Canada’s Sin: The Seal Slaughter
As a Canadian, I can tell you that my fellow countrymen pride themselves greatly on living in a humane and compassionate society — a society that many of them believe is vastly morally superior to the United States. While there is absolutely no substance whatsoever to legitimize such a view, it is clear why many Canadians need to believe it: Canada’s very identity is rooted in anti-Americanism. When Canadians feel patriotic, they usually express this sentiment by saying something critical about Americans, rather than articulating something intrinsically definitive about Canada. And that’s understandable: aside from the various boastful (and embarrassing) references to the Canadian health care system, which has sadly come to define Canadian identity, it is almost impossible for Canadians to be certain about who they are — except that they aren’t Americans. A strong argument could actually be made that without anti-Americanism, Canada would simply cease to exist.
With all of the smug self-congratulation shamelessly exhibited recently by Canadian personalities and television announcers during the Vancouver Olympics (for which Canadians would scoffingly ridicule Americans if they had engaged in even a fraction of such self-patting on the back), I couldn’t help but wonder: in terms of a certain grotesque and inhumane policy currently supported by the Canadian government, how can any citizen in the land of the Maple Leaf see himself as living in an enlightened and compassionate society?
Visualize this, if you would, for a moment:
A man with a spiked club approaches a defenseless seal pup and begins to beat it mercilessly until the pup is bloodied, pulverized and semi-conscious. The attacker then drives a hook into the seal pup’s eye or nose and drags it across the ice. Then he skins the pup while it is still alive. The mother of the pup watches from a close distance, squealing in agony — after it helplessly tried to get in between her baby and the clubber to protect her offspring. The convulsing carcass is left on the ice for its mother to sniff and grieve over.
This is the real-life and monstrous reality of Canada’s commercial seal hunt. If you want to witness the barbarity with your own eyes, watch this video.
The savagery of the Canadian seal massacre is completely unacceptable for any society that considers itself humane. Ninety five percent of the seals are babies less than four weeks old; they are still suckling their mom’s milk and have not eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. They are helpless on the ice. The sealers shoot these baby seals or use hakapiks, long, sharply hooked metal clubs, to bludgeon them, leaving them to suffer on the ice in pools of blood for extended periods of time. The baby seals are left terrified and crying from the torture, until the sealers return to bludgeon them once again and then skin them alive without even checking if they are dead. Oftentimes the baby seals are cut open with box cutters while they are still alive — inches away from each other and in full sight of their weeping on-looking mothers. Some seals slide under the ice and drown; others escape after they are shot or stabbed — only to die a slow and painful death.
And how many baby humans were aborted today?
AMEN! I’ll feel sorry for a stupid animal when I hear more people demand an end to the brutal murders of innocent human babies who aren’t even born yet.
We seem to have a bleeding heart liberal in our midst. Someone who thinks that wild animals killed by other wild animals must not suffer. That empathy should be a natural human instinct towards animals. I should probably go scour the interwebs and see if there are articles from this person that inform us that plants enjoy the sound of music, molds are happy when it people laugh near them, that animals are human and ethically speaking we cannot eat any of these grand forms of life. Perhaps dirt and water will feed us, cloth us, and shelter us. I doubt it though, I am guessing this nature person is just another one of those people who find the seal cute and because they are cute humans should just leave them alone. He talks about how the killing is done in a inhumane way, perhaps thinking that trying to convince people that it could be done in a much more humane way, in which it is eventually found that for people like this author, there is no humane way to accomplish the end goal we humans have for ourselves. Similar to death row inmates. Firing squad, beheading, hanging are way too inhumane, you have to find a more humane way. Electric chair, lethal gas, lethal injection, nope, those too are inhumane as well, and any other form of death will fall into that same category for these bleeding hearts.
They are the same humans who tell us that nuclear power is evil and we cannot use it, effectively destroying our best energy source for base load electricity. Then behind our backs they start a cult worshiping Anthropogenic Global Warming Church and the new enemy is fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. The only choice they point us to are turning our food into fuel, and building grotesquely expensive solar power and wind power which are also grossly inefficient and sporadic in nature. When companies start to clear the land to plant the new fuel producing crops, the bleeding hearts say that you cannot destroy the forests! When we start to lay the groundwork to build wind farms the bleeding hearts scream NOT IN MY BACKYARD! When we start to lay the groundwork for solar farms, suddenly there are animals there and you cannot build there! If we ever get fusion to power our world there will be a reason we cannot use that as well.
Sorry charlie, or what ever your name is author of this pathetic article, but Americans are sick and tired of the environmentalists standing in our way of prosperity, and there are people who do actually enjoy the feeling of seal fur to keep them warm. There are plenty of them, in fact the reason Canada does the kill off is because some time in the past the natural predators of the seals were killed off and now it is actually more humane to kill them, then let them grow up, grow in large quantities and die of starvation while at the same time destroying other wildlife that we humans want to kill and eat.
Why is this happening? Is there a market for baby seal fur? Who buys it?
Reading this sickened me.
America isn’t much better with the way some of our animals are treated in ‘life’ and before slaughter.
UGH Where is the HUMANE side humanity?
Nature is a tough place… maybe the author should ask the polar bear to rip his scalp off “humanely”
Jamie, dear, humans have killed animals to survive, just as many other animals kill other animals to survive, for all of human existence. I find it very interesting that the tree-huggers want humans to be more ‘of nature’, but at the same time want to redefine nature to exclude predation. And yeah, many of them are the same people who absolutely think that abortion is a human right. The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.
Spot on Laura.
Spot on Laura. We’ve gotten so far away from where our food comes from I bet people think that there’s a vat in the back of the supermarket where they grow the meat that is on display. Feh. Those of us who grew up in farm country and or hunt know better. I’d encourage those who have the mindset described in the article to go completely vegan. The protein deficiency associated with that diet is generally bad for you and I’d consider that an added bonus. Meanwhile leave us omnivores alone, and we’ll be wearing our leather shoes while you vegans go barefoot. Go right ahead. Hypocrites.
One would wish that all hunters dispatch their kill humanely. One wishes. I have been to Newfoundland and Labrador and understand that many people there live a subsistance existance. The harvesting of baby seal pelts is going to be the only cash some of those people will get all year. Cash needed for staples like flour, or shoes , or fuel. If there is so much concern for the seals, then give the hunters an alternative way to earn the money. Like whaling.
They’re killing baby seals and we only support the killing of real babies! That about it Jamie?
Cross posted at Huffpo?
At our local grocer chain Canadian lobster tail in the 3 to 4 inch range was being sold that would have resulted in an arrest and fine in this country. It made me ponder whether Canada was really the defender of our natural world they claim to be. Obviously the government gave the stamp of approval for the lobster to be harvested. I does not seem a wise choice to harvest the lobster while they are juveniles since this would endanger future harvests and future generations food supply.
I also don’t understand what the problem is when a person expresses agony over living animals being gutted and skinned while alive when other more humane methods could be afforded to them. Geez, looks like the tin man is not alone in needing a heart.
It is OK to harvest the animals for fur, especially since many would only starve if allowed to live, but it should certainly be done in a humane way. This level of animal cruelty is indefensible, I fully agree with you in this.
A single bullet to the head, preferably with a silencer, and done out of sight of other animals, if possible (although that part might not be practical) is not expensive or unreasonable.
I would like to raise my own chickens, give them a good life, and kill them quickly and humanely when they are relaxed and unafraid. I’ve never really liked the idea of hunting except when that’s what you have to do to eat, and that can be done humanely, as well.
There are many problems with environmentalism from the quest to render the human population into vegetarian Luddites to those who want to tax what we humans(and other animals ironically) exhale. And it’s true that humans have been killing animals for food since the dawn of man. In fact, I find a dinner without meat incomplete. However, slaughtering suckling seals to get a small patch of fur for use as a vain attempt by sugar daddies to get laid serves no practical purpose. Sorry, astonerii, Laura, I’m Jamie on this one.
Ya know Jamie, I might interpret your article as prejudicial against Inuit living in their native land. I think you have been brain washed by political correctness and can’t actually think for yourself in a logical manner. Yes, there is a market for ‘BABY SEAL FUR’ and the meat is stored and eaten. And who in their right mind would worry about baby seals when human babies are being aborted by the thousands daily. Wake up you silly people.
You shouldn’t rely on the Sea Sheperd Conservation Society as a source. They are animal rights psycho’s in the same veign as PETA, and they readily lie to advance their cause. Not to mention the fact that they use terror tactics and destroy millions worth of property. Sorry, but my multi-million dollar boat is worth more than the well being of some seals or dolphins.
Oh Puhleeeez!
First. You cannot lump all Canadians into one socio/political prejudicial mold. The real men of Canada all went West thirty years ago and have fathered a very different breed. Conservative to the bone.
Second. Please stop the pantywaist blather about seals. They are not endangered and this particular species has vast numbers and if we want to continue to eat the same fish they eat needs to be harvested. No. I personally could not club baby seals and especially not for a living but then I would not want to work in a slaughter house either. Although I do kill and eat venison which I try my best to dispatch humanely and quickly. This article belongs on Daily Kos.
Delia … buck up!
Should we really be basing our support for animals based on whether or not we think they’re “cute”. Cod fish aren’t cute. So they get fished out.
If Liberals like Jamie think you’re cute, you’ve got it made. Otherwise your out of luck. That sucks.
Have you noticed that most people who are anti-hunting are pro-abortion?
It is Canada’s right to regulate the take of harp seals, and if they are taking too many and decimating the population — they will deal it with new regulations.
I suppose Jamie Glasov also supported the anti-gun laws that were passed in Canada by the voters from the larger cities, while leaving those in the wild sparsely-populated areas of Canada to suffer their ridiculous regulations.
The video came from PETA. It appears the author is also a PETA activist.
Since this organization has given up all credibility, I see no reason for publishing their press releases.
micchu,
spot on, although I’d take the luddite comment just a tad further. I’d add troglodyte. That is for the moderate liberals that wish for world wide population to be reduced to a few hundred million. Their masters are after full extinction as they view humanity as a virus infecting Mother Earth.
As for the clubbing I have news for the whimps among us: Cattle are killed at the slaughter house by clubbing as well, although the ‘club’ is a compressed air driven pin to the forehead.
According to the law given in the Bible, animals must be killed humanely, and parts must not be consumed from living animals. Anyone who professes belief in the Bible who thinks this kind of slaughter is acceptable because only frenzied eco-freaks care about such things is only bringing greater sin upon themselves.
No. 14 writes: “And who in their right mind would worry about baby seals when human babies are being aborted by the thousands daily.” This is pretty stupid. Babies are being aborted, so why don’t we let 8-year-old bad-boy Johnny catch that puppy and torture it to death? Who cares?
The above posts casting scorn on Jamie’s article are generally dumb. It is not “liberal” to be concerned about excessive and unnecessary cruelty to living creatures. Maybe you’d like your dog or cat to be skinned alive.
This other argument used by some of the above mentally challenged is also a great one. Many animals are predators, therefore we humans should be as cruel as possible to animals whenever we feel like it. It’s pretty dumb–not catching the difference between the animals who has no moral sense and kills and eats other animals in order to survive, and the human, who does have a moral sense, who kills animals with the utmost cruelty.
So many here are hanging on the ‘cruelty’ angle. You are sure this is the norm are you? Methinks you are grasping at fifth column straws. Given your sentiments we must stop all fishing right away. Now that is REALLY cruel by your sentimentality.
sam,
Those biblical directives are followed by nearly all decent western folk. However this directive is a good exemplar of how humans swallow camels whilst straining knats. The orthodox Jew cannot hunt, kill and eat mammals. They must be domestic and slaughtered according to jewish tradition. I don’t quite think this is what God had in mind with this tenant.
The reality is that not only is this a not only a PETA production but a venerable staged production. Killing of white coats(pups) was outlawed a decade back and this video/article comes from that era…..otherwise all involved would be subject to prosecution.
These are the people who in violation of approaching within 1/2 mile of hunting, rammed an ice flow occupied by seal hunters….attempting to run them down.
#22: Maybe you’d like your dog or cat to be skinned alive? So Mr. Sensitive … you ever watch an abortion, especially a partial birth abortion of which Mr. Obama is in favor? Maybe if they “performed” them out on the ice for the world to see, you might even find it “excessive and unnecessary cruelty to living creatures”.
Everyone keeps harping that they need to be killed humanely. There is a problem, killing is inherently inhumane, period! Just as with death row inmates, you will never get the end result accomplished in ‘humane’ ways according to people like this author. As for the seals, their future deaths will be far less humane, being either killed by a polar bear, a whale, shark or slowly by starvation. We could regulate it such that the method for killing these creatures has to follow some specified way, but the fact that they are animals, and they have a free will, they will cause that method to fail at different points along the way and the inhumanity charge will ring again. Even so, if everything went right with new method, we would still hear the charge of inhumanity forever from the environuts. Their goal is not to get us to do things humanely, their goal is to stop us from thriving. The entire reason that the environuts pursue these endeavors of telling us we must do things humanely is to gain that foothold of superiority which then allows them to continue their nefarious scheme of destroying as much of mankind as they can.
Silent Spring destroyed DDT and cost millions of lives even though the science of the day proved that all the claims of the environuts were in fact bogus. This was one of the first, and at the time that biggest victory against human kind in history. The next goal was getting rid of refrigeration, because that allowed humans to prosper, so the chlorofluorocarbons had to be banned, even though there was no evidence, and even til today there is absolutely no evidence of how it destroys ozone, or even if the hole was a recent development. We were fortunate to come up with new chemicals to do the job, even if they are less efficient than the ones banned. That did not stop humans from advancing, and the environuts needed a new enemy that would stop the advancement, and that enemy was nuclear power. After that CO2 the air we breath out and fertilizer of every plant on the planet. There is and will never be any way to make peace with environuts, the only thing you can do is keep them out of power and watch them, and shoot down the ideas they come up with immediately and unquestioningly, as they have no good for any human in mind other than to profit as they cause as many human deaths as possible.
Oh, STOP IT, you stupid one-note wonders. What, every time someone mentions some act of gratuitous cruelty, you HAVE to bring up abortion? What are Jamie Glazov’s views on abortion? I don’t know. Do you?
What in God’s name is wrong with asking seal harvesters to kill the animal before skinning it? Skinned alive in front of its mother? What is the necessity for this? Is it so ridiculous to ask these hunters to deal the animal a coup de mort and THEN skin it?
By the way, nature is generally less cruel than this. Big cats and lupines end it all with a single, hard bite to a major cord in the neck.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Most big cats grab hold of the throat and choke their prey to death. With lions, other members of the pride often begin to eat the animal before it is even dead.
Pray tell, how does a wolf get up on the back of an antelope in order to sever it’s spine with a single, surgical bite?
I always found it interesting that the same people who cry, wail, and knash their teeth if a dolphin is killed, will rant, rave and throw a hissy fit if heaven forbid their can of tuna is missing from store shelves.
Hypocrits all
This authors opening paragraphs are a good general description about the tenor of Canadian society.
What is missing from this article is a description of the economic underpinnings of the hunt. Canadian unemployment / welfare state regulations permit hunters in this area to quality for pogey after, I believe, a mere 13 weeks of employment. This is very attractive since in more prosperous areas of the country one would have to work considerably longer doing something which may not be as attractive, for example, working in a factory.
Here is the reason why the seal boycotts will never work. The canadian federal government (both parties over 40 years) has too much invested in the idea of equalization — that taxation from prosperous parts of Canada is used to fund unemployment insurance / welfare in less prosperous parts, like Newfoundland & Labrador.
So these folks, instead of moving to other parts of Canada (Q: how many Americans up stakes and move to somewhere else if things go poorly; A: many), can enjoy their few months of employment then they can relax on shore with a case of two four (that’s 24 bottles of Canadian beer, y’all), watch the hockey into June, then figure out how to bilk the tourists during July and August.
Its a Canadian tradition!
Additionally, the seals are viewed as predatory of the (depleted) fishing stock.
Canada can’t control foreign harvesting of fishing resources. The economic capacity that elsewhere would go into a navy or coast guard is spent on the welfare state. Canada has nothing to shoot with.
They can control the seal population however by this cull.
#26 Ditto. My first thoughts on reading this were that I was having a flashback to the 1970s.
I guess torturing and dismembering baby humans in the womb is okay but not baby seals. The mind boggles.
And…it would not be complete without this:
Q: What’s a harp seal’s favorite drink?
A: A Canadian Club on Ice.
Thank you, i’ll be here all week…try the veal!
Poor Canada, it was supposed to be the perfect country.
British government, French culture and American technology.
But somewhere along the way they took a wrong turn and ended up with French government, British technology and American culture.
I have no problem at all with harvesting baby seal skins. It does seem, though, that the baby could be killed prior to skinning. Can’t they just shoot them in the head before skinning them?
After getting whacked in the head a couple of times with that club, they are most likely dead. The author is engaging in extreme hyperbole in order to get an emotional reaction.
As someone else pointed out, back when these harvests were still permitted, the carcasses were not left on the ice, as the author alleges, but cut up for their meat as well.
There was this seal-hunt protestor…who walked into a club…….
#29: Why do you bring up the supposed “gratuitous”-ness of the “slaughter”? We bring it up because we think it is germaine to the argument and because we don’t believe you and yours and we don’t accept your one-sided indignation in the face of something you show no indignation about, whatsoever. Who’s stupid again?
We continue to hear that the natives both in the land to our south and east and here in Alaska are one with the land, and are taking care of nature, when the opposite is true. If it wasn’t for the government of Canada and the USA the salmon in the Yukon would be gone, the belugas in the Cook Inlet would be greatly diminished. The polar bear and caribou would be hunted without regulations. Baby seals are slaughtered by the ones who are “one with nature”. Just saying
We should have listened to T. Jefferson and his American friends and invaded Canada and the British loyalists.
This would be horrifying if it was true.
IT IS NOT.
Seal pups are not hunted in this manner. It is the same recycled propaganda, those pictures are now decades old. Check for the real facts on the seal hunt not from ‘environmental’ organizations looking for your dollars with false facts and blatant propaganda.
What is this, an op-ed piece by a vegan on PETA’s website? Where’s the sanctimonious outrage at French foie gras and veal producers?
Hello?? The baby seal hunt has been outlawed for more than 20 YEARS!!! I can’t believe you’re using those old vids for your propaganda. Does Pajama Media have an editor? Oups sorry I forget it’s the internet anything goes.
As some have attempted to show, it’s mock outrage anyway. They don’t really care about life, death, pain or suffering unless it’s officially sanctioned indignation aimed at conservatives and okayed by their political “activist” leaders.
what in the hell???
who cares if they are BABIES? They are seals. Do you really expect me to make a distinction on an animal because of its age?
Killing animals is not barbaric, you pathetic loon.
Okay, it’s lived a full and happy life as a seal, killing anything it can to survive, effing it’s brains out when ever it has the energy, now can we kill it?
Oh, but its soooo cute, oh, look it’s eating a human baby, how cute, I guess it can’t tell the difference.
Or maybe humans just aren’t cute to seals.
Now killing baby salmon, now there is something to feel horrible about, what about baby rats? Baby cobras? Baby leeches?
Oh, that’s right, there not fuzzy
sheesh
Hello! Hello! Hello! Unless you consider a 14 day old seal an adult, yes the baby seal hunt is still lawful. There is no shame in calling for the hunt to be humane and not have an animal be skinned alive. Some, if allowed, would be waiting at the birth canal so they could get their hands on the white fur before the seal molts.
It has to be regulated because once there is money or sport in it people will go crazy and over-fish, over-hunt, over-kill. It’s the nature of the beast and that was before we could kill the unborn en-mass.
The problem comes when those aren’t greedy and don’t want to see an animal suffer unnecessarily have to pay a price for the ones who are.
Meat is murder, tasty, tasty murder!!!!
Honestly, Glazov, why the repudiation of your father?
Jack Wheeler, over at tothepointnews.com took you to task. He was wrong, because Wheeler assigned a lower priority to Geert Wilder’s point about the line being fuzzy when Islam & Islamism are compared, than I would.
There are people who supplement their income via the hunt, just as there are people who fish who supplement what they get via benefits which are paid for by tax payers.
Futhermore, this is an old issue, and I would think that your time
would be better spent asking why there are governments who haven’t
joined the Dutch in labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity.
Canada banned the harvesting of White Coats in 1987.
Oh dear, a conservative has been seduced by Humane Society of the United Staets (HSUS) and their ilk. There are a heck of a lot of seals. They prey heavily on fish. There are Canadian Iunits who make their living from seal hunts. The seals (juveniles and adults) are killed humanely. The films you are seeing are old, and many carefully edited to create the kind of emotional reaction you display. Surprised to find it here. When you have time, go browse around HumaneWatch.org, and learn the truth about the animal rights agenda and HSUS.
I must agree with my more right wing friends on this one (take a photo, cuz we very rarely agree on anything).
Abortion has absolutely nothing to do with this. Being canadien or american has nothing to do with this either. Being someone that is concerned that this kind of thing is happening is what is important here. I think there is a way to resolve the seal pup problem if both sides up there think outside the box and number 49 might have a point to consider. Appoint a commission (with both sides represented), look at the situation, then come up with a compromise solution….. there must me an answer ! dont you agree?
I think we are missing a big point here.
All of nature is now influenced, if not dominated, by human activity. Name me a creature, from whale to wolf to hummingbird, that isn’t tagged, tracked, studied and controlled today. Or more importantly, directly and finally affected by all that we do.
Seals eat fish. Fish are becoming scarce. Something has to control the seal population, and we have already cut into the populations of the predators -polar bear, orca, etc,-that used to do it. That leaves us. If we don’t exercise the office of apex predator, no other species will. THEN you’ll see environmental disaster, right enough!
Killing animals is a nasty business. Ask anyone who’s ever butchered his own meat. But watching them starve to death would be uglier still. Would PETA feed the hungry seals- or gas them and leave them by the side of the road, as they have already done with dogs and cats entrusted to their care?
#29 arhooley: “Big cats and lupines end it all with a single, hard bite to a major cord in the neck.”
Well…they do that for expediency really, the life of a predator is a constant balance between energy expended vs energy gained. It’s not about mercy. Domestic cats will do the same if they’re hungry – but if they’re well fed they will torment and play with their prey. For hours. Until you go out and put the poor rodent out of its misery and take it away from them. Although I have one cat that doesn’t know how to hold back – or maybe it was just that the rat was nearly as big as her so she went for the kill early.
But seal hunters should be killing their targets humanely, and I hope they do. I’m not convinced that this article is correct, why would you deal with a struggling, dying animal if you didn’t have to?
Worms. They give the fish worms. They are Canadas pigeons but without the splatter. There is too many of them people don’t eat. We kill gophers too and they are even cuter.
52. Ltw:”But seal hunters should be killing their targets humanely”
They do – with a pick ax through the brain. Which is about as humane as killing can get. But please spare us all the tears over these sea-going rats. They’re voracious, polluting fish-eaters and they’re much better off as fur coats and seal stew. Come back to us when you’ve stopped killing unborn babies by sticking forks in their brains.
Get a grip, Jamie! Have you ever seen a pig being slaughtered? Or chickens? And you probably cheerfully eat a Sausage McMuffin without shedding a single tear for the dear little piggy that was disembowelled for your personal pleasure. What’s with all the sudden sympathy for these rotten smelly seals? If we didn’t kill them and eat them, we’d just have to kill them and grind them up for fertilizer.
I’m kind of shocked by the comments. Conservative does not equal cruel to animals. I am not opposed to killing animals for meat and fur/leather. However, it is just as easy to kill them mercifully as to cause unnecessary pain and suffering, and any decent human being will choose that option.
Very disturbing comments here. I had no idea being conservative meant you were completely without a soul. Jamie has some very valid points. And wtf does human abortions have to do with this article?
I watched my GRAMMA kill animals, there is nothing nasty about ‘cept to squeamish punks.
By the way, I’m a conservative and a vegetarian. There’s truth to the claims here that the slaughtering of animals for meat is generally cruel in any case–though DISTINCTIONS SHOULD BE MADE and the seal slaughter sounds particularly cruel and unnecessary. Nevertheless, there is no way to make slaughter too pleasant an experience for the slaughtered. Rather than be part of this, I’ve been a vegetarian for 20 years and have as good a health record as anyone I know. I’m a hawk when it comes to fighting evil and dangerous humans. There is no contradiction whatsoever.
great article Jamie. However some of the responses are disgusting and inhumane, and I expected that. Lots of conservatives are just like liberals when it comes to the dignity of animals and regard for nature. They don’t give a damn. Actually there is a difference, liberals pretend to care about these kind of things but don’t, given the fact that Canadian liberals haven’t put a stop to this and with notable exceptions have done nothing to try to stop this annual slaughter. It distracts attention from the Canadian Left’s precious Palestinians who haven’t succeeded yet in driving the Jews into the sea and of course it distracts from the pseudoscientific nonsense that is AGW that gets all the headlines. In fact Canadian and American liberals and “greens” obsessing hysterically over AGW distracts from the real ugly ills and crimes like the seal slaughters.
Many conservatives don’t even pretend to care, many of the commentators here seem disappointed that seals are not extinct yet. Not enough bloody butchery of baby seals to satisfy them it would seem. Jamie this is the ugly face of conservatism, take a good look, because I knew before reading the comments that there would be people sympathising with the men who bash in the heads of baby seals in front of their mothers. Seals they eat OUR fish, the fish is ours I tell you, kill ‘em all and slowly, make ‘em suffer, suffer slowly, let the mothers of the pups see the death agonies of their babies and recognise the consequences of their breeding, their evil breeding I tell you. The sooner the world is sealrein the better, and then we can finish off the dolphins and whales, they eat our fish too.
At PM I have seen conservatives blabber on about their moronic birther conspiracy nonsense, express sympathy for the destruction of Native Indians and their culture and now the massacre of seals. None of this surprises me, it goes with the ideological territory. Jamie this is the ugly face of conservatism, take a good hard look, and I say this as a man who thinks liberalism is a mental disorder. God help us.
#54 Larsen E Whipsnade Come back to us when you’ve stopped killing unborn babies by sticking forks in their brains.
What? I make one comment about the way cats behave, and you assume I spend my day killing babies? I only do that for fun on special weekends, already over my quota this quarter.
let the mothers of the pups see the death agonies of their babies and recognise the consequences of their breeding, their evil breeding I tell you.
Ok, next time I’ll kill the mother first. You’re right, that is cruel.
Number 58, I think you should calm down. There is a human tendency to black-and-white thinking and of course it encompasses part of the conservatives. Most people who care about seals are lefties, ergo off with their heads (the lefties AND the seals). Many conservatives also recognize that animal welfare is a legitimate and unfortunate issue. A large political camp will always include simpletons and stooges. It’s called human nature.
If it gets to the point where the point doesn’t matter and it’s becomes all about the battle then we have surely lost.
Hunting and fishing for survival, sport, or profit does not have to cause unnecessary suffering for ANY animal. We all have learned by now that laws are for the law abiding because they are the ones who understand self control and the need for it.
The seal hunt must always be monitored not because of the law abiding, but because of the lawless and heartless. It is amazing to me that this article has been turned into a liberal versus conservative issue when it is really about our humanity and how we care for the natural world around us. We’re at the top of the food chain and with that comes responsibility. I don’t understand why it can’t be agreed upon that if hunting is necessary for our survival we can’t require it be done with the least harm and hurt possible.
No one from Canada has answered me about the lobster tail that was 3 to 4 inches something that the United States would not allow to be sold and would cause a heavy fine and/or jail if the lobster were kept. Is Canada the leader in appreciating their natural resources they claim to be? I wonder.
What a crock of meaningless drivel and fake concern! Humane? As Mrs. Thatcher said, “The facts of life are conservative”. People are selfish and life’s hard and brutal for many, if not most, living creatures. You can try to isolate yourself from every unpleasant aspect of it but eventually it will jump up and spit in your eye or give you ebola or something else very nasty-like. If it’ll make you any happier, remember that we all get it in the end and the worms and bacteria get to eat us, everyone. All you squishes should do something useful like go visit an old person in a nursing home and take them for a walk.
Realitycheck,
Well said!
The big deal is that the seals are CUTE. I hear nowhere near the same concern for hogs. And we all enjoy our bacon.
Canada’s sin is not the harp seal hunt. It’s the ruination of the aboriginal people with the entire reserve system and welfare that has stolen from a once proud people a reason to live.
PETA, IFAW, Sea Shepherd.
I’m sorry but none of these groups is a credible source of information.
I see we have some Jeffrey Dahmers and Ted Bundys in the group here.
A human who is into torturing animals before they die is called a PSYCHOPATH.
There is NO need to be CRUEL to an animal for which you are going to take their fur and meat from. Have some EFFING respect!
And, this is NOT about abortion. Abortion is far more heinous and most of you know exactly how I feel about abortion so STFU with the comparisons because there is no comparison except to point out the hypocrisy of the Leftists instead of addressing the topic.
**end rant**
Mr Glazov,you are not strong enough to be an American, even a Canadian American. I say you move to a land better suited to your wimpiness, like France or something.
Ah, I love the smell of freshly clubbed seals in the morning!
Manny in Canada
Of course harvest humanely. But a quick check reveals several facts which seem to directly contradict Jamie Glazov’s assertions, including the fact that:
Harp seal populations are robust and growing, (over 5 million current est vs 2-3 million 20 years ago),
…AND…
Clubbing white seal pups IS already illegal and has been for a long time.
Stick to anti-Jihad, Jamie. It’s there you really shine.
PS – Where can I get one of those beautiful seal duffel jackets?
So … Delia’s gone. Someone just had to convince her that us right wingers smile as we kill puppies. See how easy that was. Sheesh.
I’m Josh and I’m an employee of the Government of Canada working on the seal file.
It is good to see all the commenters here who have waded in to share their points of view on this topic. There are a couple of items I’d like to clarify.
As noted, the harvesting of whitecoat seals has been against the law since 1987. While some may not agree with the harvest itself, the practices used by Canadian sealers are strictly regulated and enforced to ensure the animals are harvested quickly and humanely. The point about seals being skinned alive crops up quite a bit. The fact is, seal harvesting practices in Canada are guided by rigorous animal welfare principles that are internationally recognized by virtually all independent observers. Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations include a three-step process that requires sealers to ensure the animals are harvested humanely. Also, the Government of Canada has found a high rate of compliance with harvesting regulations (estimated at 98.5% during the 2009 harvest.
More information about the seal harvest is available here: http://bit.ly/9rqEQe.
The full text of the Marine Mammal Regulations is available online: http://bit.ly/bbYSXN.
Whew! Wow for a few minutes there I was genuinely wanting to invade Canada (no offense). Thanks for clearing this whole issue up.
So is this the master plan?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262250/Pet-shop-owner-sold-goldfish-boy-hauled-court-ordered-wear-electronic-tag.html?ITO=1490
72.,
I just don’t see why (if this is someone’s chosen livelihood) someone can’t have developed enough skill to properly club the animal to DEATH as fast as possible and get ‘er done before they skin the damned thing!
Ted Nugent is a great hunter and shows a lot of respect for what he kills from what I’ve seen.
*sigh*
And btw, I think pigs are cute and cows are beautiful and sweet and smarter than you think and yes, I eat ‘em and buy most of my meat from a local farm where the carcasses are hanging in the back room for everyone to see. lol
The Canadian seal hunt is highly regulated. Sealers are not permitted by law to kill “baby seals.”
The Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans sets the quotas yearly based on scientific evidence of what is necessary to ensure the appropriate ecological balance.
Those who oppose the seal hunt do not appreciate that:
- there is a need to carry out an annual cull of the seal heard; and,
- the sealers understand the need to and do carry out the cull in a proper fashion.
‘Delia’s Gone’ is a Johnny Cash song. Sorry, I thought you’d see the humor. Anyway, I believe they’re pulling your on your heartstrings with a fake lasso. Your heart’s in a good place but their intentions ain’t.
Delia’s Gone – Johnny Cash
Delia, oh, Delia Delia all my life
If I hadn’t have shot poor
Delia I’d have had her for my wife
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone
I went up to Memphis
And I met Delia there Found her in her parlor
And I tied to her chair
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone
She was low down and trifling
And she was cold and mean
Kind of evil make me want to Grab my sub machine
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone
First time I shot her I shot her in the side
Hard to watch her suffer
But with the second shot she died
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone
But jailer, oh, jailer Jailer,
I can’t sleep ‘Cause all around my bedside
I hear the patter of Delia’s feet
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone
So if you woman’s devilish
You can let her run
Or you can bring her down and do her
Like Delia got done
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone
I know, Thomas. It’s easy to get caught up in what the propaganda. Klonks own head!
-And, I like that song even if it is a lil’ depressing. Kate moss was in the video for Delia’s gone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1iKEPzF1Js
I’m never clickin’ on anything regarding animal cruelty. It always succeed to freak me out which is why I never will visit that freakfest PETA.
I’m a butcher’s son. You can take it from me that anyone who indulges in any sort of wanton sadism, is not the most popular man in the slaughterhouse and wastes everyone’s time. Of course I’m only talking about humans Brian, can’t speak for polar bears.
31 is right. It’s all about making Newfoundlanders qualify for Unemployment. And elections. This is the province where every last native Indian was killed back in the day. Not polite to mention this to America bashing Canadians. Harvesting seals is no great crime. The way it’s done is what bothers me.
Everyone seems to be focused on the baby seals rather than the real issue this article spotlights, which is this: the USA now has good reason to invade Canada.
It would be such an easy takeover, because:
Canadians, despite loving to hate the US, really love the US and would love to be us.
Most of ‘em already speak the same language (close enough, eh).
Canadian culture, what there is of it, is practically indistinguishable from some of the states’ cultures.
Plus, they have great natural resources!
There is more BS written about the seal hunt than there is about Jesus. The animals are not killed while still alive, but they are clubbed which appears to be inhumane. But have you senn how they kill your beef cattle. It’s not much more humane. Some of the biggest protestors come from Europe, where the hypocrisy is more than ankle high. Protestors in Spain, but nary a word about the bull fights. The English with their fox hunts.
The animals are not killed while still alive
—
At what other time could an animal be killed?
Please get the facts.
Killing an animal for meat does not automatically make it cruelty. You believe a couple old pictures (which depict something else entirely) and a few celebrities.
The current seal hunt is done humanely. Currently the seals are in such a surplus that they are harming the fish population and the desperately need to be culled.
Get with the times.
What does seal meat taste like anyway?
chicken?
” approximately 300,000 harp seals are murdered.”
Wow – how many humans were aborted last year alone in Canada?
Get your priorities straight.
As far as Canadians bashing America, who cares? If it were not for the USA they would be a 3rd world country.
Seal meat is delicious. Don’t know about baby seal. Don’t see anyone complaining about halal or kosher “acquired” meat here. Newfoundlanders are the friendliest people. It’s been going on for years.They can’t fish cod anymore due to regulations and low stocks. Because the seals devour cod voraciously. Leave the Newfies alone. It’s their culture and they won’t change for anybody anyway so just drop it.There are much worse and more important issues at hand. ie:Christian copts being slaughtered in Egypt, Pakistan and Sudan. Get over it. It’s an utterly futile cause.
Okay, Okay. there is a lot of disagreement here and as one particularly bright fellow said “people who disagree with this are PSYCHOPATHS”.
I strongly feel though that objections to killing baby seals could lead to objections of killing and eating kittens and puppies.
Think about the implications of that. People unemployed, starving and suffering and yet we could see the day when there are hospitals for mindless pets.
Then what federal, health care for Fido and Heathcliff?
How about tax deductions for charity for dogs and cats?
Why are people talking about abortion? This is about the killing of whitecoat baby seals with spiked clubs, and people actually SUPPORT this? That’s like killing a puppy! Its sick.
And besides, wouldn’t people who are pro-Life be feeling sorry for the seals? Pro-life means you believe all life is sacred, and should be preserved.
For God’s sake, is there no goddamn decency??? They’re baby seals! This isn’t a political issue!
Seal pups are no longer killed, and haven’t been killed for years. That article is deliberately misleading.
What an horror! Definitely worse than the killing fields of Cambodia or the Hutu-Tutsi pickle.