosing to post this anonymously because I don't want to receive e-mails from others who are willfully ignorant of the seal hunt (not saying you are willfully ignorant, but god knows that many are). If you want to continue this conversation privately, reply, and I'll send you my e-mail address.
However, if you watch those videos with an open mind, I don't think you'll need to.
I am actually a vegetarian, so I guess that allows me respond without being a hypocrite. I had watched Larry King show back when it originally aired as well as again just now. I see why you pointed to this video. On one side, you've got a veteran politician who is practiced at debate. On the other side, you've got a couple of celebrities who probably couldn't argue their way out of a box. As a debater, Paul McCartney is a great musician.
I don't know everything about the sealhunt, but I know enough to think it's ridiculous. The main reason for continuing the seal hunt seems to be that the seals can eat the fish the fishermen fish. Of course, if the Canadian government (as well as other governments) hadn't allowed the fish to be overfished, this wouldn't be a problem, would it.
Besides, if the idea is to keep the number of seals down, there are better ways to do it than to go around and kill the babies. It's hard to appear righteous when you're slaughtering innocents.
One thing I have learned, though, is that arguing about the sealhunt with someone from Newfoundland is like arguing about the oilsands with someone from Alberta. It's pointless. When your livelihood is so closely linked (either directly or indirectly) to something, it's almost impossible to look at it with anything but biased eyes. People in the oil industry were the last to admit to global warming. People in the logging industry were the last to admit that overlogging was destroying the Amazon.
Well, I'm not in the sealing business, for what it's worth. I'm in the writing TV shows business. But being from Newfoundland, I know more actual facts than most people.
If you're against the slaughter of all animals, then I've got no qualms with you. Yeah, thousands of seals are killed every year. It's no better than the millions of cows, or the billions of chickens killed each year, but it's certainly no worse.
Most people's problems with the seal hunt stems from the fact that it looks brutal. And it does. Because blood is red and snow is white. If you drape the inside of a slaughterhouse with white sheets, it would look just as bad.
So again, if the blogger had also posted in defense of cows, I'd have no issue. I take issue with people who think that the seal hunt is somehow worse than every other animal industry. It isn't.
Some quick facts:
- The World Wildlife Foundation supports the Canadian seal hunt, and have made clear that it passes all regulations and is no way "inhumane". They've said repeatedly that the Canadian seal hunt is the most humane seal hunt in the world. It is closely regulated.
They have also defended it against the Humane Society, stating that the facts that the Humane Society have released about it are completely false.
- Various members of the Humane Society who have defended the seal hunt have been fired.
- The number of seals killed each year in Canada is a mere 3% of the total seal population in Canada.
- Over 90% of the seals killed are killed by firearms, not clubs.
- The seals in Canada are so overpopulated that many of them are dying from starvation.
- The cod stock diminished because of overfishing by foreigners, something which the Canadian government tried to prevent, but had no control over.
And Tim, the main reason for continuing the seal hunt is irrelevant, because there is no sensible reason for discontinuing it (however, if you want a list of reasons of the benefits that come from seal hunting, I would be happy to provide you with one).
For the record, no I don't eat meat or fish, I don't wear leather, and I don't support the killing of any animals. When we get ants in the house, we scoop them up and put them outside.
Still, even if I ate beef, I would still want the seal hunt to stop because seals are killed for their pelts - not their meat. The killing of seals is a human vanity.
But the only real argument against seal hunting is that it is brutal. Maybe no more brutal than the slaughter of cows, but that doesn't make it okay.
"Still, even if I ate beef, I would still want the seal hunt to stop because seals are killed for their pelts - not their meat. The killing of seals is a human vanity."
A common belief, yet one that is completely false nonetheless. Various cultures eat seal meat. Seal blubber is a major source of omega 3 oils that are used in many important pills and vitamins.
"But the only real argument against seal hunting is that it is brutal."
According to who? Again, the World Wildlife Foundation disagrees with you. Unless you consider the killing of all animals brutal...
"Maybe no more brutal than the slaughter of cows, but that doesn’t make it okay."
... Which you do. You admit that killing seals is no worse than killing other animals. Okay then. If your argument is that killing all animals is wrong, then that's a valid argument. I respect that argument.
But that's not your argument. You singled out seals. Why?
While several cultures do eat seal meat, the Canadian seal hunt is about pelts. They have trouble selling the meat, and it is the pelt prices that dictate the success or failure of the hunt.
I singled out seals today because it's that time of year. In fact, I spend a lot more time advocating a vegetarian lifestyle than I ever do talking about seals.
Here's an interesting and reasonably balanced article on the seal hunt for those who want to make up their own minds.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/sealhunt/
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