EU Vote on Seal Product Ban is Postponed

[Annces]

OTTAWA — A European Union vote on a proposed seal products ban has been delayed. The European Parliament was scheduled to vote on the proposed legislation Thursday. A spokesman for the parliament in Brussels says the vote is scheduled for April 22. But Roy Christensen, a spokesman with the Delegation of the European Commission in Canada, says the vote will likely be held some time between May 4 to 7.

(This is really bad news, more seals will be killed because of this delay).

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gHJOvPIPUB33CAxK8ow2k00qDENA


Senator Mac Harb introduces bill in Canada to end seal hunt and gets 200,000 letters of support




The Public’s On My Side: Liberal Senator Mac Harb, who is trying to end Canada’s seal hunt with a private bill in the Senate, carts a wheelbarrow full of letters of support to the Red Chamber Tuesday afternoon. He says he has received more than 200,000 supportive letters, emails and telephone calls. Meanwhile, the EU’s vote on the seal ban, scheduled for April 2, has been postponed, likely until May.

www.stopthesealhunt.com




Seal Hunt an Embarrassment
Published Apr. 1, 2009

Mac Harb's article about the utterly revolting seal hunt is excellent and should be published in every newspaper in the country (RE: "Saving Canada from Its Seal Hunt," March 18). But why no mention of the gruesome, utterly cruel details of how these animals are butchered? How they have no fear of man? How the trusting babies come up to these brutes, only to have their heads bashed in and be skinned, often while still alive, and with their mothers watching?

There has been video footage of the skinless bodies writhing in agony on the ice. In what way is this "humane?" Why is it called a "hunt?" Hunt implies some skill and effort in finding and stalking the prey and then shooting it. These baby seals don't get the luxury of any quick bullet. What kind of heartless thugs can perform such brutal acts?

I will never travel to Newfoundland as long as this barbarism continues. It is a huge embarrassment to the vast majority of Canadians. And does anyone know that the seals eat other predators of the fish they think they are protecting?

Greta Jansen
Courtenay, BC

http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/letter2-4-1-2009

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. I step in on this about once every two years - the bashing I get takes 2 years to get over it.

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Anyone ever visit a slaughterhouse?

See how cattle, pigs, chickens etc., are harvested?

Any fishermen/hunters here?

I catch a fish - hang him by a stringer on the side of the boat, drag him around for a few hours while I catch some more,

then back on on shore I smack him on the head, watching him/her wiggle and twitch in their death throes, then carve it open - either cook or freeze it.

The hunter? - well - I've never hunted anything except small game - but larger game, deer, moose, bear and so on, some of my friends have.

Well,

not every shot is a "clean" kill - some have to be chased for over an hour to "finish them off" -

and some hunters are just too lazy to follow them, so they die miserable deaths hours or days later.

and so on

Humans have always relied on animals for food, clothing and shelter - even tools(from the bones)

Imagine if a group was to start posting pictures of cute calves(baby cows) and then showing the young getting their throats slashed for those veal steaks we enjoy

pictures of cute baby chicks, and then the beheading of them as they mature

Seals are NOT an endangered species, and have been part of the local economy LONG before the White Man got here.

Vegetarians and Vegans will decry killing any living thing for food - I am not aiming this conversation at them.

MANY humans are meat-eaters, and will always be.

We have to deal with that.

I'm done.

See ya in a year or two . . .

[phantom power]

2. I have hunted for meat.

If seals are being harvested for food, and they aren't endangered, and the killing is not systematically and needlessly cruel, then I could be OK with that argument.

I once twisted the head off of a grouse. A little bit more than necessary to break the neck.

[Annces]

5. It is not for meat

It is to provide occupation to fisherman for a few months and then prop them up with taxpayer money. No one eats seal meat. The market for seal furs is practically gone except for Norway. The whole world wants this to stop, but politicians are ignoring the people's world. Fascism.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. Please educate yourself, and provide links for your claims - some Inuits disagree with you

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"Contrary to popular belief, when the Inuit harvest seals, we use the entire animal: we use the pelts for clothing, the meat for sustenance, and the oil is very valuable to us. We rely on the seal hunt as one of our food sources. In the north, pre-packaged food is a luxury that few of us can afford, so we harvest our food from the land and the sea."

http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/letter2-3-18-2009

From an economic perspective, the commercial seal hunt is our main industry and the only source of income for many Inuit. In order to make up the volume that we need for our Inuit commercial hunt, we rely on other non-Inuit hunters to supplement our catch. We also rely on the Newfoundlanders to harvest the harp seals when they are migrating. This is a seasonal activity.

/snip/

We strongly support the commercial hunt in Canada and we continue to support our brothers in Newfoundland and the lower St Laurence.

Charlie Watt

Liberal Senator

Please read the information at the links before responding

Remember this, the natives over here subsisted without harming the environment LONG before the White man got over here and started telling them how to run things.

USAmericans killing millions of Buffalo just for the tongues - imagine that . .

[Annces]

6. So you inflict cruelty on animals

and think that it may as well continue and go on. No we don't have to be cruel. And we don't have to eat meat. And killing domestic animals does not mean we should go ahead and behave as barbarians to the rest of the animal world. That logic is really just to protect your own assent of violence on animals. I am sure you would not want that same attitude toward you, would you? As long as you are safe and sound, you really don't care about animals do you. Guess what, many humans in the past didn't care about other humans either, but laws finally came into place as we evolved. And we will continue to evolve.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. Wow - Is DU asleep? - they usually jump all over us Canuks for the seal hunt.

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:popcorn:

:hide:

[Nihil]

4. Nah ... just scheduled ignore set to {once every two years} ...

:P

Maybe it's because we know that not all Canadians support the
slaughter of seals?

Maybe it's because we support Senator Mac Harb's attempt to solve
the issue from a domestic viewpoint?

There again, maybe time-zones come into it too? :hi:

As far as the main issue is concerned, maybe if people "hunted"
the seals in the same way that they hunt other animals (i.e., for
food rather than money) there would be far more tolerance for the
excuse that it's a "tradition"?

Maybe if the "hunters" treated seals in the same way as other
"prey" animals (i.e., kill *before* skinning) they'd have more
support?

Maybe it's because the "hunt" seems to be driven more by the
fishermen who've depopulated the fishing grounds (for greed)
and blamed a convenient scapegoat rather than anyone directly
concerned with seals per se?

All points to ponder in your next hibernation ... :-)