Posted on 03/02/2006 7:00:04 AM PST by LouAvul
Opponents of Canada's seal hunt have a powerful ally in their bid to end the annual slaughter: Paul McCartney, who has pledged to take to the ice floes and frolic with the doe-eyed pups before the harvest gets under way.
The former Beatle and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, arrived Wednesday night in this small fishing community on Canada's Atlantic coast and intend to land a helicopter on the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Thursday if weather permits.
The longtime animal-rights activists want to publicize the plight of the fluffy white pups, which are calved and weaned from their mothers on the frigid ice before being clubbed to death.
The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972 and the European Union banned the white pelts of baby seals in 1983.
The British government is also considering banning the import of seal goods. Groups such as Respect for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States, which are coordinating the McCartneys' visit, are encouraging people to boycott Canadian seafood as a show of solidarity.
"I think the McCartneys are two of the most visible people in the world, and with them drawing attention to the fact that this hunt is still going on, this is going to get that message out across the world," said Rebecca Aldworth, who will be observing and documenting her seventh seal hunt for the Humane Society.
Aldworth said the McCartneys quizzed her long and hard about the annual harvest, including the economic benefits that sealing brings to the local fishermen, whose livelihoods were devastated when the Atlantic Ocean cod stocks dried up in the mid 1990s.
The Canadian government endorses the harvest as a cultural right for many Maritimers and announced a hunting management plan in 2003 with a quota of 975,000 seals over three years.
About 325,000 seal pups were killed during the hunt last year, bringing the local fishermen $14.5 million in supplemental income, which they say their families badly need during the winter offseason.
The dates for the spring leg of the hunt have yet to be announced as the unseasonably mild temperatures in northeastern Canada have made the ice thin.
Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said Canada would not terminate the annual hunt and insisted it is the most regulated mammal harvest in the world. The government says the country's seal population is abundant, estimating there are 5 million harp seals.
"I would encourage Mr. McCartney when he comes here to see the effect this is having on the economy and to realize this is sustaining people in their home communities," Hearn said.
Aboriginal and Inuit subsistence and commercial hunters begin the kill Nov. 15 in Canada's vast expanse of frozen northern waters. The spring leg of the commercial hunt starts in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and then moves to the Atlantic Ocean about 30-40 miles away from Newfoundland.
Harp seals have been hunted commercially off Newfoundland since the early 1700s. They were first harvested for their oil, but now are culled mostly for their pelts, sold mostly for the fashion industry in Norway, China and Russia.
So these two baby seals walk into a bar, and one of them says to the bartender,"I'll have a Canadian Club on the rocks..."
Sir Paul is not a Canadian, so he should butt out of Canadian affairs. We don't like it when foreigners try to interfere in US affairs.
LOL.
Let them eat cake? Or, medical experiments for the lot of them?
Your post mentioned nothing about the seals eating the fish the people are trying to catch. The hunt is an effort to keep species in balance, including humans.
A lot of those Newfies are Irish Catholics but you don't see them down here in front of Rockefeller Center protesting American abortions.
Let's keep our nose out of other people's business in minor matters where we have no national security stake.
You probably couldn't pass a 10-question quiz on Newfoundland, anyway.
When and where do you find the Newfoundland Hour?
You are absolutely right, murder is a wonderful way to handle the problem of overpopulation. With so many homeless and starving people in the world, perhaps this would work for humans as well. Where do you suggest we start?
bravo, bravo ,bravo!!!!!
Yes. Read Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" for details.
To equate the murder of people with the brutal harvesting of animals places you beyond the realm of respectablility. There are many horrible descriptors that can be applied to this annual killing of baby seals, but murder is not an appropriate word.
Who are you going to go after next? The Gorton's fisherman?
Beyond the realm of respectability? We are all god's creatures and I hardly think that my support of creatures who cannot speak for themselves places me in this category! Have you read the sickening jokes and comments others have posted regarding this issue? And you speak to ME of respectability? Is it easier to make light of the situation than to take a stand against it?
As for the Gorton fisherman, fear not, he'll be hearing from me as well!
I am a man. To me was give by God dominion over all living things. I am to be held responsible to how I handle my dominion over all living things. Fishing cod for food, raising sheep for meat and wool, exterminating mosquitoes for control of malaria are all examples of man managing the resources he has been given dominion over.
Now unless you advocate for cod, sheep and mosquitoes I assume you have another agenda than the opposition to the mass destruction of animals. I propose that you are interested in the "cute factor" surrounding baby harp seals. As a result, you use the hyperbole of "murder" to describe this very brutal cull.
Of course my talk of God giving dominion may be rejected by you, in which case your talk of us all being "god's creatures" is rejected by me as a logical tool not believed by yourself.
Ah, you assume incorrectly. While it is hard to ignore the 'cuteness factor' I became a vegetarian because I could no longer live with the fact that I was perpetuating the suffering of other living creatures. While I admit I WILL kill a mosquito in self defense, I will also go out of my way to carry a spider, ant or moth safely outdoors as opposed to squashing it. I also will not wear clothing consisting of animal skin or fur, and I will not use any product that has been animal tested. (Trust me, this is not always easy!) I just feel that in this day and age it is not necessary to torture and kill animals for our own use. There are alternatives available. I also feel that both hunters and slaughterhouse employees no longer go out of their way to kill animals as humanely as possible. I've seen footage that will haunt me for the rest of my days. Perhaps if you view some of the things I have seen, you will understand where I am coming from. I am not here to attack you, I just want people to be aware of the murderous acts (that's right, murder, "to kill brutally or inhumanly") that are inflicted on so many creatures.
The word murder when referring to the killing of an animal is about as correct as calling Nelson Mandela an African-American South African. Nelson Mandela is black, not African-American. But Political Correctness has destroyed what the meaning of the "word" African-American really means.
Likewise, you cannot murder an animal. You can kill it, butcher it, hunt it, trap it, poison it, strangle it, drown it, or club it, but not murder it. Murder has a meaning beyond "kill", it means specifically "the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought". (See here: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/murder ) Can an animal be killed cruelly? Yes, and many are. But the definition of murder is specific to a person, a human.
This may seem like semantics to you, but letting things be defined by hyperbole leads to a lot of the nonsense our society has to deal with today.
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