Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.
~Mahatma Gandhi
Cruelty knows no bounds and there are times when my inferior canine brain(compared to the great humans) fails to comprehend the gravity of the lurking conundrum. As readers of this space know that I’m a dog, an animal- primitive, wild and uneducated. Yet, like most of my animal friends, I may hunt for food but never for fun, fur or fashion. If religion wasn’t enough of an opium to kill the mute(Nepal), Canadian govt. hosts an annual seal hunt festival that sees hundreds of thousands of seal killed for fur. They do defend their gruesome sport via claims like it supports the economy, but facts have framed an altogether different picture revealing a stark reality which is quite unlike the govt. claims.
Just in time for Canada Day, PETA will be running its new “Explore Elsewhere” ad featuring a rendition of Canada’s national anthem “O Canada” playing over footage of baby seals as they are clubbed to death. The ad will run on Google and several travel blogs this week to let potential tourists researching Canadian summer vacations know that the Canadian government still sponsors the annual seal slaughter, which just concluded in Newfoundland. World leaders as diverse as Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and His Holiness The Dalai Lama have spoken out against the controversial massacre and have pleaded to Stop Canada Seal Hunt.
I wonder if it’s that necessary to wear fur? Drawing analogies with African blood diamonds, seal hunts also show that the consumers care only about the beauty of the finished product while overlooking the gruesome process which ‘polished’ the ‘product’.
Recommended reading:
Nigel Barker’s interview
The Humane Society of US
Seal hunting: Pictures
Reminds me of this scene from Ace Ventura: When Nature calls
Ace: That’s a lovely wrap you’re wearing! Perhaps I could buy you some fluffy new slippers, made from the heads of innocent and defenseless baby seals!
The Monopoly Guy: Who is this ghastly man?
Ace: Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. And YOU must be the Monopoly guy! Hey.
Here’s hoping that Canada govt. takes light from its policy that banned whale killing, now they receive much more revenue through conservation sights which attracts tourists.
Chimti
My my! u know i have written to every possible org for this issue, does anyone hear? 🙁
@Chimti: If only petitions and outcry on web could turn deaf ears but then its with this hope that we live until tomorrow.
Indian Homemaker
I had signed a petition against this – but what I don’t understand is human indifference. And human arrogance.
Roger Strong
The hunting of baby white-coat seals like the ones in the photos ENDED in Canada more than 20 years ago. Really. Look it up.
Last year 74,581 harp seals were harvested. To put that into perspective, Europe’s fur industry kills 538,000 animals per WEEK. But those are kept in cages their whole lives and killed behind closed doors, so apparently it doesn’t count.
The annual hunt isn’t a “sport”. It’s isn’t a “festival”. Where do you get that stuff?
I stand by what I wrote. While the harp seals hunted are still quite young, they’ve lost their white coats, and they’re independent animals. They’re not the cute cuddly animals shown above that drive donations.
The hunters are well-trained to kill the animals without suffering. That includes things like the blink test to make sure that no seal is skinned alive. Like any hunt or farming operation it’s still cruel – but that training is better than virtually any other hunt or fur farming or livestock farming operation.
The hakapik is still used because it’s considered to be as effective as a rifle, if not more. A rifle has a greater risk of hurting, but not killing the seal, causing them to flee, wounded, back into the ocean to die slowly. But it makes for bad imagery, which by IFAW and Greenpeace rules is the only thing that counts.
Which is they they still feature cute little white-coat seals on their web pages and posters, more than 20 years after Canada stopped hunting them. And why they ignore European fur farms – which even at the height of the Canadian seal hunt, killed more animals in a week than the Canadian hunt killed in an entire yeat. And where the animals are kept in cages and killed by people without the training and oversight. And its why the IFAW and other groups have been proven in court to have faked several films showing cruelty.
btw, your “Seal hunting: Pictures” link above contains some pictures of large numbers of seals in pens. Canada never did that. Those photos come from Russia, which only stopped hunting white-coat seals last year, and was not subject to the strict Canadian rules.
I would be more than happy to know that the seal hunts are banned in Canada, not only in writing but in reality. However, given the credibility of a site like BBC, I don’t quite know what to believe,
European fur farms are cruel too but as for the scope of this blog post, it hovered around Canadian seal hunt. I’d be covering the European fur farms soon.
Roger Strong
I’m not saying that seal hunts are banned in Canada. What HAS been banned – more than 20 years ago – is the hunting of the cute little white-coat seals all over web pages like this one.
Russia only stopped hunting them last year. Some of the photos above came from that hunt.
Matt E.
Dear
You people have been duped. The people running that site are misleading you to say the least. First off, no white seals (IE babies) are killed. Haven’t been killed in over 20 years since it was banned. Only juveniles and adults who have lost their baby fur are hunted.
Secondly, the main reason for the seal hunt is NOT commercial. At least not the commercial fur industry. You may recall it has gotten warmer over the past few years.. you may recall that the arctic ice is at its lowest point in history and has been getting less and less as we get warmer and warmer. You know what lives on that ice? Polar Bears! What, exactly, do you think they eat? It isn’t twigs and berries! They eat seals! But, because there is no ice, they can’t hunt!
So.. you have a extremely large population of seals who’s only predator (other than us) is unable to hunt them and is slowly being wiped out. What exactly do you think happens in that situation? They breed out of control until they eat all the available food and then die. Unfortunately that food that they happen to eating is the same food we need, IE fish!
So we have a choice. We can either cull the seal population, or we can leave them, destroy the entire fishing industry on the east coast (and devastate the marine ecosystem) and invite disease to ravage other native wild life, basically creating a swarm of cute and cuddly looking locusts. As for selling the fur on.. what exactly would you like us to do? Burn them? Throw it away? Or perhaps we can make something good come out of a situation where the choices are between the lesser of two evils. Kill something cute, or risk environmental disaster. You choose.
cruel.. have shared this bit..
Here’s hoping that Canada govt. takes light from its policy that banned whale killing, now they receive much more revenue through conservation sights which attracts tourists.
My my! u know i have written to every possible org for this issue, does anyone hear? 🙁
@Chimti: If only petitions and outcry on web could turn deaf ears but then its with this hope that we live until tomorrow.
I had signed a petition against this – but what I don’t understand is human indifference. And human arrogance.
The hunting of baby white-coat seals like the ones in the photos ENDED in Canada more than 20 years ago. Really. Look it up.
Last year 74,581 harp seals were harvested. To put that into perspective, Europe’s fur industry kills 538,000 animals per WEEK. But those are kept in cages their whole lives and killed behind closed doors, so apparently it doesn’t count.
The annual hunt isn’t a “sport”. It’s isn’t a “festival”. Where do you get that stuff?
Hi Roger!
I hope the following links would reveal the BARE truth, kindly have a view.
https://www.canadiansealhunt.com
https://www.peta.org/feat-canadasealhunt.asp
I stand by what I wrote. While the harp seals hunted are still quite young, they’ve lost their white coats, and they’re independent animals. They’re not the cute cuddly animals shown above that drive donations.
The hunters are well-trained to kill the animals without suffering. That includes things like the blink test to make sure that no seal is skinned alive. Like any hunt or farming operation it’s still cruel – but that training is better than virtually any other hunt or fur farming or livestock farming operation.
The hakapik is still used because it’s considered to be as effective as a rifle, if not more. A rifle has a greater risk of hurting, but not killing the seal, causing them to flee, wounded, back into the ocean to die slowly. But it makes for bad imagery, which by IFAW and Greenpeace rules is the only thing that counts.
Which is they they still feature cute little white-coat seals on their web pages and posters, more than 20 years after Canada stopped hunting them. And why they ignore European fur farms – which even at the height of the Canadian seal hunt, killed more animals in a week than the Canadian hunt killed in an entire yeat. And where the animals are kept in cages and killed by people without the training and oversight. And its why the IFAW and other groups have been proven in court to have faked several films showing cruelty.
btw, your “Seal hunting: Pictures” link above contains some pictures of large numbers of seals in pens. Canada never did that. Those photos come from Russia, which only stopped hunting white-coat seals last year, and was not subject to the strict Canadian rules.
Dear Roger,
I would be more than happy to know that the seal hunts are banned in Canada, not only in writing but in reality. However, given the credibility of a site like BBC, I don’t quite know what to believe,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/5039460/Canadas-annual-seal-hunt-begins.html
European fur farms are cruel too but as for the scope of this blog post, it hovered around Canadian seal hunt. I’d be covering the European fur farms soon.
I’m not saying that seal hunts are banned in Canada. What HAS been banned – more than 20 years ago – is the hunting of the cute little white-coat seals all over web pages like this one.
Russia only stopped hunting them last year. Some of the photos above came from that hunt.
Dear
You people have been duped. The people running that site are misleading you to say the least. First off, no white seals (IE babies) are killed. Haven’t been killed in over 20 years since it was banned. Only juveniles and adults who have lost their baby fur are hunted.
Secondly, the main reason for the seal hunt is NOT commercial. At least not the commercial fur industry. You may recall it has gotten warmer over the past few years.. you may recall that the arctic ice is at its lowest point in history and has been getting less and less as we get warmer and warmer. You know what lives on that ice? Polar Bears! What, exactly, do you think they eat? It isn’t twigs and berries! They eat seals! But, because there is no ice, they can’t hunt!
So.. you have a extremely large population of seals who’s only predator (other than us) is unable to hunt them and is slowly being wiped out. What exactly do you think happens in that situation? They breed out of control until they eat all the available food and then die. Unfortunately that food that they happen to eating is the same food we need, IE fish!
So we have a choice. We can either cull the seal population, or we can leave them, destroy the entire fishing industry on the east coast (and devastate the marine ecosystem) and invite disease to ravage other native wild life, basically creating a swarm of cute and cuddly looking locusts. As for selling the fur on.. what exactly would you like us to do? Burn them? Throw it away? Or perhaps we can make something good come out of a situation where the choices are between the lesser of two evils. Kill something cute, or risk environmental disaster. You choose.