[theia]

I know I don't post much in the PRT, but one thing you should know about me is that I love animals. Pretty much all of them. I'm the type of person who will rescue a bug in my house and put it back outside so it can live out its little life without being stepped on or tormented by one of our cats or our dog.<br><br>
So when I hear about a ritualized practice that abuses, tortures, or otherwise harms defenseless animals, I am outraged.<br><br>
The annual seal hunt began today in Canada. Before it's over, 250,000 baby seals -- many of them only weeks or months old -- will be slaughtered for their pelts.<br><br>
If you find this offensive, please do as I did and visit this site<br><br><a href="http://www.stopthesealhunt.ca/site/c.jhKSIZPzEmE/b.2607991/k.B25F/Stop_the_Seal_Hunt__300000_Actions_for_300000_Seals.htm" target="_blank">http://www.stopthesealhunt.ca/site/c...0000_Seals.htm</a>.<br><br>
You can send a quick email to the Canadian government to let them know you oppose the hunt. If you want additional information, you can also check out <a href="http://www.hsus.org/" target="_blank">http://www.hsus.org/</a>.<br><br>
Thank you for reading.

 

[Mrtambalynman]

How so ritualized?

 

[theia]

Maybe that's the wrong word. What I meant was that it's an annual tradition. It's endorsed by the government. It's a regular practice at this time of year.

 

[wanttorun100]

so this baby seal goes into a bar<br><br>
barman says 'whaddya have buddy?'<br><br>
baby seal says 'anything but canada club'<br><br>
on a serious note - what wrong with harvesting a renewable resource?

 

[Horrible Peanut]

They're protecting the resource- not harvesting it.<br>
The seals tend to over-propagate.<br>
The seal hunt culls the tribes- otherwise- they starve and die horrible miserable deaths.

 

[Buxtehude]

<b>Theia,</b> thank you for the link!<br><br><img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

 

[Mrtambalynman]

Ah, I see. I spent some time in Newfoundland as a kid living in an outport. Its a hardscrabble life. The seal hunt was an important economic activity back then. It died out over time, but came back with the crash of the Cod fishery.

 

[ferrellk]

The following is a verbatim quote from a former CHer. She posted this during a debate on this topic 2 years ago at the old CH. She is a bright woman, background in wildlife biology, Canadian, well versed in the subject and after reading her responses during the debate my opinion on the hunt changed.<br><br>

 

[ferrellk]

And more from the same poster. (I saved the responses because they were so well put.)<br><br>

 

[Horrible Peanut]

Ferrell <img alt="mad.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/mad.gif"> Spoil Sport!!!

 

[tigger]

I also lived in an outport as a child! (NE coast) I couldn't agree with you more. Seal meat was a dietary staple around this time of the year. Outport women made clothes from skins, oil from blubber and stew from the carcass. Lots of young men never returned from hunts on the pack ice. Still they went because they had to for survival. Someone from our culture should not condemn a way of life that has existed for centuries.<br><br>
I also spent time up in Greenland where seals are necessary for survival. They look at seal as we look at domestic animals like pigs or cattle. (Older seals only come to the ice pack to give birth, otherwise living in the ocean where they are difficult to catch. That's why the young ones are taken...because they remain on the ice when a human walks by, wheras the older ones will head back into the water.) I wonder how many people think about condemning pig barns or feed lots while eathing their Easter ham or steak dinner?

 

[ferrellk]

I refuse to let emotion outweigh a more measured (and realistic) analysis of the situation.

 

[OldBaldHippie]

don't they just get in the way of us drilling for oil?

 

[Horrible Peanut]

<img alt="love5.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/love5.gif"><i>swoon</i>

 

[ElDuderino]

Hunting for personal economic and sustenance reasons is far more ethical than dropping in at the local grocery to pick up a couple pounds of meat. Sustainable animal "production" is possible, and more likely to occur in local hunting communities like in Newfoundland than in a mass production animal farm.

 

[Grizzly]

And we need to not forget about the aboriginal (Innu and Inuit) hunters on the coast of Labrador. For them it IS a question of sustenance.

 

[maccabeth]

Wow. Not what I expected to find when I opened this thread.<br><br>
I am vegetarian because I have the luxury to be so. I am not against people who have to hunt for sheer sustenance. Obviously. But I cannot ever condone killing animals for fashion and saying it's the only economic solution. It is possible to leave where you're at if it's so dire you have to do a job where you can possibly die.

 

[ferrellk]

This statement presumes a lot, I think.<br><br>
Sounds "easy" on paper. Not so easy in practice.

 

[tigger]

Jews in Europe tried back in the '30's and were turned back. Most people in Zimbawbwe would rather move I think. Possibly Iraq as well. Palistinians have no choice.<br><br>
But back to the location in question. Indeed, many thousands of Newfoundlanders have left the rock to find work elsewhere. Towns like Ft McMurray in N Alta have more Newfs than any other provincial group. Many others truly believe sun rays crown their land. They stay because they are eternal optimists, inspite of the collapse of the inshore and offshore fisheries, the isolation and relative lack of industrialization. They love their homeland just as you love yours. Why should they go elsewhere when they believe themselves, in God and in the annual return of the seals?<br><br>
Oh yeah....did I mention the billions of barrels of offshore oil?

 

[maccabeth]

Yes, I considered the feeling of "home" when I wrote that. But my point is that if the job is so tough you could die, wouldn't you at least *try* to leave? Even if you die leaving, then at least you tried instead of just saying "that's the way it is". People throughout history have left. It's not really the same thing to compare Iraq/Palestine to Newfoundland. They aren't in a war zone there.<br><br>
I am here typing this today because some Jews made it out of E. Europe in the early 1900s.