What do you guys think about the annual seal hunting that took place last Saturday in Canada?? I think its completely wrong and should be stopped immediately...

I cant believe that laws allow this to happen, especially in this day and age where this type of animal cruelty and brutality isn't tolerated, or should not be tolerated...i think its just inhumane

whats even more shocking is that some of the seals are clubbed to death...the hunters dont even have the decency to kill them straight away...but let them suffer for a few mintues before they die..imagine what that would feel like....

i think the hunters should be clubbed to see how they like it....


here's an article:


Harp seal hunt sparks protests


HUNTERS started shooting and clubbing harp seal pups on Saturday at the start of an annual hunt that is the focus of a tech-savvy protest by animal rights groups.

This year, 325,000 young seals will be killed on the ice floes off the East Coast where the animals gather.
Unusually warm weather means the floes are a fraction of their normal size and thickness, prompting hunters to kill the seals individually rather than clubbing them to death en masse as they cluster on the ice in pools of blood.

"It's slow going. The ice is not full of seals all over the place," said Roger Simon of Canada's federal fisheries ministry, which oversees the hunt.

The crack of rifle fire could be heard continually as hunters in boats shot seals as they lay on tiny floes and then dashed over to the bodies in hopes of retrieving them before they slipped off the ice and sank.

Once the animals are killed, they are skinned and taken into the hunters' boats. The pelt is taken to make coats while the rest of the carcass is usually left behind.

At one point a hunter, frustrated at the activists' presence, picked up the bloody carcass of a skinned seal and threw it at a small inflatable craft full of protesters and journalists. It hit the boat and sank.

One sealing boat steamed straight toward the journalists' craft and turned at the last moment, sending a wave crashing over the observers.

Canada says the hunt gives the local economy a crucial boost and helps keep a harp seal population of almost six million animals in check.

The Humane Society of the United States has chartered a 30-metre boat to follow the hunt and is putting film and videos of the killings on its Web site.

"It's disgusting when you stand out here and look at what the seals have been through already. They're clinging on for life as it is, thanks to the effects of global warming," said the society's Rebecca Aldworth.

"I'm really appalled the Canadian government continues to allow this slaughter. There's no need for anyone to be out here killing seals," she said from the hunting zone.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada was behaving responsibly and would enforce rules ensuring that the seals were killed humanely.

"Unfortunately here we're to some degree the victim of a bit of an international propaganda campaign," he said on Friday.

Celebrities such as former French film star Brigitte Bardot and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney called on Ottawa this week to stop the hunt.

Mr Aldworth repeated calls for an international boycott of Canadian seafood to protest what she said was "incredible cruelty at the hunt, including dragging conscious seals across the ice with boathooks, shooting seals and leaving them to suffer in agony and skinning seals alive."

The first part of the hunt, which takes place near the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, usually takes about 10 to 12 days to complete. This year's quote is just over 90,000 seals.

http://www.news.com.au/story/print/0,10119,18608677,00.html

Besides the hunters. . our anger could be directed at the eople who are using/wearing the skins and any seal products. . if they don't buy at high prices. . the hunters would do something else . .  

yes i agree...the people who wear or use the seal skins are as much to blame as the hunters...how do they sleep at night????

My anger is aimed at the market moreso than at the hunters.  If there were no market, there'd be no industry and no hunters to club those seals.

The hunting (?) and the protesting have been going on for as long as I remember and people are more aware that it happens and when it happens these days, but, it still happens. I found this site to be very informative.
http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/protect_seals/canadas_unsustainable_2003_2006_seal_hunt_plan.html
begining with....
Canada's Unsustainable 2003-2006 Seal Hunt Plan
Canada's Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans' three-year seal-hunt quota allows fishermen to kill 975,000 harp seals over the three years; in two of those three years, sealers may kill as many as 350,000 harp seals annually. This means hunters can kill 75,000 more seals a year, starting in 2003, than in the last five years.
     

"The increase comes despite evidence that the quota of 275,000 seals was unsustainable," says Dr. Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist with The HSUS, "and it quietly condones the fact that sealers exceeded this quota last year, an act that most natural resource managers would condemn."

The stated purpose of switching to a three-year plan is to present "sealers with greater certainty in planning their activities," but the plan seems better designed to cause a serious decline in seal numbers, with unknown ecological consequences, Rose notes.

Without presenting any new evidence that taking seals in such large numbers is sustainable, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Robert G. Thibault, lauded this new approach to harvesting "a valuable natural resource."

And so the hunt goes on. Even after decades of public condemnation, Canada continues annually to club and shoot hundreds of thousands of harp and hooded seals, two species it reduces to the category of "natural resources" rather than sentient beings. In fact, the Canadian government subsidizes the seal-hunting industry, making it easier for hunters to kill more of the animals.

In 2002, with relatively little public outcry, the Canadian government allowed the most massive slaughter of marine mammals on its shores since 1967. The reported kill was more than 307,000 harp seals—which exceeded the Canadian Department of Fisheries' quota by more than 32,000. And if unreported kills were included, the total would be much higher. (The reported numbers include only the seals who are delivered to processing plants, not the seals who are severely wounded and die later.)

Another report in the news today can be found here:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18615163-38198,00.html

They call it a 'HUNT' well it's hardly a hunt because the seal pups just lay there, innocent to the fact that there are morons out their who think killing them is a good thing. I have also seen it called a 'Cull'. There is no rhyme or reason to it so why even hunt or cull them? This thread shoul also be added to the Shame Shame Shame thread IMHO!

Is this something that anyone with a hunting liscence can do or is it reserved for indiginous nations?

Quoted from MeanDean

Is this something that anyone with a hunting liscence can do or is it reserved for indiginous nations?

Any 'yobbo' with a club can do it. . it is not reseved for indiginous people . .nor does anyone claim it is for cultural purposes.

Can't believe this is still going on.

isn't there some kind of world authority that protects animals,if there isn't there should be. to stop this barbarity and others like it,like the slaughter of the whales by the japanese. thank god at least the fox hunting has been stopped.

im with music313 i'd love to club one of those a-holes over the head and leave em to rot.

Anyone remember the paint spray cans used to mark the fur of seals to render them useless. . and the seals swim off into the sunset. . pink/blue/purple. . . but alive!

Hello:

I would just like to let everyone know that I have a petition currently In circulation and It will be ongoing Indefinitely so as to stop the seal hunt that goes on In Canada every year, so for all those people that would like to see the Canadian seal hunt end for good and to try and stop It from happening again next year please go ahead and stop by and sign my petition.

I thank everyone who signs every signature does count and hopefully together we can end this cruelty once and for all.


Best Regards,

Elaine


Please go to this web page If you wish to support a worthy cause and pass on to everyone you know

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/yearlyhunt

Also, here's a thread created last year about this topic. It's so sad

http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1143387531/s-new/

Thanks for pointing that out, Music313.  I have now merged the two threads.

It is so inhumane!
I dont  think people, like indigenous people or whatever should be allowed to hunt either. like aboriginals here or whatever.

The Inuit people would not survive without hunting seals. I believe they should be allowed to hunt seals and smaller whales like they do. Native peoples are not responsible for the decimation of species of animals. The 'Civilized' white man has a lot to answer for.

Quoted from SuziH

Native peoples are not responsible for the decimation of species of animals. The 'Civilized' white man has a lot to answer for.

Precisely. Indigenous people appreciate and preserve native flora and fauna more effectively than any "white man".