Posted on 03/22/2005 5:47:56 PM PST by Pikamax
Canada unveils annual seal hunt, slams activists 22 Mar 2005 20:08:30 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds comments, background)
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, March 22 (Reuters) - Canada said on Tuesday it would allow 320,000 young seals to be killed this year and launched an unusually strong attack on activists who promise to boycott Canadian seafood products in a bid to stop the hunt.
Ottawa says the hunt helps ensure the health of what it describes as a booming seal population. But pictures of hunters clubbing defenseless animals to death have turned the event into an annual public relations nightmare for the government.
The two-month hunt, which starts this year on March 29, takes place on ice floes off the Atlantic coast where the seals give birth. Canada says the hunt is humane, but animal rights groups insist many animals are skinned alive and die in agony.
Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan, reflecting increasing frustration with the activists, said they were issuing "misleading rhetoric and sensational images that tell a selective, biased and often false story" about the hunt.
"It is a real disgrace to have such negative light being cast on the Canadian men and women of this industry... These carefully orchestrated campaigns twist the facts of the seal hunt for the benefit of a few extremely powerful and well-funded organizations," he said in a blunt statement.
Officials say the population of harp seals is now five million animals, triple what it was in the 1970s, and says large-scale hunting will be allowed to continue until the number falls to 3.85 million.
Ottawa says the hunt protects depleted fish stocks and provides jobs in the economically depressed eastern province of Newfoundland. The province's cod fishery collapsed a decade ago and some fishermen say seals were partly to blame.
Anti-hunt activists, who held protests last week in 50 cities around the world, said they would press ahead with calls for a boycott of Canadian seafood.
Canada's fishing industry exports around C$3 billion ($2.5 billion) a year to the United States while the seal hunt generates just C$16.5 million a year, mostly from pelt sales.
"I think that they (the Canadian government) are feeling the heat ... they can see the really serious implication of going ahead with the hunt this year," said Pat Ragan of the Humane Society of the United States.
Ragan said the campaign would target restaurant chains such as Red Lobster -- a unit of Darden Restaurants Inc. -- that buy Canadian seafood.
"We're going to be encouraging consumers to enter into dialogue with their grocery stores and their restaurants and say 'Please don't serve Canadian seafood' or 'I won't buy Canadian seafood until this hunt is over'," she told Reuters.
Some activists are already in the Atlantic region to watch the hunt. Officials said that if too many observers turn up they would be prevented from interfering with the hunt.
See, they're getting it wrong. They're not supposed to slam activists. They're supposed to slam the seals. :)
The seal hunt still separates Canada from the rest of the euroweenies who would never do anything so barbaric. So, I still retain a little hope for Canada.
Hmm..all i care about is how they taste (seals that is, and no, not the ones from BUD/S!).
Yes, especially since none of the batters are being tested for steroids first!
LOL
LOL!!!
O Whacking Day, O Whacking Day
That jubilant seal-smacking day ...
If I could afford to eat there, I'd go to Red Lobster and ask for Canadian seafood.
Eco-nuts do not have the environment or animal populations in their interests- they only have destroying people as their interest.
Can I club seals with an activist? I promise I won't actually hurt any seals I'll club rocks instead.
See, they're getting it wrong. They're not supposed to slam activists. They're supposed to slam the seals. :)
Personally I'd rather slam the seals and club the Activists :P
It's either club the baby seals or feed, house and cloth the unemployed fishermen for life.
Name that movie:
I'll club a seal to make a better deal!
Clubbing Seals? Why not Croft too?
Batter Up!
"pictures of hunters clubbing defenseless animals to death have turned the event into an annual public relations nightmare for the government."
Instead of clubs they should use Nukes. It would takes care of the seals and the PETA photographers at the same time....
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