Canada's Seal Hunt

[Babbler]

Before seal hunt, a war of words

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Protesters, celebrities and fishermen were gearing up for Canada's hotly debated seal hunt, set to get under way this week in the gulf off the Atlantic Ocean.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has given a cold shoulder to French film legend Bridgette Bardot, who intends to visit Ottawa on Wednesday to implore the federal government to end the regulated slaughter of some 325,000 harp seals.

Hearn told the St. John's Telegram in Newfoundland, where the largest leg of the hunt takes place, that he turned down a request by Bardot to meet during her visit.

"It just furthers their cause," Hearn said, referring to the attention such a meeting would generate for the hunt's opponents.

Bardot made waves in the 1970s when she first came to Canada to protest the annual hunt and posed with the doe-eyed pups.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also turned down a meeting with the former sex symbol.

"My responsibilities are about the ... needs of Canadians," he said. "I don't intend to participate in the actions of famous people for publicity."

Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, took to the ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean two weeks ago to frolic with seal pups and highlight the work of anti-seal hunt efforts by the Humane Society and other animal protection groups.

The McCartneys made a passionate appeal against the hunt, saying officials should consider developing eco-tourism in place of the hunt, which he described as brutal and "a stain on the character of the Canadian people."

Fisheries officials and sealers say the annual hunt provides badly needed income for the isolated fishing communities in Atlantic Canada, as well as food and shelter for the aboriginal Inuits in the Arctic North.

About 320,000 seals pups were killed during the hunt last year, bringing the local fishermen $14.5 million in supplemental income during the winter offseason. Federal officials say fishing communities of Quebec and Newfoundland, whose livelihoods were devastated when the Atlantic cod stocks dried up in the 1990s, earn 25 percent to 40 percent of their annual income by selling the seal pelts and blubber for about $70 each.

The dates for the spring leg of the hunt have yet to be announced as the unseasonably mild temperatures in Atlantic Canada have made the ice thin. But sealers and federal fisheries officials believe it will get under way by Friday or Saturday. It can last from three to 10 days, depending on hunting conditions.

The quota for the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is 91,000 harp seals.

The bulk of the seal hunt takes place in April, when it moves the north coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, where sealers can take 224,000 animals this year.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Should Canada stop the seal hunt?

IIHO, No. These people need jobs and we need to control the seal population, which eat the cod. So long as the hunt is regulated to stop excess, I am fine with it.

 

[h4ppy]

I enjoy beating small animals to death so I support the seal hunt.

 

[MjM]

Meant to click yes.

 

[Taliesin]

There was a great Larry King Live show from Charlottetown, I think, featuring Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams arguing against the McCartneys. I use "argue" loosely, because the McCartneys barely offered anything that is worthy of the term, and in short Williams owned them (despite the McCartneys being given considerably more speaking time). As a result of reading the transcript, I know that Lady McCartney is one of my least favourite people ever.

 

[Urederra]

I support hunting briggitte Bardott.

Did greenpeace hire kangooroo hunters to film them killing baby seals and move the world opinion with made up movies again?

 

[jonatas]

No. These people need jobs and we need to control the seal population, which eat the cod. So long as the hunt is regulated to stop excess, I am fine with it.

If we want the codstocks to replenish, we have to stop trawling them to death off the Grand Banks. Management of the codstocks has been horrible and is our own collective fault (because there are various nations in addition to ourselves, like Spain, involved who have a habit of not respecting international regulations).

As for the seal hunt, at least find a humane way of hunting them.

 

[newfangle]

Great article Taliesin.

There are much more important things people worth billions should worry about. This "rock-star-saving-the-universe" crap is getting more than annoying.

 

[Xanikk999]

Meant to click yes.

I meant to click yes also.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Great article Taliesin.

There are much more important things people worth billions should worry about. This "rock-star-saving-the-universe" crap is getting more than annoying.

I agree. These celebrities really annoy me.

And besides, Newfies need jobs too.

 

[jamiethearcher]

you need to provide some really graphic pictures of a brute of a man bashing in a cute little seal, and then the seal dead in a pool of its own blood, which is of course very disgusting against the white snow......

EDIT: here is a picture of the seal alive, I havent yet found any brutal death pics:

Isn't he cute?

EDIT AGAIN: here we go:

 

[Red Stranger]

I bet these are the same people that want free range chicken. First you can't eat animal in captivity, then you can't eat animal from the wild, soon you can't even eat potatoes because it kills the plant. When will they end?

 

[bhsup]

I voted no, but I do have one question. Do they taste good?

 

[h4ppy]

Look at all that meat they wasted in that picture.

 

[Drewcifer]

The fact that an animal is cute should have no bearing on whether it should be legal to hunt it. The attempt to ban this is the top of a slippery slope that ends with all of us having to chose between being Vegans or Criminals.

If they were clubbing baby cockroaches nobody would care.

 

[Aramazd]

The Seal Hunt should stay legal. The fishermen are obviously going to need to hunt if they make 25-40% of their income from them.

 

[jamiethearcher]

If they were clubbing baby cockroaches nobody would care.

Au contraire mon ami - if they were clubbing cockroaches, I would pay them to KEEP doing it. DISGUSTING little creatures.

 

[Babbler]

My brother and I agree with h4ppy.

Great article Taliesin.

There are much more important things people worth billions should worry about. This "rock-star-saving-the-universe" crap is getting more than annoying.

Yes -- Paul McCartney, Bridgette Bardott, Pamela Anderson et al. should mind their own damn business.

 

[Urederra]

I voted no, but I do have one question. Do they taste good?

A newfie friend of mine told me that they taste awful. They only eat fish and therefore they taste like fish, the bad kind, I guess, since I like fish.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Well, if you want any chance of having the cod population revive itself, seal populations might have to be controlled. Obviously the cod problem was initially human-caused, but that is beside the point if you want to save the fishery now.

Man, that picture sure is disgusting. I know that all animals we eat die and look sort of like that after, but geez man, did you have to post that?

 

[Goonie]

Au contraire mon ami - if they were clubbing cockroaches, I would pay them to KEEP doing it. DISGUSTING little creatures.

You realize you just made his point.