Why end the seal hunt?
...Because no one should be allowed to club a little white baby seal!Newfoundland and Labrador uses rifles not clubs or hakapiks, and the whitecoat pup is not killed and hasn't been for many years.
...But the hunt still kills baby seals less than three months old!If this is the criteria for proposing an end to the hunt then there will follow a ban on a great number of globally consumed items including chicken, veal and lamb.
Lamb refers to young sheep aging from one week to about eight months. Hothouse lamb is one to two weeks old. Baby lamb is four to six weeks old. Regular lamb supermarket variety lamb which includes the oily and less palatable mutton is six weeks to one year in age.
Milk-fed veal comes from not yet weaned calves up to three months old. Formula-fed calves may be up to four months old. Bob veal comes from calves only one month old.
Chickens are reared until they reach about 12 weeks old. Conventional supermarket variety chickens are slaughtered at 6 weeks old.
...the hunt is inhumane!The seal hunt has been proven to be a humane hunt in keeping with and in fact an improvement on slaughterhouse techniques. The seal hunt has also shown a willingness to grow and adapt to methods which ensure a more humane hunt. If inhumane killing is the reason to end the hunt then the industry would adapt to any recommendations made my veterinary groups as they have in the past.
...The hunt is not sustainable!
The herd has grown 300% in thirty years. Only a fraction of the animals are taken as they would in any inland wildlife hunt.
...It is the "Largest Slaughter of Marine Mammals in the World"!Six Million seals in close proximity off Northern Newfoundland Eastern Labrador. "The Front" is a population of marine mammals which is unprecedented on the globe. The fact that such a large hunt that still sustains the numbers points to its enormous population size.
...Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are cruel barbarians!What sensible human being can believe that the Newfoundlander or Labradorian is any less of a person than themselves! This is the most despicable argument perpetrated by hate mongers like capt. Paul. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are some of the most kindhearted people in the world. People from all over visit and eventually stay here because they've found something unique in the world. The province hosted thousands of stranded passengers when planes were grounded on 9/11. An American gentleman rescued from a shipwreck when he was a youth credits Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as the first people that made him feel like he was an equal when the colour of his skin was not an issue with the locals who took him in and nursed him back to health. The poorest province has the highest in charity. The Newfoundland and Labrador character is one of the friendliest, most charitable, and compassionate people in the world. Ask someone who has been there. Other than Capt. Paul.
...Seals are only killed for fur, the meat is not eaten.The seal can and should be utilized 100%. The coat makes a high quality fur, and leather. The thick fat reserves can be used for anything from a source of Omega-3 health supplement to oils and soaps to bio fuel. In fact the oils have been used traditionally in small stone lanterns for heat and light. The flippers and body are a local delicacy and enjoyed by a great number of people. The remainer can be used as feed and pet food at the very low end of possible use. Currently the protest groups themselves have hampered any efforts to make effective use of the protein biomass. The protest groups create a self-fulfilling prophesy which benefits only their own bottom line.
...The seal hunt is not the primary income of the fisherman and it not necessary to their living!Fisherman are seasonal workers and have been for generations. Typically income from the seal hunt is an important part of an annual salary which may include other sources of income in other seasons, cod, crab, capelin, plant work, farming- the list of a fisherman's yearly duties is long. Each one essential to his/her total income for the year.
...If all of this is true why then is the anti-sealing movement so strong?The seal protest movement is enormously well funded. There is multitudes more money made from donations to seal hunt protest groups than is ever made on the seal hunt itself. The reason people donate is simple, a photo of a whitecoat elicits an emotional response. IFAW, Seashepherd, HSUS all prominently use the image of a seal in their logos, marketing campaigns and appeals for money. In the end a simple photo of a cute whitecoat seal can not be rivaled by any photo of a fishermen's family. No other meat or fur production on the whole globe is as publicly displayed as the seal hunt off Newfoundland and Labrador.
The seal hunt movement focuses on Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. It does not make any attempts to isolate any native groups in any way, in fact the EU ban has exemptions for native hunts. It also rarely mentions other hunts including in the US. Few realize that seals are hunted in America. Why is this so? The Newfoundland and Labrador people are an easy target, only a half-million people in total on the island and in Labrador. The province itself is the poorest in Canada and weakly supported by the federal government because it has only 7 seats of 308 in parliament, the seal hunt being federal jurisdiction means that support must come federally to be effective.
Largely unopposed the machine of influence that is the marketing campaigns of the IFAW, Sea Shepherd, HSUS etc. run amok.
