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158 Comments
- RogerStrong, on 05/05/2009, -11/+112This article is largely fiction.
- The hunting of baby white-coat seals like the one in the photo ended in Canada more than 20 years ago.
- Contrary to the article's claims, clubbing the seals is no longer allowed either.
- With only 25% of the market, the ban will not mean the end of the hunt.
Since the seal hunt kills less animals in a year than European fur farms kill in a WEEK, we'll be watching for the Canada and the EU to impose similar bans on European products.
The harp seal population is at 9.5 million, up from 1.5 million in the 1970s. Meanwhile, cod stock are crashing. I'm sure the EU will support a ban on European fishing boats in Canadian waters, to stop overfishing the food supply that those seals are going to need. - WordsnCollision, on 05/05/2009, -1/+69Heidi Klum is gonna be pissed.
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -6/+50stop making sense.
- kwai, on 05/06/2009, -8/+42***** eco terrorists.
I'm all for banning people from killing seals with clubs with nails, but an all out ban on seal products is crazy. There are millions of seals and they have a huge effect on coastal fishing and wild salmon.
Seals can and should be hunted, it can be sustainable and prevent overpopulation. - ByronT, on 05/06/2009, -3/+31Such a shame. Seal is one of my favorite singers of all time.
- poogy21, on 05/06/2009, -3/+27What will I do with all my Seal CDs now?
- SaladCactusKing, on 05/06/2009, -7/+28How to insult the U.S. in a thread completely unrelated to it by FakeHipster.
- kd420, on 05/06/2009, -3/+24The only reason anyone gives a ***** is because *baby* seals are cute. Who cares that cows, chickens, pigs etc. all live in terrible conditions and are slaughtered inhumanely? But an animal that lives in the wild can't be killed and eaten? People need to realize seal hunting is just as humane (or more humane) than every other form of hunting.
- seltaeb4, on 05/06/2009, -3/+22No seal of approval there.
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -4/+23I guess me and the girls cant go "clubbin" in Europe anymore
- bieber, on 05/06/2009, -0/+19Believe it or not, there _are_ non-hypocritical animal rights activists out there, who aren't just calling for an end to killing the more cute and cuddly species. Unfortunately, they tend to get drowned out by the "ZOMG BABY SEALS BOYCOTT CANADA" crowd...
- emotecontrol, on 05/06/2009, -1/+19What's the difference between hunting seal and farming pigs, anyway?
- Malarie, on 05/06/2009, -0/+14They hate our freedom.
/s - Irfit, on 05/06/2009, -0/+14Seals are cute.
- Acesolid, on 05/06/2009, -2/+16First the USA blames Canada for internet piracy (Even if we are not) and then Europe says we are all inhumane hunting animals (but somehow they are not gaving gooses to create fois gras) and imposes a trade embargo on all our seal products!
What the hell is the world's problem with Canada?! What did we ever do to you? - RogerStrong, on 05/05/2009, -1/+14No more inhumane than the killing of animals for the European fur industry.
- FreckleEars, on 05/06/2009, -2/+14I can't wait for the Canadian government to place a 0 tolerance decree on foreign fishing vessels. As soon as then enter 1m into our waters, the coastguard seize the vessels and arrest everyone on board for international treaty violation. That would piss them off.
The international water limit is 200mi (320 odd km) which from Newfoundland and Labrador, takes up the majority of the Grand Banks. Around 300km off the coast of Newfoundland, there is water that is still only 55m deep (see Hibernia). I think we should build a tiny island to completely eliminate foreign fishing. How would they like that? The Flemish cap is free game as of right now, but is a much deeper ocean rise. The new island could have someone living on it, then be counted as continental land, and would count the Flemish cap, and the entirety of the Grand Banks region to Canada. There would be no fishing in Canadian Waters off Newfoundland then.
Clearly that is an unreasonable argument... but so is a ban on seal products. ***** Europe. I was thinking about going on a vacation there but this ***** pisses me off. Maybe I will go there with lots of "I club seals" shirts. That will make them happy =P. Stupid environmentalists making rash decisions on falsified data! Pisses me off!!!! - inactive, on 05/06/2009, -2/+14Never knew seals were like deer... Now I kinda want to eat a seal.
- tehnico, on 05/06/2009, -0/+11Oddly enough, impositions from activists would only serve to make the seal hunt more inhumane for animals, and more dangerous for the hunters. The traditional way is a long pole with a massive spike on it. Seal doesn't even know what's coming. The reason they use this is because it doubles as a life saving measure to pick into the ice when the hunters slip and fall in the water.
They've tried to stop them from using this weapon in the past. Simply because it looks 'barbaric' doesn't mean it is. It is in fact the most humane way to harvest the animal, especially compared to other mainstream, accepted, animal processing techniques. - skersh, on 05/06/2009, -0/+10And the hakapik is a very humane (in relation to other methods) way to kill the seal.
Too bad it looks scary. If I used a rusty chainsaw to harvest soy for tofu, would you take on the cause of the struggling majestic plant?
Edit: just realized I should cite my source on the fact that it's a humane tool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakapik - emotecontrol, on 05/06/2009, -2/+12Stop cod fishing? Madness! The Spaniards haven't eliminated the cod infestation yet.
Also, when are we going to put a ban on trading with the EU as long as they keep killing cows for the leather? Tit for tat, right? - jasminlecormier, on 05/06/2009, -0/+9I once case the animals get to be killed in the wild, having lived a free life, in the other (MORE HUMANE IT SEEMS) case, the animals live in a small cage before being slowly killed so we can eat bacon.
- noahgelman, on 05/06/2009, -2/+10I wanna have a dance club called Baby Seals so thenpeople are like
"Hey where are you going tonight?"
"We're going to club Baby Seals."
"Oh my god, what the hell is wrong with you?!" - skersh, on 05/06/2009, -1/+9The clubs are one of the most humane ways to kill the seal. It ensures that the hunter makes sure it's dead before bleeding it out and skinning it. A rifle shot from far away may simply injure the animal, which can die slowly in pain, or escape to die even more slowly in pain.
It's not a pretty image, but yeah, clubbing them is humane. - RogerStrong, on 05/06/2009, -0/+8Perhaps, but where's the the call for a ban on the much larger European fur industry?
- stix213, on 05/06/2009, -1/+9Those should have been banned already
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -4/+12http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp_seal
Note the conservation status icon. - hokie47, on 05/06/2009, -0/+8Is anyone else concerned that we will soon have nothing but cute animals left?
- SpongeBad, on 05/06/2009, -0/+8Cold.
- TsuruchiBrian, on 05/06/2009, -0/+8Pigs are more intelligent
- Ninh, on 05/05/2009, -0/+7She wouldn't have been allowed to sell the kids, anyway.
- Pookatooka, on 05/06/2009, -1/+7Tisk, tisk. This is quite inefficient. Trading these seal furs makes both countries better off.
I don't know about y'all, but I definitely just heard a Production-Possibility Frontier graph for seal products relative to another product scream in pain. It must have shifted inward...poor thing. - kplo, on 05/06/2009, -0/+6Dang! I was so gonna go there.
- tehnico, on 05/06/2009, -0/+6@Bolshevist, No he used the correct term. Farming would imply growing and harvesting a resource.
- tehnico, on 05/06/2009, -1/+7First of all, Native peoples don't pay taxes. 70K is the same as $110+K to any other canadian. That "average" income probably is about 45-50K take home after taxes. Second, who said the pelt is all they sell? Oils and other other by products can be sold for plenty profit in fashion markets, in the use of cosmetics, and as vitamins and suppliments. Third, the money isn't the only value for them and their communities. 4,950 seals at 250-400lbs per seal equals food for thousands of people for a very long time. How would that equate financially? I don't know hundreds of thousand of dollars? Fourth it's part of their ***** culture you *****, There is intangible value that you and I will never understand.
BTW, gas? storage? It's Inuits, are you mad? - senae, on 05/06/2009, -0/+6No, that is a pick. a club looks like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_(weapon) and has a far greater chance of just concussing the seal, causing it to suffer. The alternative for the seals at this point is to let the seals starve to death.
The far worse alternative is to let the Newfoundlanders that have been fishermen for generations starve to death, because of all of the yankees and Europeans overfishing the grand banks.
But hey, who cares about humans, so long as a seal doesn't have to die, eh? - bartofdahammer, on 05/06/2009, -1/+7clubbing is still allowed, but it is considered humane since it causes instant death. Also why does every freak about the seal hunt but not the kangaroo culling. Do explain?
- AgeofMastery, on 05/06/2009, -3/+9That's the one seal I wouldn't mind seeing clubbed to death
- johnsmith555, on 05/06/2009, -4/+10So what am i gonna wear when i go out clubbing?
- ahughes, on 05/06/2009, -5/+10As a Canadian, I support this initiative 100%. Tradition should never have precedence over ethics.
- Myonosken, on 05/06/2009, -1/+6ONCE IN A LIFETIIIIIIIIIIIIME
- FreckleEars, on 05/06/2009, -3/+8The data that the EU uses is falsified. It is not from unbiased research groups. It is from organizations like Greenpeace. I admit, as a Canadian, and furthermore, a Newfoundlander, the data the government provides may be skewed a little. The data may be 5% off, but Greenpeace/PETA etc often have values that are 90% inaccurate. they do not even look at the process of the hunt, nor do they look at the strict government regulations. I made this post before and I will post it again because I think people need to be informed on the FACTS! Stop boycotting something becasue on a very rare instance, a cute one gets killed accidentally.
*quote*
I don't know why people complain about sealing. Mainly the Canadian seal hunt. It is one of the most regulated and humane hunts in the world. 90+% are shot and of the remaining 10%-, 75% die instantly. The Hakapik that is used to kill seals is very much not a club (google it). Either way, the slaughterhouses in the USA, Europe and abroad are inhumane. I have been to a slaughterhouse and it is absolutely the scariest ***** on earth. You can never get the screams oh hundreds of cows and pigs out of your head. Seal hunt however, is not bad at all and very tolerable for a sane human. They die quickly and painlessly. The meat is fully used, the pelt is used, and the oils are used in medicine. Compare that to a slaughterhouse.
VERY GRAPHIC slaughterhouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1Jyh8NCDc
In 2005, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) commissioned the Independent Veterinarians Working Group Report. With reference to video evidence, the report states: "Perception of the seal hunt seems to be based largely on emotion, and on visual images that are often difficult even for experienced observers to interpret with certainty. While a hakapik strike on the skull of a seal appears brutal, it is humane if it achieves rapid, irreversible loss of consciousness leading to death."
I.E. People think the seal hunt is bad because the seals are pretty creatures when they are pups and watching them die is like killing a family pet.
So stop bitching about the Canadian seal hunt. There are 5 times as many as the ocean can sustain because foreigners killed their predator's and now with you bitches whining, we can hardly hunt them without an international fiasco on our hands. Because of this, they consume a lot of fish. Seals are consuming more fish off the Canadian Atlantic than fisherman can catch. Each eats 5-20kg of fish a day. There are around 4 million seals off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador alone.
4,000,000 x 12kg x 365.25 = 17,500,000,000kg
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/communic/statistics/comme ...
35,000,000 Canadians x 9.47kg/Canadians = 331,000,000kg
17,500,000,000kg/331,000,000kg = 52ish
Seals JUST OFF THE COAST OF Newfoundland and Labrador consume about 52 times as much fish annually as the entire Canadian population. They eat about the same as HALF the entire US, European and Canadian populations combined. This is not even half the Harp seal population. They eat the same amount of seal as 1 billion humans.
So seriously... STFU about the seal hunt... those things are a ***** nuisance and need to have their population controlled.
/informed rant
*end quote*
I forgot to mention the fact that the population has soared so much for these ocean pests becasue EUROPEAN fishing vessels have made their predators about non-existent. I feel like going up and shooting 1,000 or so just for fun. Just to spite the Europeans and Greenpeace. Let the polar bears eat them. With less complete ice up North, Polar bears are having a tougher time hunting seals and killing them. Someone please think of the Polar Bears!! - Goglu2, on 05/06/2009, -1/+6I say "Phoque Europe"
- Joodtimes, on 05/06/2009, -0/+5Oh sure! You love sausage but you hate to see it get made!
- oda1, on 05/06/2009, -3/+8I take my applause for Europe back. I had thought it was the 'musician'.
- tehnico, on 05/06/2009, -0/+5Depends, are you eating the cats? Is it a source of income or food? Are you killing them as humanly as in the seal hunt?
- RogerStrong, on 05/06/2009, -0/+4What makes it worse is that Canada outlawed the killing of white-coat seals like the one in the Telegraph article more than 20 years ago.
And yet the animal rights activists (and in this case the Telegraph) still use the a cute little baby white-coat seal in thier propaganda.
It's a safe bet that if Canada banned the seal hunt altogether, 20 years from now Greenpeace and other groups would still be raising money to end the killing of white-coat seals. - kwai, on 05/06/2009, -0/+4I also recall something about that famous brutal seal clubbing video was in fact falsified. It was made by Greenpeace in a emotional war against seal hunting.
Seals are actually quite delicious b.t.w. - Malarie, on 05/06/2009, -0/+4Accordingto Google Image...
The First Inuit Lawer: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/files/cinemapolitica ... - emjaymj, on 05/06/2009, -1/+5I'm from Canada, and I really don't see the big deal.
The Inuit claim it's their traditional way of life, to hunt and sustain themselves from seals, and this is why we let them keep doing that. Seems reasonable to me.
But I'm pretty sure there's nothing "traditional" about exporting seal products to Europe.
It also has NOTHING to do with imposing their beliefs on a foreign nation. The practice of seal hunting is not going to be stopped just because Europe refuses to import their product. They just don't want to be complicit in what they consider an immoral practice. As a nation they're entitled to this. -
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