the canadian seal cull

Re: the canadian seal cull

Perhaps they meant "humane methods" of wearing the pelts?

mmmm

Its outrageous what Canada is doing with their seals! They blame the seals for the bad situation the fish populations are in now - guess again.

According to leading scientists and societies like the National Geographic Society, the Canadian fishing policy can be blamed for 99% of the problems that cause the shrinking of the fish populations in the Canadian waters. The killing of these seals are just a cheap manoeuvre to drive away attention from the real problem: the failing fishing policy of the Canadian government. It makes me sick!

With .22 LR's running about 1-cent, I don't understand the method either.

they club them because it doesn't damage the pelt - pain and suffering doesn't seem to weight with them.

Can't they shoot a dart with venom or something?
The method seems barbaric.
The seals seem so defenseless.

I know similar, and crueller things are done in the food business, for example, to make good pate fois gras. But this one sure is spectacular. Lots of red blood over the white snow.

I don't think fois gras production is all that cruel. A little unnatural, but not necessarily cruel.

Someone here said that Canada has more guns per capita than the U.S. If so, why not use them? Is this the result of being afraid to use a gun? Go out and club things to death?

yes foie gras is terribly cruel - i never eat it

the lethal dart was what occured to me IF it needs doing

The real problem here is that baby seals are cute. Very few people complain when they chop the head off a chicken, because chickens aren't cute and cuddly.

Perhaps the Canadians need to introduce a genetically dominant strain of ugly seals into the wild. Then in a few years we won't hear about this any more.

Even though the seals are in overabundance, I cannot buy the pelts in the U.S. The anti-hunters here made them illegal simply because of the harvesting method. That, IMO, is stupid.

Now, if they took my advice and just shot the things, would they change the import law? I seriously doubt it.

however ugly an animal i believe in humane treatment.

Can you offer evidence that clubbing them is significantly more painful than other methods of harvesting the pelts? Or is it more honest to write that you don't want the pelts harvested at all?

Believe it or not this goes back even further than you might think, and involves two people I knew, both now dead.

Bob Munger and Fred Bear (of Bear Archery) filmed a polar bear hunt in the late 60's, which was broadcast on ABC. They hunted with bow & arrow, so they had to get the bears to come in really close.

There were no bears to be found. So, they decided to bait, by shooting a seal near a hole in the ice then dragging the thing around behind a snowmobile to leave a mile long scent/blood trail.

They finally got their bear, but the outrage over the baiting and killing of the "cute" seal bit them in the ass. Any chance of them filming another hunt for network television was out the window, Fred's company almost went out of business, and they lost a great deal of money on other related investments.

Non-hunters don't understand, and there are lots more of them stuck watching the boob tube than there are hunters out in the woods participating in the cycle of life.

not at all would be my preferred option

in an imperfect world then humane treatment is the best option - i would be interested in an experiment on the hunters to test which is the more painful - i rather think that they might choose a lethal injection rather than repeated heavy blows and possible skinning alive - don't you?

thank heavens or there would be a lot more species extinct - memories of Buffalo Bill killing thousands of buffalo just for the hell of killing while the Indians starved.

Killing for fun is not something that shoudl happen in a civilised world. This is just something i feel very strongly about.

Who said anything about killing for fun???

Hunting done properly is a very civilized sport, very exciting, very rewarding. It's also very difficult to be good at.

Do you enjoy going to the store?

I realize you're in London and going to the store is quite a bit different than it is here in the U.S.

Unrefridgerated poultry scares the hell out of me (something I saw on one of Jamie Oliver's shows). Ick.

As I suspected. Are you likewise opposed to the harvesting of meat for food? Or is it only seals about which you feel so deeply?


I have to disagree with your suggestion that there is a moral equivalence between harming and animal and harming a human being. News flash: very few people like the idea of any living thing suffering or dying, but many people do understand that the world we live in is one where nothing is perfect, where death exists, where animals and plants are resources we can and do harvest to better the lot of humans. I agree that we should be as humane as possible (given real world costs and trade-offs), but I don't share your apparent assumption that a simple method which employs a crude tool and is inherently messy is automatically less humane than one that is more costly but tidier to watch. Dead is dead.

A few years back I took a cherished cat to be put down at the vet. I had a naive notion of holding her while she quietly went to sleep after they gave her a lethal injection. Unfortunately, she fought frantically to avoid the injection, which was clearly painful, and she was clearly terrified by the effect of the sedative, which seemed to take forever to work. Her last memories of her life were ones of terror and pain at the hands of someone she trusted and loved.

Knowing what I do now, if I could go back and instead take a tire iron to the back of her head while she was sleeping, I'd almost consider it. If it went right, it would certainly be more humane than the way she went. Is lethal injection always like that? No. And neither is it true that killing a seal with a well-placed blow from a club is always painful or cruel.

Scrat: in this case its not only about the way these little seals look like, but the use of killing these animals. The arguments the Canadian government uses are false. That's my point. There is no need of killing these seals!