The Canadian Seal Slaughter

[wardric]

What's so hilarious about the "Man is the Master of the Planet" attitude is that man has been here for a much shorter time period then most of the animal species on this Earth. If there is any "master" of this planet the Shark wins hands down. The Shark remains literally un-evolved since the days of the dinosaur.

As for the seal hunt, nothing on Earth could make me agree with that slaughter just like nothing on Earth could make me agree with genocide taking place around the globe. Again, I don't seperate human kind and animal kind and elevate myself to "god-like" status because I am a human being. Read Nature Diver's profile quote by Syliva Earle - it's true. Bashing in animals skulls, gill netting, long lining, strip fishing, whaling, de-foresting, over-developing, dolphin fishing, carbon dioxide emissions, etc, etc, - this list is practically endless does not constitute living in part with a natural world. It constitutes using that natural world for your own exploitation. I think it's crystal clear that it doesn't work.

As for the Canadian Coast Guard ramming SS - no comment. Luckily someone is up there making an effort to document this whole thing.

actually, plants were there before the shark so plants are masters of the universe. or the unicellular organism in the original soup maybe?

If bashing in seals skulls is not "natural", is it ok if we crush them with our teeth? They will suffer more though...

 

[fisherdvm]

Bashing in animals skulls, gill netting, long lining, strip fishing, whaling, de-foresting, over-developing, dolphin fishing, carbon dioxide emissions, etc, etc, - this list is practically endless does not constitute living in part with a natural world. It constitutes using that natural world for your own exploitation.

I guess define to me what is natural? Breeding dogs to be domesticated pets. Fencing in cattle. Locking pigs in pens. Eating fish and chicken patties if you have no idea how they are raised and treated. Wearing polyester blended easy care fabrics.

Then you say it is cruel to wear skin of a seal? How more natural and in tune with nature you could be? Indigenous people and your ancestors barely 300 years ago were wearing furs.

What make you so special that you are "natural" and wearing polyester clothing, typing on a plastic keyboard, eating processed meat??

I am a little confused.

 

[aquaman_06]

I wasn't commenting on the natural course of anything. I wasn't making decisions on what is or is not natural. I was simply pointing out that current scientific fact and statistics are showing that our blue planet may be on the verge of collapse if we continue the trends of the past 100 years.

As I have said before indigenous people in various South American and African jungles ate human beings. Years ago (I can't remember the exact date, not terribly long ago, a movie was made about it) a group of Christian missonaires went into the deep jungle to convert these people to Christianity. They were eaten and the world was mortified and shocked.

Read about the real William Wallace. Wallace would at the end of a victory skin the commanding British officer and fashion him into a clothing item. Perhaps the behavior of man eating man or man killing violently man is the most natural trait of all when looking at various cultures throughout history.

I studied sociology in college and learned quite a lot about the cultural relevance of deviance. One could argue that the Canadians do not view the seal hunt as a deviant act and I an American do because I was raised in a much different culture. Amazingly though this argument would not be substantial since the Canadian people were asked to take a vote on this issue and the majority said they did not agree with seal hunt. The will and desire of some in the case of the seal hunt seems to have canceled out the will and desire of the majority.

Some argue that the seal hunt puts food on the tables of struggling fisherman from remote villages. I could argue that selling marijuana and cocaine is the only way young urban youth in Maryland can make enough money to live. I could argue that the only difference is that the Canadian government defends the actions of the fishermen for their own profit while the U.S. has deemed the actions of the youth illegal because it's impossible for the government to profit without taxation of illegal drugs.

Does it mean that morally bashing in the head of a (sorry the teeth and claws argument doesn't work with me) defenseless 3 month old animal more right then selling a drug that will be used by choice? It goes back to the old "pay the mortgage" argument. The end result is that there are more then one way to pay a mortgage.

The point I was trying to make is that man may want to adjust his lifestyle a bit to be in better harmony with the world around him. All the points you make fisher are 100% correct and I whole heartily agree with you. I disagree with the way agricultural animals are treated when they are treated badly, I disagree with the way any living thing is treated when its abused and exploited, I have said this time and time again. I was just saying that the seal hunt represents one cog in a wheel that defines man's actions against a better harmony with the planet. I don't wear any animal product. I do eat meat manly because of a dietary needs I have regarding a digestive disorder. I do eat seafood but it doesn't come from Canada and it's always items on Monterey Bay's approved list.

The other examples I used (as well as the ones that you noted, the driving of the large SUV's, etc, etc) represent other cogs as well. All of these various pressures have really started taking their toll on our planet. Stopping the seal hunt may seem like an insignificant start to cultural revolution and better eco-friendly living perhaps it is. It may be a small step for eco-green living but a giant leap for human morality and how we treat the living things around us.

Nothing makes me "so special" fisher and you certainly have far more education then I if you are a veterinarian. One thing I will say is that I am happy and personally gratified that when I see a young animal get its head mashed in I disagree with it and would never defend it on any front. It also makes me smile when I slip on my SS shirt and know that my money has gone in assistance of those who stand against this type of treatment and not to some fur company that is exploiting animals around the globe.

Perhaps fisher you could point me to a source where I could research where I get my chicken and beef from so that I am certain those are coming from sources or farms that humanely treat their animals? I wouldn't be opposed to modifying where I purchase my food from or paying a premium price for it to know that the animal that sacrificed it wasn't mistreated.

 

[fisherdvm]

I can't tell you where to get humanely treated beef from. But certainly, in the US, avoiding the USDA choice brand give you a slightly higher chance that your beef did not originate from the feedlot. My neighbor buys dairy steers, which are leaner, and likely fed in a local farmer's pen... slightly better condition than a feedlot.

As for poultry, probably learning how to shoot, you'll harvest fowl that are raised in the wild and lived in freedom. Venison is a renewal resource, and you can bow hunt, and get as close to nature as you want. Venison is drug free, additive free.

Wild pig hunt is a good recreational activity. In Hawaii, some military reservation only allow you to hunt with a knife. Nothing more closer to natural when you and the animal have a fighting chance. The boar with a 4 inch tusk and you with a 6 inch bowie.

Only problem with hunting and fishing is, by the time the meat is harvested, it cost about 6 times as much as meet in the grocer's shelf.

 

[aquaman_06]

well I do eat a fair bit of venison.

 

[wardric]

Perhaps fisher you could point me to a source where I could research where I get my chicken and beef from so that I am certain those are coming from sources or farms that humanely treat their animals? I wouldn't be opposed to modifying where I purchase my food from or paying a premium price for it to know that the animal that sacrificed it wasn't mistreated.

No matter how well treated they are, before they go to your plate, they will always have to go through the killing process, and for your sake, I hope it wont be by lethal injection. Now if at least they are given the best conditions they can have before that moment, i applaude to that. But in the end, they're gonna get their throat cut.... and it's not prettier than a smashed skull

 

[Oyster Diver]

Aquaman, if you are looking for a source of humanely treated beef why not try the garret county fair? I am assuming there is a garret count fair and I believe you said something complimentary about how 4H members raise their animals (if i am wrong about this I apoligize) You would be helping local kids and getting a humanely treated steak. A win win in my book.

 

[aquaman_06]

Oyster Diver you are correct on the fair being a great source for humanely treated beef. The 4H community here does a wonderful job with their animals. StevenN is right, the 3 month old animals they are bashing up aren't white coats. WOW, that's really fare the little baby while coat seal gets to live for 3 whopping months before it's fair game.

BTW SS has posted some great pics from the seal hunt. They are doing some tremendous work up there. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the website - I recommend the SS sweat shirt. It's very warm, comfortable and fashionable and no animal products where used in its creation.

 

[Diver Dennis]

No animals were hurt but are you sure those SS sweatshirts were not made using child labour?

 

[aquaman_06]

No animals were hurt but are you sure those SS sweatshirts were not made using child labour?

Don't know, sure hope not.
________________________________________________________________________

The savage slaughter of the baby seals has been suspended for a week.

The sealers of the Quebec’s Magdalen Islands have returned home to bury three of the four sealers killed by Canadian Coast Guard incompetence. The fourth is still missing and is presumed dead.


Some of the Magdalen Island sealers will not be returning. According to the Canadian meida: Wayne Dickson hasn’t caught his quota of seals this season. But the 53-year-old says he no longer has the will to hunt after watching his friend’s sealing vessel capsize while being towed by a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the weekend. Dickson and his six-member crew managed to rescue two fishermen, but three other sealers drowned and a fourth is still missing after the damaged L’Acadien II fishing vessel overturned while being dragged over a large chunk of ice, about 70 kilometres north of Cape Breton Island. "I just don’t have the heart for it - I don’t think many of the guys are going back out," Dickson said Tuesday. "It is just too devastating."



Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has accused anti-slaughter organizations of exploiting the tragedy to underscore how unsafe sealing is, citing that the sealers are well aware of how dangerous their occupation is.


"We did not kill these men," said Captain Paul Watson. "Canadian government incompetence and the political ambitions of Loyola Hearn killed them. Hearn allows hundreds of undersize, wooden and aluminum vessels into treacherous ice conditions and does not provide adequate Coast Guard protections and training. Those men died because they were in conditions they should not have been in and the Canadian government put them in that position."


Canadian Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is attempting to discredit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society with contradictory accusations. First he accuses Sea Shepherd of being a wealthy organization and then describes the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat as an unsafe "decrepit rust bucket."


The Farley Mowat is an ice class steel hulled 60 meter ship that has years of experience navigating ice conditions both in the Arctic and the Antarctic yet according to the Minister it is unsafe for our ship to be in the ice yet it is okay to send 12 meter fragile vessels into the same ice.


In the last week, two sealing boats have sunk, numerous sealing boats have broken down, the government failed to rescue the crew of the boat they were towing after their tow capsized the vessel and then they twice rammed the Farley Mowat with a large ice-breaker.


The crew of the Farley Mowat also observed the ice-breaker running down and crushing seal pups on the ice and they observed absolutely no enforcement of the humane regulations with regard to killing the seals.


"We’ve seen seals suffering in agony on the ice. We’ve seen enough to know that Canada’s claim that the seal hunt is humane has no credibility" said Farley Mowat communications officer Shannon Mann 35 from Alberta.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recognizes that the deaths of four sealers is a tragedy but Sea Shepherd also recognizes that the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seal pups is an even greater tragedy.


"One of the sealers was quoted as saying that he felt absolutely helpless as he watched the boat sink with sealers onboard." Said Captain Paul Watson. "I can’t think of anything that defines helplessness and fear more than a seal pup on the ice that can’t swim or escape as it is approached by some cigarette smoking ape with a club. This is a seal nursery and these men are sadistic baby killers and that might offend some people but it is the unvarnished truth – they are vicious killers who are now pleading for sympathy because some of their own died while engaged in a viciously brutal activity."


The Farley Mowat is berthing in the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon until the slaughter resumes next week. The crew intends to get the video off the ship of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker twice ramming the Farley Mowat.


The Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has accused Sea Shepherd of lying about the ramming. First he claimed that the Coast Guard did not ram the Sea Shepherd vessel, then he claimed that the Coast Guard only "grazed" the Farley Mowat and then he said that it was the Farley Mowat that hit the Coast Guard icebreaker. The video will be able to confirm the Sea Shepherd story. The Canadian Coast Guard has not released any video and is not expected to.


Attempts to retrieve the video by helicopter failed when the Canadian Department of Transport grounded the helicopter from HSUS that was going to pick up the video.


The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is in the middle of very hostile territory, in the middle of dangerous ice conditions, unable to rely on the Canadian Coast Guard for assistance, under attack by that same Coast Guard, threatened by powerful Canadian politicians, threatened with physical assault from armed and angry seal killers.


"My crew of volunteers are all courageous men and women and they are risking their lives and their freedom to expose the lies of the Canadian government." Said Captain Paul Watson. "They have seen, and they have documented the cruelty of the seal slaughter. They are there to gather evidence to support a European ban of seal products. They do not get paid for this, they make personal sacrifices and I resent the Minister of Fisheries making offensive remarks about their motivations. It is amazing when compassion for life is dismissed as radical and those who slaughter the innocent are given the full support of the government and the Minister of Fisheries. The last time this happened the man’s name was Herod and now it’s Hearn."