Killing Season: Photographer Captures Seal Hunt In Canada

[Barrett808]

LOS ANGELES (MyFoxNational) -- In Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence, it's a season of life and death for harp seals. Thousands of pups are born just as fishermen arrive in the area to hunt them for their furs, blubber and meat. This annual event has generated plenty of outrage from animal rights groups who claim inhumanity and cruelty.

Before this year's hunt, famed photographer and "America's Next Top Model" judge Nigel Barker had the opportunity to capture the beauty of the animals on Prince Edward Island (click here to see the photos). Barker recently became the spokesperson for the Protect Seals campaign for the Humane Society of the United States because of his passion for animals. Just weeks later, he would return to document the hunt, something he called "heart-breaking."

Here are some excerpts and a video from his blog (http://www.nigelbarker.tv/blog/index.php), before and after the hunt:

March 31, 2008 – The Hunt
"The <Department of Fisheries and Oceans> weren’t allowing any of the <Humane Society of the United States members>, International Press or my crew permits to view the hunt even though it had started. Now let’s make one thing clear -- it is not a privilege to observe the hunt. It is our right under Canadian law, these were simply delay tactics in an effort to thwart our attempts to document the hunt and inform the world of what was actually happening. It was really a stupid move on their behalf as it looked really bad.

On Saturday morning we all learned of the death of 4 sealers whose boat capsized in the icy waters off Sydney and of course our hearts and condolences go out to their families. It unfortunately demonstrates how dangerous it is for sealers as well as seals out there. If the Canadian Government banned the hunt all of this unnecessary death and misery could end.

It was of course heart-breaking to photograph them bludgeon the young seals. The seals would be basking in the morning sun and then out of nowhere like ninjas the sealers would pounce on them and beat their brains out. Sadly we rarely saw them check to see whether they were dead before spiking them with the hakapik and dragging them still alive and writhing around in agony to the boat to be skinned…… This once beautiful frozen world was turned into a bloody mess, it was like viewing a horrific execution over and over again except the victims were guilty of no crime."

(more)

http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6193553&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.3.1

Seal Hunt Goes On, HSUS Photographers Are Chased

... Newfoundlanders on the hunt did not want the HSUS there, that much was obvious. They ran after them with their fists and even their hunting tools, screaming and attempting to intimidate the ProtectSeals photographers.

(more)

http://www.connietalk.com/seal_hunt_continues_040208.html

[Red Zelda]

1. Let's beat Canadians with clubs!

[GliderGuider]

2. Cool! And I'll shoot "Americans" for murdering Iraqi civilians.

That should work out swell.

If you want to move past the "collective punishment" mindset, organize or support a boycott of Canadian goods. Start with seal products, but don't forget about synthetic crude from the tar sands, softwood lumber etc.

[Barrett808]

3. But that's not murder, you see: by definition, any Iraqi killed by the US is a "terrorist."

Therefore, slaughtering them by dropping 500lb bombs in city neighborhoods is nice and legal.

[GliderGuider]

4. Now I'm all confused!

Are you saying baby Iraqis are like baby seals? Maybe if we used US-built helicopter gunships in the Global War On Seals we'd be able to get W to write us a signing statement for our constitution that would let us take the capelin's word for it that the seals are fish terrorists and not eligible for humane treatment under the Geneva Convention and deserve to have all their ice floes melted by global warming caused by cosmic rays and not CO2.

Yuck. I think I ate a bad piece of blubber.

[Barrett808]

5. You're correct: seals are unlawful combatants and not subject to Geneva protections

The Global War on Seals will be a generational battle. We'll be providing stability in Nova Scotia for a hundred years.

[Red Zelda]

6. How do you save the seals???

Let Blue Jays hitters swing bats at them.

[GliderGuider]

7. LOL! Nice shot!

:rofl:

[Shoelace]

9. yes, boycott Canadian seafoods (Red Lobster restaurants, Publix markets)

because they are the two largest importers of Canadian seafoods.
That is one of the only ways to stop these seal slaughters.
There are actually several Publix markets on the list of markets who will not sell Canadian seafoods, thanks to public pressure.
At the link, there's alot of good info on exactly how, why and what to do for this to be effective.

http://www.harpseals.org/boycott/index.html

We DUers are good at putting our money where our mouths are so let's get on it!
I never liked Red Lobster anyway but am definitely checking out where my seafood comes from now. These are positive, proactive steps we can all do.

The other, perhaps most important event to stop the seal "hunts" is for the EU to ban all seal products from Canada (and I presume Norway, Russia too), which is what they are considering right now.
Stavros Dimas is head Commissioner of the EU Environmental Commission. At the link is his diary/blog with a contact link to email him, let him know we support this action. Please email him today. Canadian high mucky mucks are over there right now trying to appease the EU commission, talk them out of such an action.

Time to put an end to the slaughter of a species that might well go under with the threat of global warming destroying their habitat, not to mention years of mismanagement of Canada's fisheries.

[Shoelace]

10. link to EU Environmental Commission head, Stavros Dimas

sorry, forgot to include the link in my above post. Email him today, encourage him to put into place the law that bans all fur seal products. That would put an end to the massacre once and for all!

http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/dimas/

[kristopher]

8. Why seals?

Why not cattle, mink or pigs?

They are killed no more humanely than the seals. In fact, in some countries pigs (extremely intelligent creatures) are bled for butchering by chopping off the front of the snout, where large arteries are located.

So I don't get it, what prompts the focus on opposition to taking seals?

[GliderGuider]

11. It's the pictures.

White ice, red blood and big soft brown eyes.

All modern commercial animal slaughters, from chickens and cattle to mink and horses, are conventions of horror. Only the prettiest get the press.

[Shoelace]

12. it's that "vanity" thingy - the bloody reason for the kill

rich bitches in seal fur coats ala Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Gucci so they can impress their fat friends. Not exactly a noble reason to slaughter thousands of fur seals in my book. Not a good reason at all.

Oh and don't forget that now the Chinese, Koreans think that the Harp seal penis is an aphrodisiac!!! Also the seal meat is left to rot on the ice unless Native Americans are hunting them (few of them left in Newfoundland) which they've always needed for survival. Some seal blubber from skins, is rendered for seal oil sold as supplements (full of PCBS, mercury, etc) but the rest is wasted.

Memories of Buffalo slaughter way back when, left to die and rot on the Prairies with the sole purpose of starving Native Americans - comes to mind.
These seal "hunts" are just as senseless.

Humans have raised domestic animals for thousands of years to consume their meat. Yes, now we have alternative sources of protein and yes, we should be concerned with how these animals are slaughtered. But they are eaten, not left to rot in the fields! The US Humane Society website addresses ALL of these questions so perhaps you should get involved with them. Oh but wait, they accept donations!
Here's their website and yes, I do donate to them because they do pay attention to all forms of animal cruelty.

http://www.hsus.org/

[Nihil]

18. Excellent post. (n/t)

:toast:

[losthills]

13. Your reasoning is faulty.

Most of the people who protest the seal hunt also protest inhumane treatment of livestock. So no, I guess you don't get it at all. And obviously you don't understand that the seals are babies, that they are wild animals, that they are killed by the thousands for no legitimate purpose depriving wild predators and indigenous hunters of sustainance solely for monetary gain. It's not really too hard to "get" why people everywhere are offended by this wasteful and barbaric practice.

[kristopher]

15. I don't get it. You're right.

"And obviously you don't understand that the seals are babies"

veal

"that they are wild animals"

deer, rabbit, squirrel, geese, etc, etc

"they are killed by the thousands for no legitimate purpose"

define "legitimate purpose"? Who the *&^% died and made you boss?

"solely for monetary gain"

you're kidding right? If the economic incentive is evil, then we're all screwed.

"people everywhere are offended by this wasteful and barbaric practice"

Everywhere??? I doubt you've sampled "everywhere". A lot of people, who aren't evil, really don't find it offensive in the same manner as those you are represent. For example, I'm a lot more disturbed by cutting off the snouts of living hogs to bleed them for slaughter than I am of clubbing an animal for slaughter. But hey, what do I know?

[losthills]

16. You quote, but you do not understand.

Go fire up your mini- 14 and shoot some beer cans, Nimrod.

[kristopher]

17. NImrod?

Beer cans?

And what's a mini-14?

Do you realize how cult-like your thinking is? I'm sure you're rational on a range of topics, but there are others where you impose a false belief system on inconvenient truths.
Do you feel that when people engage in that type of thinking for other reasons, such as religion or ideology, that they are coping with life in the best way possible?
Or do you think those fundamentalists should allow for the truth that all others cannot share the particular beliefs that are most important to them?

I mean, seriously, do you not see yourself as a reflection of the absolutism that fuels those opposed to abortion or those who are determined to see this become a democracy where the Constitution is subject to the bible?

[losthills]

19. Have you found that "smoking hammer" yet?

[kristopher]

20. Has Mr Ego turned the bullet and vest over to Australian authorities yet?

[kristopher]

14. Thanks for the first 2 responses. Both make sense. nt

[Annces]

21. Nigel Barker did an excellent job

He will get the message out to a lot of airheads in the fashion industry too.