Posted on 04/12/2004 8:47:49 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
If you can get close enough to club them with a baseball bat, chances are you can get close enough to kill them quickly with a pistol. A bullet through the skull is a quick, painless death. No wasted holes in the pelt, quick and easy.
If this were being done to control the size of the 'herd', then there should be a reasonable number of seals that are 'harvested'. I have heard of no limitations on this.
Yes....very dramatic. A child seperated from it's mother, nearly beaten to death, and then skinned. A challenging subject choice for making an emotional appeal.
A colorful tale of misery employed to evade your vile allegation.
Where in your tale of woe should we gleen that Canadians are doing this for sadistic pleasure? Why must everyone that doesn't agree with us be painted as a monster? Why do you advocate our hatred?
Calculate the cost of 300,000 bullets.
Oh, that's simple. What you are doing, defending and supporting is 'monstorous'. You are stalking and killing a defenseless animal, in a brutal and inhumane way.
You are killing the animal, not for meat, or survival; but for a fashion statement. You are slaughtering an animal without a means of escape, defense, or a way to elude capture. The animal is killed in a painful, slow and documented cruel fashion. Again, some of the baby seals are being skinned while they are still alive. The animal poses no risk to you. So, tell me why this needs to be done?
Sure, Calculate the sales price of 300,000 seal pelts, subtract the cost of 300,000 bullets. Take this number and device it by the sales price of the 300,000 pelts. This will give you a profit line as a percentage.
Now, subtract the profit line percentage from 100%, and you will see the cost of the bullets in contrast to the cost/benefits of the cull. I'm willing to bet a nice dinner that the bullet costs are less than 1%. Is less than 1% of the profit too high a price to pay for a humane cull?
Why are you asking me this question? I simply offered an explanation as to why seal hunters don't use bullets, even if the cost is marginal. Same reason why beef cattle are killed with a blow to the head instead of being executed with a bullet through the brain.
Ummm, when I worked at a butcher shop, we had a pistol we used for exactly this purpose. A line was drawn between the eyes, then beteen the horns to the nose. Where the lines crossed was were the pistol went. It was quick, painless and humane.
In commercial meat packing plants, a headpiece drives a 1/2 inch bolt into the brain. Again, quick, humane and painless as possible.
The difference is that the beef, lamb, pork, chicken ect. are being killed for meat. In many cases, the skin is then used for making leather. The baby seals are killed in a more brutal and painful manner, the meat is left to rot. The fur is used as a fashion accessory, not for survival. That is the difference.
Sorry, I missed this point. And IMHO, this is a very substancial point.
I'm not defending, supporting, killing, slaughtering, or 'doing' anything. Now you are painting me as a monster because I have asked a question.
These are vicious, vile lies you have intentional told about me. Admit you are lieing, and apologize. (or, state when, where, and what I have killed)
"So, tell me why this needs to be done?"
Answer my question first.
Why must everyone that doesn't agree with you be painted as a monster? Are you only capable of appealing emotionally, for hatred?
Why do you advocate our hatred?
Now, I think you brought up the whole 'hatred' point. When you use the pronoun 'our', it has a meaning. As your web page has a Texas flag on it, you are either confused about which country is doing the seal hunting, or are a Canadian living in Texas.
When I see a society doing something I consider barbaric, I will point it out. I am pretty consistent about that. When a society does something sadistic, I will point that out as well. Consider the matadors in Mexico. They torture an animal to death; for the amusement of the crowds. The crowd enjoys seeing the animal suffer, and the agony, .. seeing the blood in it's breath as the lungs are punctured and fill with blood, as each of the several barbed swords are thrust into the body. Real nice ... ranks up there with clubbing a baby seal.
When you say 'our', you are associating yourself to that group. So, you implied that you were a part of the group; and I took your word at face value. I should have read your mind, and realized that the word 'our' meant 'their'. My mistake.
Why must everyone that doesn't agree with you be painted as a monster?
An old book states that "By their actions you will know them".
Word games?!!
Emotional appeals....ignorant, lieing, advocation for hate....and, word games.
What a tool. What a sheep. There's nothing for me to learn here. Good day.
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