So what's wrong with clubbing seals?

The Telegraph ^ | 15/04/2004 | Boris Johnson

[Petronski]

Why yes, I might have had the pleasure of being skinned alive.

Put down the Disney DVD and the Greenpeace prayer shawl, I said if you had been harvested properly, you would not have been left alive to suffer as you did.

Exactly how would you be skinned alive if you were not left alive (i.e., harvested properly)?

[ChadGore]

I hear baby seal clubbing is going to be in the next X Games :)

[Long Cut]

If your "god" approves of this, I want no part of him.

I was taught that there are animals for our use, sure. I enjoy a good steak myself. But where does it say that we have some inalienable RIGHT to torture another species to death, simply because we feel like it?

[Tamzee]

If it has been clubbed in the head, it is not being skinned ALIVE afterwards.

Yes, they sometimes are... of course they are dead shortly after being skinned, but the torture suffered while skinned alive is something I wouldn't wish on any Republican ;-)

[Long Cut]

That is ludicrous. Trees are a crop, and are quite within a property owner's right to harvest as he sees fit.

I am NOT some environMENTAList. However, I consider myself an honorable man, and this slaughter is bereft of all possible honor.

[Tamzee]

I would have been honored to know your grand-aunt... she sounds like she was a woman of immense caring and conviction :-)

[Long Cut]

You really feel that 12-day-old suckling infant seals are a threat to ANYONE'S food supply? Note, they leave the adults alive...no good coats.

That crap is a lame excuse.

[NittanyLion]

You're absolutely right! This is quite clearly WOMEN's work; the MEN should be out catching lobsters, so we can boil them alive.

LOL! Mmmmm...lobster.

[fish hawk]

On Feb. 25/1860 in Eureka Calif. Several white men went quietly in their boats out to Indian Island (Gunther Island)in Humboldt bay. There were about 200 local Indians asleep there after doing a religious ceremony. They took clubs and axes as they didn't want gunshots to be heard by the towns people. They murdered about 150 of the Indians of the Wiyot Tribe, mostly the women and children. No one was ever punished for this crime. At the time Bret Harte (of literary fame) was a reporter for the Northern Californian paper. He wrote about this massacre and asked how could civilized people do a deed like this. Bret was fired from his job at the paper and almost run out of town. That pretty much let you know what the rest of the towns folks thought of this incident.
"Who would do something like club these poor little seals?" I say just your average American citizen.

[Petronski]

Note, they leave the adults alive...no good coats.

Sez you, and your lefty buddies at Greenpeace.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

If your "god" approves of this, I want no part of him.

I don't judge my God.
My God once demanded the sacrifice of animals (including cute furry baby ones).
My God commanded a man to sacrifice his own son.
My God destroyed whole cities in flame and fire.
...
And my God sacrificed his own Son for me.

I don't know your god.

[Eurotwit]

To tell you the truth, I am not sure if Norway even hunts seals anymore.

That said, many people in fishery communities are mad because the seal populations have exploded recently and are depleting the fish stocks.

Personally, I am no big fan of the hunt, but I don't really care either way.

What rankles me is hobby environmentalist that jumps upon a "popular" issue. Save the seals.. Save the whales... Ohh, they are sooo cute..

There is a whole lot of suffering among the domesticated animals that we carnivours enjoy every day.

If you are a vegan, I'll take your criticism seriously.

Similarly, Do you think that life in the wild is som kind of rosy existance on an ice flake somewhere? You get killed by sharks, by polar bears or like most, just die of starvation.

[Long Cut]

Let's get one thing straight right now...NO Geekpeace member is a "buddy" of mine. The stupid jerks even have the audacity to attempt to stop US Navy ships which defend them. They cause no small amount of trouble for those of us in the service, and put American lives in direct danger by opposing vital training.

However, that does not affect the TRUTH that these seals are killed, for no apparent reason, in a most barbaric and sickening way.

[rintense]

She was an incredible woman... I wish I had known her more.

I remember telling Stefanie Powers about my great aunt, and the women in my family who for most of their lives, have dedicated themselves to preventing cruelty to animals. Stefanie then said to me, 'Its in YOUR blood. Its who you are.' It was amazing- in those simple words, she gave me a truth I never realized- I am my mother's daughter, and yes, my love for animals IS in my blood.

[Senator Pardek]

He gave all these seals to us for us to use.

So the next time my girlfriend is having her period, I can have sex with one of these animals?

Moron.

[cyborg]

Having compassion doesn't necessarily mean one has to be an uber-liberal who hugs trees not people. Some seem to mistake conservatism for not caring about animals or the environment.

[Little Ray]

The fur of the adults is not worth anything. Would ya prefer 'em to use poison gas and kill 'em indiscriminately?

Don't think its a pleasant job, but its not much worse that what goes on to deliver meat to the super market.

Deal with it.

[Petronski]

"No apparent reason?"

What about their role in the runaway destruction of the cod stocks? Did you read the article?

If they had eight spindly legs, a black thorax and antennae, would you then protest culling their numbers?

[NittanyLion]

So the next time my girlfriend is having her period, I can have sex with one of these animals?

Yikes...I may change my mind based on nothing more than the disturbing image remaining from that analogy.

[Eala]

Read post # 12. They have every idea...they can smell the blood, and can hear the cries of the rest.
For God's sake, they are infants when this is done...12 days old! I cannot imagine the terror they suffer

Neither can I. But your two points -- "They have every idea" -- "they are infants" -- do not juxtapose very well, sorry. I am not persuaded.