I am leaving this post public because it is very important to me and I want everyone to be able to see this and realize what is going on
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The image of an adorable seal pup always earns sympathy. Sharks? ...Not so much, haha.
I hope I don't offend you, because I swear that's not what I mean to do. I don't want to look at this issue in a way that only takes into account that seals are cute and defenseless. It's too black and white, because the hunt is in many ways no different from raising cattle for meat and leather. The reality is that humans always have and always will use and consume animal products. So the problem for me is not the hunt itself, but that many seals suffer as a result. I definitely think more rigid restrictions are needed, and that every method should be used to make sure the hunt is as humane as possible. From the IFAW report I read (the one done by a team of veterinarians), Canada has a long way to go.
What bothers me is that there are so many misconceptions about the seal hunt. The hunting and selling of young, whitecoat seals has been banned since the eighties. It takes a month for pups to moult and become self-sufficient, and only then does it become legal. I'm not sure what the black market is for whitecoats, but I expect that if it does exist, it's not very large. People often ignore the other side of the issue, which is the repercussions of ending the hunt. It's largely ignored by activists, but it presents a serious problem. If not culled, the seal population, which is still healthy in Canada today, would increase to the point where other species become endangered. Going along with that, the cod population on the East Coast collapsed in the eighties, and it hasn't recovered. A combination of both those problems would make it incredibly difficult for the communities that rely on fishing as a source of income.
x: reposted because icon was totally off from the comment.
Yeah, I'm an animal lover and ever since I was a little kid, I had a HUGE thing for seals and sea lions so I'm kinda biased. And we talked a lot about the fishing industry in class in regards to this. Obviously the fishing industry is having lots of issues right now, but killing seals isn't going to help as much as they think. It's easier for people to blame the lack of fish on seals than it is to blame it on people for overfishing. I'm no PETA person as I said earlier, but I'm against hunting for pretty much anything other than food. With cows, pigs, etc. we're using all parts of the animal extremely efficiently and let's face it...these critters are not going to survive in the wild after thousands of years of domestication. But my issue is mainly the cruelty that goes along with it. When it comes to deer hunting, the deer are shot and die quickly in most cases. With cows/pigs/chickens, these animals are dead before they even knows what's coming. They are eletrocuted or shot through the head so they die instantly. With the seals, these things are being chased and killed by being stabbed to death with a pick-axe. That's so not humane. One video i saw, the guy dragged, a still-fighting seal out of the water by the pick axe and didn't even finish it off that quickly. I thought that was just cruel and heartbreaking. If the animal has to die, I'd just like them to be able to die without suffering.
I think it's a little naive to believe that livestock is always killed humanely. I'm not a PETA person either, but those animals often suffer, and with such a large industry, the number of cases are high. As far as the video you mentioned goes, I've heard of it as well, and it's sickening. But it's not a common case. Most seals are killed with rifles or blunt force trauma to the head with a hakapik (the pick-axe). It's the weapon usually seen in photos, and it's not pretty. Public perception of the hunt seems to be based on emotion rather than understanding, and on animal welfare sites the factual information takes a backstage. Hakapiks appear brutal, but they're actually the most humane method. Used properly, the blunt end delivers a blow that would cause instant death, which IFAW has recognized. The problem they present is that it's not always used properly, and should only be applied to young seals. 58% of the seals examined by the IFAW team showed extensive fractures related to death or total unconsciousness, but the remaining 42% likely had some level of awareness (24% moderate, 17% minor). I referred to those statistics when I said Canada has a long way to go. That percentage is unacceptable.
The fish industry collapsed due to poor management and practise, and I think most people realize it. Nobody blames seals for the collapse. But they're predators, and an overabundance of predators endangers other species. Usually the ecosystem would balance itself, but in the state it's in now, it wouldn't easily be able to. Like two problems snowballing into one, if that makes any sense. Just like lion populations in African reserves need to be culled, so do harp seals. I wish there was a way around it. I've read that that the quotas are too high, though I haven't gone into much depth about it. I think they plan to curb the hunt if the seal population dips below 4.1 million, and I would hope that the government learned something from what happened with the disastrous overfishing of cod.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think the seal hunt is necessary, if not now then in the future, but it has the potential be done in a way that's humane. The recommendations I've read by IFAW are all logical and straightforward, and I honestly don't understand why Canada hasn't made the amendments.
I hope I don't offend you, because I swear that's not what I mean to do. I don't want to look at this issue in a way that only takes into account that seals are cute and defenseless. It's too black and white, because the hunt is in many ways no different from raising cattle for meat and leather. The reality is that humans always have and always will use and consume animal products. So the problem for me is not the hunt itself, but that many seals suffer as a result. I definitely think more rigid restrictions are needed, and that every method should be used to make sure the hunt is as humane as possible. From the IFAW report I read (the one done by a team of veterinarians), Canada has a long way to go.
What bothers me is that there are so many misconceptions about the seal hunt. The hunting and selling of young, whitecoat seals has been banned since the eighties. It takes a month for pups to moult and become self-sufficient, and only then does it become legal. I'm not sure what the black market is for whitecoats, but I expect that if it does exist, it's not very large. People often ignore the other side of the issue, which is the repercussions of ending the hunt. It's largely ignored by activists, but it presents a serious problem. If not culled, the seal population, which is still healthy in Canada today, would increase to the point where other species become endangered. Going along with that, the cod population on the East Coast collapsed in the eighties, and it hasn't recovered. A combination of both those problems would make it incredibly difficult for the communities that rely on fishing as a source of income.
x: reposted because icon was totally off from the comment.
Reply
And we talked a lot about the fishing industry in class in regards to this. Obviously the fishing industry is having lots of issues right now, but killing seals isn't going to help as much as they think. It's easier for people to blame the lack of fish on seals than it is to blame it on people for overfishing.
I'm no PETA person as I said earlier, but I'm against hunting for pretty much anything other than food. With cows, pigs, etc. we're using all parts of the animal extremely efficiently and let's face it...these critters are not going to survive in the wild after thousands of years of domestication.
But my issue is mainly the cruelty that goes along with it. When it comes to deer hunting, the deer are shot and die quickly in most cases. With cows/pigs/chickens, these animals are dead before they even knows what's coming. They are eletrocuted or shot through the head so they die instantly. With the seals, these things are being chased and killed by being stabbed to death with a pick-axe. That's so not humane. One video i saw, the guy dragged, a still-fighting seal out of the water by the pick axe and didn't even finish it off that quickly. I thought that was just cruel and heartbreaking. If the animal has to die, I'd just like them to be able to die without suffering.
Reply
The fish industry collapsed due to poor management and practise, and I think most people realize it. Nobody blames seals for the collapse. But they're predators, and an overabundance of predators endangers other species. Usually the ecosystem would balance itself, but in the state it's in now, it wouldn't easily be able to. Like two problems snowballing into one, if that makes any sense. Just like lion populations in African reserves need to be culled, so do harp seals. I wish there was a way around it. I've read that that the quotas are too high, though I haven't gone into much depth about it. I think they plan to curb the hunt if the seal population dips below 4.1 million, and I would hope that the government learned something from what happened with the disastrous overfishing of cod.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think the seal hunt is necessary, if not now then in the future, but it has the potential be done in a way that's humane. The recommendations I've read by IFAW are all logical and straightforward, and I honestly don't understand why Canada hasn't made the amendments.
Reply
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