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Canada approves of killing baby seals

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That's exactly what's happeneing here. It's soooooooo sad. First they are clubbed and then skinned (wether that be alive or not) and then the carcasses are thrown into a pile along with the others. Sometimes you can see the chest moving as they continue to breath (not that I've seen this first hand). The flesh isn't used for food. Nothing else is used besides the fur!

I wish I had the means and the $$ to go up there and kick some ass! The things I would do to those bastards!



If that's the case, I don't support it and would condemn it strongly. I was really just stirring up crap earlier. It pisses me off to see animals suffer. Especially, when it can be prevented or minimized.

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Honestly, I was just kidding. However, I don't think beauty has anything to do with it. A duck-billed platypus has as much right to live as that cute white little baby seal or white spotted Bambi in the woods, which is to say they have an equal chance of me putting them on the dinner table. They're animals and I'm a carnivore. B|



Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder and I think these little creeatures are beautiful as are platypuses and any other animal on this earth. I respect the fact you're a carnivore, but again, this isn't about "meat on the table", this is about fur on someones back.

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this is about fur on someones back.



Some people in some places have got to have that too.



There are VERY FEW places that actually NEED this fur and those people that do generally hunt their own prey and make the jackets, boots, etc themselves (i.e. eskimos). Theirs is a survival issue, but the jackets, etc that are made out of these baby seals fur ARE NOT for necessity or survival, they are LUXURY items. (like the ones J.LO is selling). Stupid J. Lo ....

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Please get your facts straight. The seals in question are decimating the fisheries industry on the NE coast of this continent. Many of the people involved in the hunt are fisherman who are struggling to put food on their tables. You would rather save a seal than feed a child.

The proaganda you are spewing (skinning seals alive) is a myth. The videos you mention are 20-30 years old. Things have changed. Even Greenpeace has stated they are using outdated footage to stir up more dollars from people like you. It is estimated there are more seals today than before Europeans arrived in North America.

Lastly the word Eskimo is a derogatory term. Please use Inuit when refering these people.

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Please get your facts straight. The seals in question are decimating the fisheries industry on the NE coast of this continent. Many of the people involved in the hunt are fisherman who are struggling to put food on their tables. You would rather save a seal than feed a child.

The proaganda you are spewing (skinning seals alive) is a myth. The videos you mention are 20-30 years old. Things have changed. Even Greenpeace has stated they are using outdated footage to stir up more dollars from people like you. It is estimated there are more seals today than before Europeans arrived in North America.

Lastly the word Eskimo is a derogatory term. Please use Inuit when refering these people.



First off, sorry about the "eskimo" thing. I had no idea it was derogtory. Why is it derogatory by the way?

I think what you're saying is true when it comes to the fact that these seals are hurting the fishing industry in the NE; they're trying to survive as well, just like the fishmen who are killing them. And I never said I would rather save a seal rather than feed a child...you seem to make assumptions and put words into other people's mouths.

But I see your point.

Although, regarding the "humanity" (you see) by which these fishermen are killing the seals isn't really all that humane. They DO skin them (some) alive and the hunt is not as humane as you want to believe. Greenpeace has not seen a dime from me...they can use my voice if they want me to make a change.
I undersasnd your point, but to make lite of this situation like it is the seal's fault for being there and being killed the way they are, is derogatory to their species.

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THE FACTS:

Facts about the Canadian Seal Hunt
©2005 HSUS/Kathy Milani
What Seals Are Targeted by Canada's Seal Hunt?

Harp seals are the primary target of the commercial seal hunt. Fully 95% of the seals killed over the past five years have been harp seal pups between 12 days and 12 weeks of age. To a much lesser degree, hooded seals over one year of age are also killed.

Where Are the Seals Killed?

Canada's commercial seal hunt occurs on the ice floes off Canada's East Coast in two areas: the Gulf of St. Lawrence (west of Newfoundland and east of the Magdalen Islands) and the "Front" (northeast of Newfoundland).


Who Kills Seals and Why?

Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by fishermen from Canada's East Coast. They make, on average, a small fraction of their annual incomes from sealing—and the rest from commercial fisheries. Even in Newfoundland, where 90% of sealers live, there are only 4,000 fishermen who actively participate in the seal hunt each year.

How Are the Seals Killed?

The Canadian Marine Mammal Regulations, which govern the hunt, stipulate sealers may kill seals with wooden clubs, hakapiks (large ice-pick-like clubs) and guns. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clubs and hakapiks are the killing implement of choice, and in the Front, guns are more widely used.

It is important to note that each killing method is demonstrably cruel. Because sealers shoot at seals from moving boats, the pups are often only wounded. The main sealskin processing plant in Canada deducts $2 from the price they pay for the skins for each bullet hole they find—therefore sealers are loath to shoot seals more than once. As a result, wounded seals are left to suffer in agony—many slip beneath the surface of the water where they die slowly and are never recovered.

Is the Seal Hunt Cruel?
Yes. In 2001, a report by an independent team of veterinarians who studied the hunt concluded that governmental regulations regarding humane killing were neither being respected nor enforced, and that the seal hunt failed to comply with Canada's basic animal welfare regulations. Shockingly, the veterinarians found that in 42% of the cases they studied, the seals had likely been skinned alive while conscious.

Parliamentarians, journalists, and scientists who observe Canada's commercial seal hunt each year continue to report unacceptable levels of cruelty, including sealers dragging conscious seals across the ice floes with boat hooks, shooting seals and leaving them to suffer in agony, stockpiling dead and dying animals, and even skinning seals alive. Click here to see recent video footage of Canada's commercial seal hunt.

How Many Seals Are Killed Each Year?
Hundreds of thousands. Over the past three years, more than a million seals have been killed. In 2004, 365,971 seals were killed—the largest number of seals killed in Canada in more than half a century. The last time this many seals were killed—in the 1950s and 1960s—close to two thirds of the harp seal population was wiped out.

And the actual number of seals killed is probably far higher than the number reported. Many seals are shot at and injured in the course of the hunt, and studies suggest that a significant number of these animals slip beneath the surface of the water, where they die slowly and are never recovered.

Are There Any Penalties When Hunters Exceed the Government's Quota?
No. In 2002, the Canadian government knowingly allowed sealers to exceed the quota by more than 37,000 animals. Sealers had already killed substantially more than the quota allowed by May 15 (the regulated closing date of the seal hunt) and yet the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans chose to extend the sealing season until June. In 2004, sealers killed close to 16,000 seals more than the permitted quota. Again, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans extended the sealing season until well into June.

What Products Are Made from Seals?

Seals are killed primarily for their fur, which is used to produce fashion garments and other items. There is a small market for seal oil (both for industrial purposes and for human consumption), and seal penises have been sold in Asian markets as an aphrodisiac. There is almost no market for the meat, so seal carcasses are normally left to rot on the ice.

Is the Seal Hunt Economically Important?

No. Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by fishermen from Canada's East Coast. They make, on average, one twentieth of their incomes from seal hunting and the rest from commercial fisheries. Even in Newfoundland, where 90% of sealers live, revenues from the hunt account for less than 1% of the province's economy and only 2% of the landed value of the fishery. According to the Newfoundland government, out of a population of half a million people, only 4,000 fishermen participate in the seal hunt each year.

The commercial seal hunt is an activity that Canada's federal government could easily replace with economic alternatives should it choose to do so.

Does the Government Subsidize the Hunt?

Yes. According to reports from the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment, more than $20 million in subsidies were provided to the sealing industry between 1995 and 2001. Those subsidies came from entities such as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Human Resources Development Council, and Canada Economic Development–Quebec. These subsidies take a variety of forms, including funding the salaries for seal processing plant workers, market research and development trips, and capital acquisitions for processing plants.

Moreover, Canada's commercial seal hunt is also indirectly subsidized by the Norwegian government. A Norwegian company purchases close to 80% of the sealskins produced in Canada in any given year through its Canadian subsidiary. These skins are shipped in an unprocessed state directly to Norway, where they are tanned and re-exported. The Norwegian government provides significant financial assistance to this company each year.

Is It True Seals Are Jeopardizing the Canadian Cod Fishery?

There is no evidence to support this contention. Some fishing industry lobby groups try to claim that seals must be culled to protect fish stocks, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The scientific community agrees that the true cause of the depletion of fish stocks off Canada's East Coast is human over-fishing. Blaming seals for disappearing fish is a convenient way for the fishing industry to divert attention from its irresponsible and environmentally destructive practices that continue today.

In truth, seals, like all marine mammals, are a vital part of the ecosystem of the Northwest Atlantic. Harp seals, which are the primary target of the hunt, are opportunistic feeders, meaning they consume small amounts of many different species. So while approximately 3% of a harp seal's diet may be commercially fished cod, harp seals also eat many significant predators of cod, such as squid. That is why some scientists are concerned that culling harp seals could further inhibit recovery of commercially valuable fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic.

Are Seals Overpopulated?

No. The Canadian government and sealing industry have, at various times, tried to claim that the harp seal population has "tripled" over the past three decades, or that the harp seal population is "exploding," or that seals are overpopulated.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The harp seal population in the Northwest Atlantic is the world's largest—it is supposed to number in the many millions. This is a migratory population that spans the distance between Canada and Greenland.

In the 1950s and 1960s, over-hunting wiped out close to two-thirds of the harp seal population. By 1974, the population was considered to be in serious trouble, and senior government scientists recommended the commercial hunt be suspended for at least ten years.

In the early 1980s, the European Union banned the import of whitecoat seal skins, effectively removing the principal market for the hunt at the time. For the next decade, the numbers of seals killed in the hunt dramatically declined, and the harp seal population began to recover.

However, according to the last survey conducted by the Canadian government in 1999, the harp seal population stopped recovering in 1996 (when the commercial seal hunt was reintroduced) and began to decline. With more than a million seal pups killed over the past three years alone, we can only wonder what the impact will be on the harp seal population over the coming years.


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The proaganda you are spewing (skinning seals alive) is a myth. The videos you mention are 20-30 years old. Things have changed. Even Greenpeace has stated they are using outdated footage to stir up more dollars from people like you. .




http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/hsus/video_features/seal-hunt-story.smi

OR

http://www.hsus.org/video_clips/page.jsp?itemID=27260759


Watch this and now tell me if this is something you feel is humane.....note: one shot is of a hunter dragging a seal still wiggling and alive. Humane? You tell me.....

Makes me sick.

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Facts about the Canadian Seal Hunt
©2005 HSUS/Kathy Milani



What makes this person an authority?

_Am



Read about who this person is and what she/they do.....
I never said this was someone of authority, but they have been there, seen it and done their research. What more can you ask?

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I chose to fight for the rights of animals because they do not have the words to do it themsleves.



I would be interested to hear your opinion on my post #81, above, whereby the overpopulation of deer is wiping out other species.

Would you fight against the deer hunt in that situation?

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I chose to fight for the rights of animals because they do not have the words to do it themsleves.



I would be interested to hear your opinion on my post #81, above, whereby the overpopulation of deer is wiping out other species.

Would you fight against the deer hunt in that situation?



I would honestly need to know ALL the facts before I responded.

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I'm just curious if this person actually bothered to go to see the hunt. Most of the images on the HSUS's website are taken directly from Corbis, a stock photo clearinghouse.

It seems like most of the "reports" I've seen have enough factual issues they seem more like fiction. I'd like to read one I can trust. So far, this comes closest.

_Am
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

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I would be interested to hear your opinion on my post #81, above, whereby the overpopulation of deer is wiping out other species.

Would you fight against the deer hunt in that situation?



I would honestly need to know ALL the facts before I responded.



That's a cop-out. The news article gave you enough facts to make a judgement call.

It's ironic how you read biased articles against the seal hunt and presume to know enough about the facts to condemn it. And yet here you are at the same time with similar facts regarding a conflict with deer, and suddenly you don't have "all" the facts.

Furthermore, your reply came literally within 60 seconds of my challenge being posted. The truth is, you probably didn't even take the time to scroll backwards and see the message to which I was referring. Yet you chose to reply as if you had done so.

How cute, on both counts. Your intellectual credibility is suffering.

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I wish I had the means and the $$ to go up there and kick some ass! The things I would do to those bastards!



What would you do to the seal hunters? Club them to death, then skin them, and throw their bodies in a pile?



I have a vivid imagination.....you've commented about killing babies/unborns before, that's a sensitive issue for you, what would you want to do to the poeple who commited those acts?

As for the seal hunters......yeah probably. Deal with them in the same manner thay have dealt with seals. Maybe tie their hands behind their backs, take away their means of defense and see how they defend themselves then. All they'd be able to do is raise their heads to look up just like the seals they kill. I'd like to let them feel the anguish they inflict on these beautiful and defenseless creatures.

Don't get me started.....

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>Maybe tie their hands behind their backs, take away their means of
> defense and see how they defend themselves then. All they'd be able
>to do is raise their heads to look up just like the seals they kill.

Then someone could do the same to you, so you know how those poor defenseless hunters feel. And perhaps someone could do that to the seals, so the seals know how the fish they torture and kill feel. (Ever see a seal play with a half-dead fish?) Of course no one would do that to a fish, since they don't have any hands. That would be a silly idea. Fish with hands.

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What would you do to the seal hunters? Club them to death, then skin them, and throw their bodies in a pile?



As for the seal hunters......yeah probably. Deal with them in the same manner thay have dealt with seals. Maybe tie their hands behind their backs, take away their means of defense and see how they defend themselves then. All they'd be able to do is raise their heads to look up just like the seals they kill. I'd like to let them feel the anguish they inflict on these beautiful and defenseless creatures.



Ahhh, well it's nice to know that you have a heart of gold for seals, and the heart of a torturer and mass murderer for the people with whom you disagree.

Thanks for revealing your true nature. It's not a pretty picture...

It's always amusing to see how people who profess to care so much for some helpless creature, would be so willing to commit the same atrocities against human beings. What hypocrisy!

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I would be interested to hear your opinion on my post #81, above, whereby the overpopulation of deer is wiping out other species.

Would you fight against the deer hunt in that situation?



I would honestly need to know ALL the facts before I responded.



That's a cop-out. The news article gave you enough facts to make a judgement call.

It's ironic how you read biased articles against the seal hunt and presume to know enough about the facts to condemn the seal hunt. And yet here you are at the same time with similar facts regarding a conflict with deer, and suddenly you don't have "all" the facts.

How cute.



You are one arnery guy....relax a minute before you condemn someone for something. Jesus!

I haven't had time to read your article. And it's funny how say "THE" news article..like I'm supposed to read one news article and take that for the ONLY facts in the manner. Thought you were condeming me for reading a lot of different articles and making a judgment call; and now you think that I can read ONE article which you posted and make a judgment call? Think before you post!!!!

I 've read both sides of the fence regarding the seal hunt and still don't feel it's right. Do you think that just because I've read both sides of the coin regarding the seal hunt that I MUST side on the side of government? People take sides, that is what we do in life. We make our decisions based on our own thoughts, ideas, beliefs, research and feelings and I have done my homework on the seal issue. YOUR issue, I have not.

And as a side note to you....try not to be so negative all the time, it doesn't help your case. I would rather listen to someone venting their opinions than somene calling me cute as a degrade.

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>Maybe tie their hands behind their backs, take away their means of
> defense and see how they defend themselves then. All they'd be able
>to do is raise their heads to look up just like the seals they kill.

Then someone could do the same to you, so you know how those poor defenseless hunters feel. And perhaps someone could do that to the seals, so the seals know how the fish they torture and kill feel. (Ever see a seal play with a half-dead fish?) Of course no one would do that to a fish, since they don't have any hands. That would be a silly idea. Fish with hands.



Right, if I were to ACTUALLY commit that horrible act, then yes, I would expect if someone did it to me that it would be right. But I'm not tha kind of human being. I act towards others the way I want to be treated..so in reality I would never actually to that to them. I wouldn't want to stoop to that level.

You can't tell me that if someone hurt someone or something you love or respect or care about that you wouldn't imagine making them feel the pain they caused so that they understand what they did?.....that's all I was saying.

The seals play with fish for food purposes, I can't condemn nature and the food chain. ...and yes, that would be silly, a fish with hands :)

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I'm just curious if this person actually bothered to go to see the hunt. Most of the images on the HSUS's website are taken directly from Corbis, a stock photo clearinghouse.

It seems like most of the "reports" I've seen have enough factual issues they seem more like fiction. I'd like to read one I can trust. So far, this comes closest.

_Am



Yes, she was there. If you were to read on and go to some other pages, she actually tells about her personal occurances with the hunt. She has a team of 3 plus a helicopter pilot.


Check out the video they took...it doesn't lie.

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I would be interested to hear your opinion on my post #81, above, whereby the overpopulation of deer is wiping out other species.



There's an equilibrium in nature. It would be interesting to see that maybe we, humans, altered this balance by killing off the natural predators of the white tail deer. In most cases when natures out of whack humans have played a roll.

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