Attention animal rights activists!

[RoyalCanadian]

Although the majority of Canadians oppose this cruel and unnecessary hunt, it is promoted, protected and subsidized every year with their tax dollars.

I'm guessing that the WSPA folks didn't pass too many of their mathematics classs if they can't get "great than/less than" done correctly. An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted in February 2005 showed that 60% of Canadians were in favour of the seal hunt.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

A Betrayal of the Facts

Rebecca Aldworth certainly has managed to get the sense of the dramatic down right. Too bad she can't get her facts right and is incredibly condescending to those who choose to accept any else than the HSUS party line.

I don't know why she wastes her time defending Sir Paul and Heather McCartney. The truth of the matter is that the HSUS did an incredibly poor job in preparing them for the photo opp on the ice pack. The McCartney's actually believed the seal population was endangered. The least Rebecca Aldworth could have done, if she is so familiar with Newfoundland, was to let the McCartneys know that they weren't in Newfoundland when they were interviewed live on Larry King and told Newfoundland premier Danny Williams that they were in Newfoundland. Sir Paul and "the little woman" were in Prince Edward Island at the moment.

Canadians are well-informed about the seal hunt. Our newspapers report on it on a daily basis and, while these might not print the facts in the same fashion as the New York Times (Oh right -- they hire plagiarists as reporters) Canadian newspapers are also dedicated to telling the facts. The facts are that Sir Paul and "the little woman" are just more eco-tourons (a cross between a tourist and a moron) who also happen to be celebrities whose star has long since faded. In 2005 it was Richard Dean Anderson (better known as MacGyver) who was paraded in front of the news media to look at cute whitecoats. This year we had the McCartneys, Brigitte Bardot and Pamela Anderson.

Rebecca Aldworth should also consult the financial reports of the HSUS before she proclaims them to be entirely non-profit. Seems to me that they made quite a bit of money last year and didn't nearly spend it all -- adding more millions to the net assets of the corporation. Sounds like a profit to me.

As for this year, and perhaps for years to come, Rebecca's days of monitoring the seal hunt are over as she has been charged with interfering with the seal hunt and her observer status has been revoked. She seems to be worried that the HSUS folks still out monitoring the hunt won't be able to twist the facts in the same fashion she does. In true Yankee fashion, she has decided to sue the Canadian government to let her back onto the ice so she can interfere just a little more.

 

[MouseWorshipin]

Showing off my ignorance here, but who is boycotting Denmark, and why?

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

Showing off my ignorance here, but who is boycotting Denmark, and why?

Most of the Islamic nations are boycotting Denmark because a newspaper in Denmark, Jyllands-Posten, printed some rude pictures of the prophet Muhammad. In the Islam world it is considered offensive to depict their prophet in drawings of any kind, but especially as the newspaper did it. They were definitely in poor taste and few people deny that fact. However, the Islam world is taking it out on the whole country and boycotting products from Denmark made by companies that had nothing to do with the drawings. I'm personally against the boycott for many reasons. But mostly, although the pictures were in extremely poor taste, I feel that Jyllands-Posten still had the right to post them. To say otherwise would be to chip away at their right to free speech, which I'm sure they value as much as we do. It shouldn't be illegal to post the pictures. Now if the Muslims wanted to boycott Jyllands-Posten, I would think they had that right. But to take it out on the whole country because the government isn't arresting the people at the Jyllands-Posten is, in my opinion, wrong.


Didn’t you see it on TV or in newspapers? Muslims all over the world were rioting over this; setting buildings on fire and burning the Danish flag. Many poeple died in several different Muslim nations. It was in the news daily for about a month.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

But to take it out on the whole country because the government isn't arresting the people at the Jyllands-Posten is, in my opinion, wrong

Especially since the editor of the newspaper apologized for offending Danish Muslims. The Danish Muslims accepted the apology -- should be end of the story there. The main protagonists behind the protests were the Syrian and Iranian security agencies. Denmark is scheduled to assume the seat of the UN Security Council at some point in 2006 and both Syria and Iran "have some 'splaining to do" to the UN about some of their recent actions. Always nice to completely discredit the UNSC chair before this has to happen.

 

[jess_denmark]

As for this year, and perhaps for years to come, Rebecca's days of monitoring the seal hunt are over as she has been charged with interfering with the seal hunt and her observer status has been revoked. She seems to be worried that the HSUS folks still out monitoring the hunt won't be able to twist the facts in the same fashion she does. In true Yankee fashion, she has decided to sue the Canadian government to let her back onto the ice so she can interfere just a little more.

March 26: Targeting Seals and Observers

March 26, 2006

By Rebecca Aldworth

GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE—The second day of Canada’s commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence opened in the midst of a thick fog. The grey sky reflected the mood of The HSUS ProtectSeals team. We were all well aware this would be a very difficult day, one in which we would witness many of the remaining seal pups being clubbed and shot to death for their fur.

We also knew that this might be the last day we could obtain footage of the hunt: There were so few seals in the area—bewildered looking pups trying their best to stay afloat on their precarious platforms of ice—and the sealers were quickly killing them off.

The night before we had dropped anchor between 11 sealing boats. All night we heard their chatter on the radios and watched their lights gleam across the inky ocean. They began to move at 4 a.m., and we were not far behind. As soon as it was fully light outside, we spotted four boats and sped in our small inflatable boats toward them.

I normally observe this hunt on foot because the ice floes are usually strong enough to support several helicopters. But this year the ice was thin and fragile, so we were forced to resort to basing ourselves on a larger vessel and deploying small, inflatable boats to move through the icy water. Sitting in the inflatables provided a unique perspective: I was filming from the same height as the seal pups—and those sealing vessels looked 10 times as intimidating.

We gained quickly on two large sealing boats, and they led us directly into an ice pack. As the ice closed in behind our inflatables, it became obvious that we had no means of escape. Almost immediately, the sealing boats turned and charged. We frantically tried to move our inflatables out of their way, backing up against the unyielding ice and struggling not to capsize in the sealing vessels’ wake as they narrowly missed hitting us.

Finally, the sealers moved on and began to shoot randomly at the pups lying across the ice. It was horrific to watch, the seals would hear the shouts of the sealers and crawl frantically to the edge of the ice pans, only to be struck by a bullet. Often, the bullets did not kill the seals immediately, and the sealer would shoot them again and again as they tried to escape. The air quickly became heavy and bitter with the smell of gun powder.

A three-week-old pup was shot several times as she frantically tried to escape beneath the water’s surface. As is often the case with open-water shoots, the seal slipped beneath the surface of the water and was never recovered.

The sealers on this vessel were resourceful: If the ice was thick enough, they would jump onto it and club the seals to death with a hakapik—a crude club with a metal spike on top. (Sealers prefer to club seals because the pelt processing company deducts several dollars from the price paid for each bullet hole found in it.) The sealers would hop from ice pan to ice pan, the baby seals looking up at them in alarm as the clubs struck down at them.

So many of the pups I saw killed were still almost completely covered in white fur, legally hunted because of a loophole in Canadian law that allows baby seals to be killed the moment they begin to shed their fluffy white coats. This often starts at 12 days.

We continued to follow these two vessels into a narrow channel of water between ice pans. The fog was moving in fast, and we lost sight of our larger vessel. Now we were alone, our inflatables completely unprotected against the sealing boats. Without warning, one of the sealing boats turned sharply and raced back toward us. We immediately backed up our inflatables but were again trapped against the ice. Watching the sealing vessel coming directly toward us at high speed, I was sure we would be capsized into the ocean. This was serious: If we were knocked into the frigid water, our survival suits could protect us for only a couple of minutes.

Our driver backed the inflatable up as far as he could against the ice, grinding our propeller into a floe. Just feet away, our other inflatable struggled just as helplessly. Together, we watched the sealing boat bear down on us. In some part of my mind, I took small comfort knowing that, should an official from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) be observing, we could not be accused of being violation of the conditions of our observation permits, which state that we must stay at least 10 meters from sealers in the pursuit of seals. The sealers on this boat were not trying to kill seals—there were none in our area. From where we were, it was clear they were trying to capsize us.

Until the very last moment, I thought the sealing boat would stop; the captain must have known that he was putting our lives at risk. But with a loud crash, the sealers rammed the inflatable next to us at high speed, damaging one of its propellers. The driver had no choice but to push his inflatable up onto an ice floe to escape—a dangerous maneuver but his only choice. We were caught in the wake, and our driver struggled to control the inflatable as the sealing vessel crashed by just a foot away. I shouted at the captain that he was breaking Canadian law and risking human lives. He smiled as he pulled away.

I looked up, and saw the reason for his humor—the second sealing vessel was now bearing down on us at a high speed. If it hit us, we would be finished. Thankfully, it swerved. I couldn’t understand why until I looked back and saw our larger, and more imposing, vessel appear miraculously out of the fog. These cowardly sealers were happy to take us on in our tiny boats, but they were not so anxious to do battle with a 120-foot vessel.

This kind of aggression is standard behavior for the sealers—I see it every year that I document this hunt. To document the killing, we must simply move on.

We caught up with another boat, and the sealers yelled at us, throwing seal carcasses in our direction. We filmed in horror as a sealer jumped off onto an ice pan, running with his hakapik raised towards a helpless whitecoat. He suddenly dropped to his knees and picked her up, only to slam the terrified pup into the ice and run back to his sealing boat, laughing. Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations forbid this kind of treatment of the seals, but we see it routinely up here. On these ice floes, the sealers have good reason to believe they are above the law.

Minutes later, a Canadian Coast Guard ice breaker moved into position and deployed a small motor boat full of DFO and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers. They approached our boat, and for one second I actually imagined they were coming to investigate the ramming incident. But of course they were not here to check on the sealers—they never are—they wanted to verify our observation permits. For the next half hour, they meticulously examined the permits, checking our identification against the paperwork. Then, grudgingly, they allowed us to proceed.

For the rest of the day, we filmed the slaughter of hundreds of baby seals. The climate of aggression continued, with sealing vessels charging at us repeatedly and throwing seal carcasses at our inflatables. At one point, two sealing boats chased us through the ice floes, and our vessel captain realized we were in serious trouble. He radioed repeatedly to the Coast Guard, asking for assistance. No one responded.

Once, a bloody flipper landed on the floor of the inflatable right before me. I could make out the rudimentary fingers that make up the flippers of the harp seal pups—they resemble human hands. For a moment I could only stare around me at the arena of carnage and chaos that these once-pristine ice floes had become. As tears streamed down my face, I vowed again to make this the last hunt any of us would ever have to witness.

Rebecca Aldworth is Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues for The HSUS.

 

[jess_denmark]

CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND—I write this journal not from the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where I should be documenting the seal hunt, but instead from Prince Edward Island.

Today I am ashamed of the behavior of my government—the Canadian government—which sunk to new lows to keep observers from recording the commercial slaughter of baby seals for their fur. In my eight years on the ice during the annual Canadian seal hunt, I have never seen such blatant misuse of power to stop observers from bearing witness to the cruelty on ice.

Late yesterday afternoon, I and six other legally permitted observers—including five staff members from The Humane Society of the United States and one media representative—were arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for allegedly violating the terms of our observation permits by coming within 10 meters of a sealing vessel while that vessel was in pursuit of seals.

Hours earlier, two sealing vessels had repeatedly charged at our small inflatable boats, putting us at risk as our boats pitched back and forth in their wake. Our main vessel was stationed nearby, and recognizing the threat we were under, our captain radioed a nearby Canadian Coast Guard boat twice, asking the Coast Guard for assistance. He received no response.

Thankfully, the sealers grew tired of their dangerous antics, and the two vessels moved off into the ice floes separately. We followed one, determined to continue documenting the slaughter.

Our two inflatable boats trailed the sealing vessel through the ice at a safe distance—at least 30 meters away. But suddenly the sealers turned around and cut us off. With heavy ice on one side and the sealing vessel bearing down on the other, we had no choice but to cross quickly in front of the sealing vessel to escape a collision.

At that moment, officers from the RCMP and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) exited the cabin of the sealing boat where they had been hidden from view. They called us over and accused us of having been within 10 meters of a sealing vessel. The RCMP officers immediately confiscated our footage of the hunt (including footage showing how we came to cross in front of the sealers' vessel) and then informed us that we were under arrest for violating the conditions of our observation permits. The five observers who were not Canadian were brought to the Coast Guard vessel and handcuffed. The Coast Guard held them for five and a half hours before finally returning them to our vessel.

No charges have yet been filed, but it has been made crystal clear to us by representatives of the DFO that they will not issue us any observation permits while the matter is being investigated. By the time this is resolved, the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence will be over.

In a calculated political move, the Canadian authorities have effectively prevented The HSUS, and any journalists who might be riding in our boats or helicopters from documenting the rest of this hunt. But their efforts are in vain: We have already filmed hours of the killing, and the footage is posted on our website.

As we waited for the American and British observers held captive on the Coast Guard boat to be returned to us, I stood on the deck of our vessel. It was now completely dark, and the sealing boats had already moved miles away from us to anchor for the night. As I looked out across the black ocean, I saw the massive and brightly lit Coast Guard boat stationed about half a mile away.

In the quiet, I began slowly coming to terms with the knowledge that the Canadian government will sink to any depths to protect the sealing industry.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but somehow I was. In the back of my mind, I had always hoped that the Coast Guard presence at the seal hunt each year might be intended to ensure the safety of observers as well. But a line was crossed when the Coast Guard failed to respond to our distress calls but came to the aid of the sealers by arresting seven peaceful observers for the alleged crime of getting out of the way of a sealing boat. It has now become very clear to me that if you try to document this hunt, the Canadian government will define you as its opponent.

Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Canadians oppose this seal hunt, the government agencies that are represented at this hunt—the RCMP, the DFO, and the Coast Guard—are there for one reason and one reason only: to stop the public from seeing the cruelty that happens just off the east coast.

The hunt is continuing, and I am devastated that we are unable to continue to bear witness. But I take some small comfort in the knowledge that the Canadian government would not sink to these depths unless it was very afraid of the effectiveness of our ProtectSeals campaign. I know that the government’s attempts to stop us from spreading the word about the obscenity that is the seal hunt have failed. We are winning.

Earlier in the day, two silvery adult harp seals swam by our inflatables, diving in and out of the water in tandem. They came close and then turned to gaze on us with their luminous black eyes. For a moment I felt like they were giving us a message, thanking us for our perseverance. I looked back and mentally promised them that we would do everything in our power to end this hunt for good.

The hunt observers, the seals, and the public have all been failed by my government. But I know with absolute certainty that with your support, The HSUS and our powerful network of like-minded organizations and individuals will make good on our promise—that we will end the Canadian seal slaughter. It is only a matter of time.

Rebecca Aldworth is Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues for The HSUS

 

[jess_denmark]

Confiscated Footage
Officials of the Canadian government appropriated this disturbing footage when they detained HSUS seal hunt observers for allegedly violating the terms of their permits. (Contains graphic footage.)

Footage

 

[jess_denmark]

There are also other ways to go about ending the commercial seal hunt:

Before this season’s hunt, IFAW filmed over 600 welfare violations. Enough is enough.

The world community should oppose the Canadian seal hunt as a matter of morality. Respect marine life, and Newfoundland’s human residents. End the hunt.

A holistic view of activism does not portray people struggling economically as demons. Activism works when workers — whether they be seal hunters or employees in a chicken or fish processing plant, in any town throughout the continent — are invested in change, and together we confront those who profit from objectionable acts. Thus, rather than insisting that the Canadian authorities “arrest sealers” the activism must be directed at the government, and the corporate power it serves.

The government makes excuses; it’s in the position to stop. Before Europeans settled the North American coast there were, according to the Green Party of Canada, some “24 million harp seals living in balance with so many fish that their abundance could impede the passage of ships.” Today, after decades of hunting, less than 5 million harp seals remain, and Canadian authorities appear to be on the verge of announcing a five-year plan which could involve the slaughter of more than a million animals. [Largest Seal Cull in Half a Century Reaches Bloody Climax, The Observer (27 Mar. 2005).]

Seal advocates in the countries that import seal fur — and especially Norway, a major redistribution point for seal fur — must insist that these governments put a permanent stop to their fur trading.

And we ask people throughout the world — especially Canadians — to insist that the representatives of the Canadian people stop the hunt subsidies immediately. Use the funds to build a real economic foundation for Newfoundlanders. Canada banned whale killing, and the economy adjusted. It’s long past time to end the seal hunt. Respect marine life, and Newfoundland’s human residents.

- Friends Of Animals

 

[jess_denmark]

And with these words I want to say thanks for the debate. It has been interesting indeed.

I hope this year is going to be the last of Canada's commercial seal hunt.

Thank you DL for starting this thread

 

[RoyalCanadian]

I hope this year is going to be the last of Canada's commercial seal hunt.

No reason to end it, is there really?

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

Yes of course there is reason to end the seal hunt and we feel we have proven our reasons!

 

[RoyalCanadian]

Yes of course there is reason to end the seal hunt and we feel we have proven our reasons!

Certainly not with fact -- only opinion. All the myths supplied by the HSUS, IFAW and other animal rights groups have been refuted by scientific and economic data. The opinions of veterinarians hired by the HSUS have been refuted by independent Canadian veterinarians publishing their research data in a peer reviewed journal. The misled, albeit well-intentioned, Sir Paul McCartney is home munching on a bowl of scouse and wondering just what province he was really in and probably wondering how it is that the HSUS thinks that a seal population of nearly 6 million and growing is considered endangered -- especially seeing how it has tripled in growth in 30 years. Oh, and Rebecca Aldworth's dramatics have only succeeded in getting her arrested by the world's finest law enforcement -- but she's convinced of a conspiracy against her group that would seem to have the Canadian prime minister directing fishing trawlers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

You guys should protect animals but don't say stuff like "Oh well it's wrong to do studies on animals to save human life." That crosses the line people.

How many millions of people would be dead if Drs. Banting and Best didn't remove a dog's pancreas so they could test insulin injections?

 

[MouseWorshipin]

Most of the Islamic nations are boycotting Denmark because a newspaper in Denmark, Jyllands-Posten, printed some rude pictures of the prophet Muhammad. In the Islam world it is considered offensive to depict their prophet in drawings of any kind, but especially as the newspaper did it. They were definitely in poor taste and few people deny that fact. However, the Islam world is taking it out on the whole country and boycotting products from Denmark made by companies that had nothing to do with the drawings. I'm personally against the boycott for many reasons. But mostly, although the pictures were in extremely poor taste, I feel that Jyllands-Posten still had the right to post them. To say otherwise would be to chip away at their right to free speech, which I'm sure they value as much as we do. It shouldn't be illegal to post the pictures. Now if the Muslims wanted to boycott Jyllands-Posten, I would think they had that right. But to take it out on the whole country because the government isn't arresting the people at the Jyllands-Posten is, in my opinion, wrong.


Didn’t you see it on TV or in newspapers? Muslims all over the world were rioting over this; setting buildings on fire and burning the Danish flag. Many poeple died in several different Muslim nations. It was in the news daily for about a month.

Oh, yeah. I thought the thing was aimed at people who read these boards...although I guess a few of them might. Thanks!

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

Then GOD said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth."

I'm not Christian, I do not believe in your God, and your religious beliefs mean nothing to me.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I'm not Christian, I do not believe in your God, and your religious beliefs mean nothing to me.

Well I am a Christian, I do believe in God, but these quotes are just nutty in the context of this thread.

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

Thanks mods!

 

[jess_denmark]

I see the thread is still up and running... one more thing then:

March 15, 2006


WASHINGTON- The Humane Society of the United States today released a groundbreaking study by world-renowned conservation biologist Professor Stephen Harris of Bristol University, which shows that the historic high kill levels in the Canadian commercial seal hunt pose a threat to the very survival of the harp seal population.

The study notes that over the past six years nearly 400,000 harp seals from the Northwest Atlantic population have been hunted annually by Canada and Greenland - the highest kill levels since the 1950s. The vast majority are slaughtered in Canada. Given these reported kill levels and the estimated struck and lost rates (wounded animals who escape and are not recovered), more than half of all the seal pups born each year are slaughtered.

"When such hunting pressure last occurred, the harp seal population declined rapidly by over 50 percent," said Professor Harris. "Given seals only reach breeding age at about five to six years old, it could be too late to intervene by the time the impacts of current hunting levels are understood."

The Harris report strongly criticizes the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans for failing to take into account significant environmental variables, such as climate change, in their management plan. The report also notes the current DFO population estimate for harp seals relied on a very small sample size – less than 2 percent of the breeding site was evaluated to extrapolate the population.

The report notes that several other Canadian fisheries have collapsed over the years as a consequence of many variables, including environmental change and mismanagement. But despite the uncertainties surrounding the estimates of harp seal numbers and the uncertainty surrounding many other variables, the Canadian harp seal management model does not apply a precautionary principle and so threatens the survival of seal populations.

"The DFO has a long and documented track record of overestimating marine populations and allowing species to be fished into commercial extinction," stated Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for The HSUS. "Regardless of their management plans, we know the current kill levels for harp seals are not sustainable. The last time we allowed sealers to kill this many seals, the harp seal population rapidly crashed."

 

[kristen821]

signed!