I cross posted my article Your Sealing Hunt Donation At Work at Vive Le Canada where a mighty debate has ensued in the comments column. Meanwhile I have received the following email which represents the unsung voices in this debate;
I read your article in Vive la Canada. Thank you for the support and your
recognition that these animal rights groups are taking advantage of the
visual senses to make a fraudulent living. We need the support of your
farming industry and labour groups across the country. It is time this
country eliminated influence from American organizations established to
destroy our livelihood and markets while lining their pockets.
This is also a conservation issue for our ground-fish species. Our fishery
has been destroyed and our shellfish is being undermined by European tariffs
and cheap labour in China. This must stop, we have to get control of our
primary food sector. We need to protect our economic sovereignty as well.
My Seal Hunt Articles
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
seals, sealing, seal-hunt, anti-sealing, Newfoundland, Canada, Watson, HSUS, IFAW,
Many people (outside and inside Canada) believe that the hunt should be stopped. Animal rights groups think that Canada should change its laws. The misleading images, reports and half-truths they promote have given them a lot of support and donations.
ReplyDeleteThe Canadian government knows how bad this looks, and the Liberals and Conservatives don't agree on much, but both governments have supported/do support the hunt.
Vegetarians and vegans will never support the seal hunt, and they are consistent in opposing the killing of all animals. But I believe that the seal hunt has become such an issue with the general, relatively uninformed meat-eating public because of the remarkably effective marketing job of animal rights groups. The seal hunt is done out in the open for everyone to see, looks bloody and messy, and provides wonderful footage of blood on the ice. Seals, (particularly baby seals) are cute. And although more seals are shot than clubbed, the image of a sealer holding a club makes a great poster - apparently the image of a sealer with a club is more offensive to people around the world than the image of someone holding a gun.
But despite how unpleasant the seal hunt and all hunting looks, seals are a renewable resource, and independent evidence has shown the Canadian seal hunt to be humane, and in fact "a model to improve humane practice and reduce seal suffering within the other hunts."
For example:
Canadian Veterinary Journal, Animal Welfare and the Harp Seal in Atlantic Canada
States that the majority (up to 98%) of seals are killed humanely. Also states that most of them are shot, rather than clubbed.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?pubmedid=12240525
Independent Veterinarians Working Group, Improving Humane Practice in the Canadian Harp Seal Hunt
States that "the Canadian harp seal hunt is professional and highly regulated by comparison with seal hunts in Greenland and the North Atlantic. It has the potential to serve as a model to improve humane practice and reduce seal suffering within the other hunts."
http://www.ivwg.org/IVWGReportAug2005.pdf
If you were Prime Minister of Canada or the president of the United States, would you end an industry which you have researched and believe is regulated, humane and justified?
Of course, there is always room for improvement, and independent (non-activist, non-government) audits should be encouraged to ensure that all hunts and farming are done as humanely as killing can be.
Humans have been hunting seals for thousands of years. Why do people now think that a traditional form of hunting (in which the skin, fat, oil and a portion of the meat are used) is cruel, while industrialized livestock farming is normal? Is it more cruel to kill a wild animal quickly, or to confine an animal to a factory environment for its entire life, and then kill it?
My points exactly. Well summed up. But of course those who have decided already that the hunt is cruel, inhumane, etc etc. will not listen to reason, or a reasonable arguement.
ReplyDelete*sigh* We can only keep trying to explain, logically, and hope to convince some of those who are undecided or uninformed.
ReplyDelete