Canada set for mass seal hunting

BBC News via Drudge ^ | 4/12/04 | Staff Writer?

[NotQuiteCricket]

The largest single seal hunt in half a century begins in Canada on Monday. The government is allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed this year, many of them in a 36-hour mass cull.

The hunting of young seals for their fur almost stopped off Canada's east coast 25 years ago in the face of international outrage.

Animal rights groups are hoping to sway international opinion against the hunt, but Canadian officials say it is now both humane and necessary.

The seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador withered 25 years ago as brutal images of men clubbing infant seals horrified the world.

The US banned imports of seal products in 1972 and the EU followed suit a decade later with a ban on white pelt imports, taken from the youngest babies.

As a result, the Canadian government reduced quotas for seal hunting to as low as 15,000 annually - mainly for meat and local handicraft.

But with fur again in fashion the hunt is back.

Last year Canada increased the quotas again, allowing a million seals to be killed over the next three years.

It is now being conducted under tighter regulations and most seals are now shot, not clubbed, but the number of animals expected to be taken this year will be the highest in decades and once again it is drawing international attention.

[NotQuiteCricket]

Joke:

a baby seal walked into a club.

[Skooz]

Related:

Outrage at new mass slaughter of baby seals

[Hodar]

With Fake fur being cheaper to process, softer, more durable, more variable (hue, texture, density) why would one NEED to kill seals in this day and age.

The market isn't there, in fact it's pretty much dried up. The need isn't there, as we now have artifical products superior in every way. The prestige isn't there, in fact it actually creates a negative impression. So why?

Unless, it's for a sadistic pleasure ...

[RightWingAtheist]

a baby seal walked into a club. ...And went to up to prettiest woman in the bar, and asked "What would you say to a little phoque?"

(Sorry...)

[trad_anglican]

This sounds like a Southpark script waiting to happen.

[lone star annie]

Before it became uncool to wear fur, I bought a beautiful mink coat with a fox collar. Little did I realize, that that little fox is a doggie just like my sweet American Eskimo. My Eskie is soft and furry with a plumed tail.

No way would I wear that jacket now. The demand for fur is gone like you say and it is downright cruel to kill these baby seals. Shame on Canada.

[LN2Campy]

Baby seal walked into a bar

"Whaddya drinkin?"

"Anything but 'Canadian Club'"

[NotQuiteCricket]

waffles

[NotQuiteCricket]

If fake fur is so easy to make, and nice to look at, why do they use dog fur?

[laotzu]

"Unless, it's for a sadistic pleasure"

Must everyone who doesn't agree with us be painted as monsters?

Republicans don't really want to starve children.

Southernors don't really want to lynch blacks.

Men don't really want to oppress women.

And...Canadians don't really want to kill baby seals just for sadistic pleasure.

We listen to this sort of vile lieing everyday from liberals. Must we also hear it from you, at FreeRepublic? Shame on you.

[blackdog]

My grandmother gave me seal skin/fur slippers in 1970. They were hand sewn from Iceland. She purchased them on a cruise while in port.

Those slippers wear like armor. They've lasted 33 years. They're not from baby seals, but from adult pelts.

[hchutch]

Or a (possibly) tasteless joke from a Tom Clancy novel...

"It was now time to kill some baby seals..."
Debt of Honor

[Mr. Bird]

I wonder how much of the outrage I can muster at this is conditioned from my childhood (in the '70s). There was an animated film about a baby white seal which recounted its mother being killed by faceless hunters. It was horrifically effective.

I am one hundred percent opposed to baby seal slaughter. But why don't I give a crap about minks, gators, cows, or other animals that provide food and/or clothing? Is it because they never got their own animated special?

[Andyman]

Why would they want to kill baby seals during Catholic church services?

[Hodar]

And...Canadians don't really want to kill baby seals just for sadistic pleasure.

Then consider the method to your 'harvest'. First, your prey is a baby seal. The seal is surrounded by a line of men, who cut of it's only escape path. It is then terrified as it is separated from it's mother, then, it is bludgeoned to death with a club. There are documented (and video taped) instances that the babies are not even dead before they are skinned. Yes, skinned alive.

When I hunt, I hunt for food. The animal is killed with a rifle, quickly and as painlessly as possible. I do not shoot fawns .... ever. The hide is kept, the meat is kept. The only waste are the internal organs, which are left for whatever predator may be around.

Contrast this to baby seals, who have no means of escape, no means of defending itself, and is killed in a manner that is not fast or painless. The meat is left on the ice, and only the hide is taken. The hide is not 'required' for anything, as there are alternative means to acquire fur. That is the difference.

[wingnutx]

Well, they are pretty freakin' cute.

[Skooz]

Well stated.

[monday]

"why would one NEED to kill seals in this day and age."

Probably because they are hurting the fishing industry. Seals eat a lot of fish.

[monday]

"When I hunt, I hunt for food. The animal is killed with a rifle, quickly and as painlessly as possible."

Seal skins with bullet holes in them are not worth as much money.