Yay! Do you, by chance, have stats on how the vote went and if any senator was callous enough to vote against ending the hunt?

This hunt really does not make ANY sense. And why Canada defends it at the expense of its national image is incomprehensible. Firstly, only about 6,000 fishermen participate in this seal hunt. And secondly, it’s only 5% of their yearly income. Let’s up the numbers a bit…let’s say each fisherman has a family of 5, so that would make it around 30,000 people benefit from this hunt…plus maybe a couple thousand more (so maybe 32,000 total) who process and market the seal skin.

Canada has a population of 33,000,000. So what I DO NOT UNDERSTAND is why tarnish the image of THE ENTIRE NATION for the sake of about 32,000 people who depend on the hunt for 5% of their yearly income?! Surely defending and protecting the hunt costs Canada some dough no? So why not just find SOME OTHER WAY for these fishermen and their families to make that 5% of their income other than killing seals? Surely Canada’s best and brightest in Parliament can come up with something…if they put their mind to it. Maybe they can have SEAL TOURISM. People like to see cute animals. Maybe they can organize some kind of tourism trips on boats when the baby seals are still on the ice? And that’s just one idea…surely there are less cruel ways for these fishermen to make extra money!

Actually, this is a tragedy. Not so much the actual decision, but the pandering of politicians to activists who do not have facts on their side, but rather are driven by manipulated emotions. For example, calling them babies when it’s illegal to kill whitecoats (newborn seals).

The seal hunt is performed with respect to a rational, scientific approach. (See, for instance, http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/002425.html) It is performed by sealers who very much have the interests of caring for the welfare and environment of the seals at heart, and understand the balance of needs. (See, for example, the discussion here: http://www.sealhunt.ca/Articles/Article_Ossie_Michelin_Justifies_SealHunt.html)

This is unlike the meat farming industry that has little interest in caring for a balanced population since they control the environment and numbers directly.

These seals have a healthy population, about 9.5 million and all conservation protocols are followed, ensuring that they are neither depleted nor allowed to overpopulated. The hunt is more transparently monitored and studied than any other hunting activity worldwide. It has repeatedly been evaluated as being humane by The Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing in Canada, and if you don’t believe them because they are “evil government”, then how about The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) whose job it is to protect animals.

If you don’t like them because they are still Canadians, and believe that somehow all Canadians collude to hide the truth and don’t care about animals, then how about the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sponsored study by the Independent Veternarians’ Working Group (IVWG). They emphasize that the hunt should be “judged with reference to accepted practices for euthanasia, and in
comparison with killing done in abattoirs”. (How do you feel about eating meat? What is more natural, hunting animals in their natural habitat or raising domesticated animals in cramped quarters and slaughtering them for food, often inhumanely? Are there any hypocrites in the crowd?)

The IVWG report also had the following comments:

“Perception of the seal hunt seems to be based largely on emotion, and on visual
images”

“While a hakapik strike on the skull of a seal appears brutal, it is humane
if it achieves rapid, irreversible loss of consciousness leading to death.”

“Campaigns and rhetoric that play to emotion at the expense of understanding and communication of factual information will neither increase the use of humane
methods nor reduce animal suffering.”

Certainly the hunt isn’t perfect and can be improved. As the above quote implies, the anti-sealing movement is not helping itself by calling for an end to it. That would cause much havoc in the ecological sense, since the existing balance of nature is based on existing hunt. It would also cause much havoc with native communities who rely on it for survival. You know, the people who are intricately intimate with nature, understand it, and respect it, rather than emotionally manipulated urban dwellers who think of seals as cute pets.

I highly recommend that you put on your thinking caps for a change and *learn* rather than screaming your own mislead biases while plugging your ears to objective efforts for humane conservation of animals.

If you want to protect the animals, please support responsible conservation and support the WWF and IVWG efforts to keep the hunt humane and improve upon it. You can read their report and recommendations at http://www.thesealfishery.com/files/IVWGReportAug2005.pdf

DL calls sealing : “objective efforts for humane conservation of animals”

I. Don’t. Agree.

But then I’m just another “emotionally manipulated urban dweller who thinks of seals as a cute pet”, so what does my ignorant opinion matter?

meh…facts and figures vs what is intuitively wrong, I’m not convinced, not even close…

DL, you need to just shut the hell up!!!!!!! Let someone smash YOU in the head and see how HUMANE you think it is, then! Jerk.

“To understand why Canada gives into the 6000 unethical sealers; you first have to realize that 95% of the sealers come from Newfoundland- they are some of the most backwards, petulant people you will ever come across.”

It’s one thing to present your point in a logical and concise manner. However, your comment was unnecessary, racist and bigoted. Way to spread the hate speech.

By the way, that “IVWG” report that some guy tried to trick people with up there, has been found to be invalidated. Turns out, it was sponsored by the DFO, that’s the organization that runs the seal hunt!

What they did, is put DFO associated observers onboard the vessels in full knowledge of the sealers! Who then watched & measured *if* the sealers violated anything. Well, you see the obvious problem. This is a flawed study. This is like doing a study to see if drivers are speeding on some road, but instead of having a hidden camera, they insert a cop into a driver’s passenger seat with a clip board and then observe if that driver speeds or not. Well, obviously if the driver has the cop right there with him, he’s not going to! This is what they did in that study! And lo & behold it shows there were low violations, duh.

Actually, what’s more surprising is that it wasn’t zero! The sealers were still caught committing seal hunt violations even with the Officers aboard their boats!

In any case, that user above is thrown out. You need to watch sealers and pro-sealers because remember, to someone capable of killing, lying is nothing.

Now, as to NFLD, let’s see some quick news from Newfoundland Canada, where 90% of Seal Clubbers Live:

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Four Newfoundland men have been convicted of killing seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence inviolation of Federal Law.”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“CORNER BROOK, N.L. NFLD Newfoundland – More than 10 fishermen from Newfoundland and Labrador have been convicted of selling illegal baby seal pelts”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“SEAL HUNT CRIMES: Newfoundland Seal Hunter Tony Harris convicted on illegal federal weapons charges”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“DFO crackdown targets Newfoundland seal & fish poachers. Officers charge 31 Newfoundland men in 18 days.”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Seal Hunters charged in Seal hunt violations”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Canadian woman terrified after brutal beating attack by Newfoundland man.”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Seal Killer Lloyd Hart captured by Federal Authorities”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Sealer convicted after failing to assure seal was not still alive before skinning it in violation of Federal Marine Mammal Regulations”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Boy has knife put to his throat, robbed in St John’s Newfoundland” -The Telegram

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Seal Fisher caught attempting to evade Federal authorities and failure to hail in. Nearly 1,000 seal carcasses were discovered on the man’s vessel.”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“A Bonavista Bay Newfoundland Canadian man has been caught with unauthorized weapons killing seals during the Canadian Seal Hunt”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland men, Hunters fined for big game mutilation violations”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Seal Hunters, Lobster and cod fishermen caught committing violations and convicted in Provincial Newfoundland court”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland man charged in kitten kicking incident”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Men convicted of beating up cab driver to be sentenced in August”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland men tied heavy car part around dog’s neck and threw it in Lake to drown. RCMP releases photos of vehicle strut used to drown dog.”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Woman convicted in sex slaying of 13 yr old Canadian teen, is a borderline psychopath, says court.”

NEWFOUNDLAND NEWS:
“Newfoundland Man charged with sexually assaulting 16-year-old girl over five-year period”

There are tons more, even sicker stuff. But that pretty much says it about Seal Clubbers.

There’s only about 500,000 people in the whole province of newfoundland, (like a state in the us) only about the size of a small city. And although sealers number only about 6,000 Sealers and the minority that support them end up soiling the entire province and casting shame on all the good people in Newfoundland too. In fact, this tiny faction of extremist killers manages to bring a stink onto the entire country.

But the people that are good in Canada and the good people in Newfoundland too are all against the seal hunt and against sealers.

But until the good people in Canada can convict all of them and stop the hunt, Seal hunters will continue to cast a stain like a scab on Newfoundland and all of Canada.