Canada to cull 275 000 seals

[wisp]

[QUOTE][Ottawa - Canada on Monday set a limit for its annual seal harvest this year of 275 000 harp seals, and announced new rules to make the slaughter less cruel as well as curb international protests over the hunt.

The quota includes allocations of 2 000 seals for personal use and almost 5 000 seals for aboriginal hunters, as well as 16 000 seals carried over from last year for commercial fleets that did not capture their 2007 quota, fisheries officials said.

As well, Canada has adopted recommendations of the Independent Veterinarians Working Group to "ensure beyond any possible doubt that a seal is dead before it's skinned", said fisheries spokesperson Phil Jenkins.

Its implementation comes just as the European Union weighs a ban on seal imports that could devastate the industry, but Jenkins denies being pushed into adopting the stricter killing method.

Rather, he said it took three years of consultations with sealers to vet the regulations, which start this year as a condition of holding a seal hunting license, and will appear in marine mammal regulations in 2009.

The new rules require hunters to check an animal's pupils for a blinking reflex, and to slit its main arteries under its flippers, after striking or shooting a seal.

Controversial hunt

"In almost all cases, the first strike of a hakapik (club) or a shot of a rifle is enough. But we want to make sure (it's dead)," Jenkins said.

In recent years, demonstrators in Europe and North America have denounced the "cruelty" of seal hunting.

The Dalai Lama, Paul McCartney, French film legend Brigitte Bardot, actors Kim Bassinger, Juliette Binoche and Richard Dean Anderson, and Canadian-born actress and former Playboy model Pamela Anderson, among many others, have campaigned against the hunt.

A Connecticut businesswoman even offered sealers $16m - the estimated value of commercial seal meat and pelts for thousands of local fisherman - to end a controversial hunt.

And each year, animal rights groups have been out in force, stripping naked in front of parliament, dousing themselves in red paint to protest the seal hunt and holding press conferences with photos of hunters clubbing fluffy white seal cubs.

Canada banned the killing of the youngest seals, less than 12 days old, in 1987 amid criticisms and threats of European boycotts that pushed the industry to the brink of collapse.

Since then, the protests largely disappeared. But Canada awoke the wrath of activists in 2003 by approving a three-year cull of about 975 000 seals after estimating their population had ballooned - now at 5.5 million, nearly triple the number in the 1970s.

Hunt 'poses no threat'

This coincided with the opening of new markets in China and Russia.

Belgium and the Netherlands have since banned imports of seal products, and last month, Germany proposed its own ban.

But Ottawa maintains the hunt poses no threat to the harp seal population, and insists the commercial cull is an economic mainstay of its Atlantic Coast communities.

The opening of the hunt, which usually kicks off in late March or April in the southern Gulf of St Lawrence, has not yet been announced.


/QUOTE]
http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2285757,00.html

F/ckin terrible news ...how can u look in to those big eyes and then kill it, words fail

[BlackMage]

Richard Dean Anderson...among many others, (has) campaigned against the hunt.

Hey if MacGyver is against it, so am I.

Anyway, this stuff is terrible, is seal-meat really necessary for Human survival? Especially when the killing is so cruel.
This is right up there with shark-fin soup.

Make sure the thing is dead before its skinned? My Gods,man....

Im no Hippie- but there are limits to what man must be allowed to do- Especially when its based on profit and greed.

[Gammaray]

I can see the headlines: 'Seal skin exports in Canada up by 50% ...'

[Toi]

I ****ing hate news like this, just ****ed up my entire day. And now some poor retarded dumb ass on the road has to pay.

[Kraken]

Hang on... since when do seal populations need to be "culled"? It's not like more seals are much of a threat... let nature take it's course.

Of course, it's [Edit: *probably*] really just a wad of bull**** to kill loads of seals and get their meat.

[ShadowMaster]

Hang on... since when do seal populations need to be "culled"? It's not like more seals are much of a threat... let nature take it's course.

Of course, it's [Edit: *probably*] really just a wad of bull**** to kill loads of seals and get their meat.

Humans have messed up a lot of stuff, like depleting fish stocks, on which seals feed. Therefore to maintain the balance of nature, seals have to be culled to prevent them taking the fish down with them. Just like elephants need to be culled (if there is no alternative) to prevent them taking the rest of the park down with them.

But as you said it's probably just a bunch of nonsense to allow them to hunt seals.

Also, does anyone know if Canada is against the hunting of whales?
So I can cry hypocrite.

[general_koffi]

Also, does anyone know if Canada is against the hunting of whales?
So I can cry hypocrite.

Does anyone know if all of the above posters are against the killing of any mammal? Or where do we draw the line here?

I have a hard time believing you're all vegans.

[Pr0wl1ng_PaPayA]

We draw the line at cruel and inhumane killing methods, like, ummm CLUBBING a seal to death.

[ShadowMaster]

Actually I have nothing against killing animals, but it must be done humanely, quickly and mustn't drive the species or even a colony to extinction.

People complain seals are cute, but so are piglets and I don't see you complaining about the killing of pigs.

Also is ANY meat necessary for human survival?

[wisp]

Hang on... since when do seal populations need to be "culled"? It's not like more seals are much of a threat... let nature take it's course.

That would be the ideal but again mankind has stuffed that one up, by decreasing the numbers of the natrural enemies of the seal namely the polar bear (due to shrinking ice caused by global warming) and the shark (because we are scared of it so we kill it).

Without these natural enemies the population is bound to explode. as the seal and the man "fight" for the same food source namely fish and man unfortunately being the dominant species mankind has a simple answer to the problem -kill the competition

so we are the root cause of the problem again, but as we do nothing to try and solve these problems by either protecting and stop killing sharks or trying to stop global warming to bring the polar bears back to this area this same secenario will repeat it's self time and again.

[Coolhand]

So we can raise cows and chickens by force and slaughter them by the millions each day because they aren't cute like seals are?

Either it's alright to kill any animal for food/resources or it's not alright to kill any, just because you like one over the other.

Grow the **** up people and GET ****ING EDUCATED! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_hunting#Cruelty_to_animals)

In 2005, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) commissioned the Independent Veterinarians Working Group Report. With reference to video evidence, the report states: "Perception of the seal hunt seems to be based largely on emotion, and on visual images that are often difficult even for experienced observers to interpret with certainty. While a hakapik strike on the skull of a seal appears brutal, it is humane if it achieves rapid, irreversible loss of consciousness leading to death."

[Toi]

^^ Thanks for telling us what we already know dip****. We came to the conclusion in the whaling thread that we don't know where to draw the line between what's ok to slaughter and what’s not.

My opinion is this: if it's for food (not for a jacket) that is required then by all means go ahead and do it. If it's not, then leave the animal the **** alone.

And BTW so what if I think that a seal is cuter than a ****ing cow? Am I not allowed to? I feel sorry for cows too but I have to like, ****ing eat you know.

People have always and will always be controlled by their emotions, it's what makes us human. Deal with it.


In 2005, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) commissioned the Independent Veterinarians Working Group Report. With reference to video evidence, the report states: "Perception of the seal hunt seems to be based largely on emotion, and on visual images that are often difficult even for experienced observers to interpret with certainty. While a hakapik strike on the skull of a seal appears brutal, it is humane if it achieves rapid, irreversible loss of consciousness leading to death."

It happens all the time when a seal is hit on the head and doesn't die a sudden death, just bleeds and suffers to death.

[wisp]

People have always and will always be controlled by their emotions, it's what makes us human. Deal with it.


word Leon

[Nferno]

And in other related news:


Tiger numbers 'halve in 25 years'

The WWF said there were an estimated 3,500 tigers left
The world's tiger population may have halved in the past quarter of a century, conservationists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have warned.
The WWF told a conference in Stockholm there might be only 3,500 tigers left, and that one sub-species, the South China Tiger, could soon be extinct.

Chinese demand for tiger body parts - used in traditional medicine - was described as one of the main threats.

But the WWF said if proper measures were taken, tiger numbers could rise.

Conservationists have recently bought up land concessions from governments in an effort to combat the destruction of forests still inhabited by tigers.

The WWF painted also warned that the Sumatran Tiger could face extinction.

The conservation group's co-ordinator in Nepal, Bivash Pandav, said he believed there were some 3,500 tigers left in the world, compared with an estimated 5,000-7,000 in 1982.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7291122.stm

**** the whales, **** the seals. These are the most majestic animals that roam the earth and there is only about 3500 left.

[wisp]

Tiger numbers 'halve in 25 years'
**** the whales, **** the seals. These are the most majestic animals that roam the earth and there is only about 3500 left.
Today 08:07 AM



the killing of any species is a crime against nature , no one animal is more important than the other -all should be seen as equal of our protection--- don't u agree

[Toi]

^^ Yeah but the problem lies in survival. We need to eat don't you think?

[Kraken]

We're omnivores. We don't have to eat meat.

[Antimatter]

Firstly, what a bunch of hippies.

Secondly, I love meat. I love eating meat more than pretty much anything. I'll cook more meat then needed when I'm braaing so I can eat the cold leftovers the day after. I've never ordered a vegetarian meal at a restaurant, unless you include starters like garlic bread. I would pretty much be your standard vegan emo if I didn't eat meat. I think eating meat is directly proportionate to happiness.

Thirdly, what a bunch of hippies. Christ.

[george]

I think eating meat is directly proportionate to happiness.
Bacon is the essence happiness.

From the wikipedia link:

Seal meat is sold to the Asian pet food market, and used as silage for farm animals. Their blubber is used to make seal oil, which is marketed as a fish oil supplement. In 1997 their penises were priced at $25 a penis, when sold as aphrodisiacs on the Asian market.
Damn, $25 for a seal penis.

[wisp]

Firstly, what a bunch of hippies.

Secondly, I love meat. I love eating meat more than pretty much anything. I'll cook more meat then needed when I'm braaing so I can eat the cold leftovers the day after. I've never ordered a vegetarian meal at a restaurant, unless you include starters like garlic bread. I would pretty much be your standard vegan emo if I didn't eat meat. I think eating meat is directly proportionate to happiness.

Thirdly, what a bunch of hippies. Christ.
What a Jock you are

[Tai-Pan]

Firstly. There is no way that I'll ever stop eating meat.... Imagine a braai without meat... I mean wtf?

Secondly. A friend of mine's wife went to the doctor and he said her iron was too low.... she must eat more red meat.

Now obviously the hippies will have you chow down on pills and drugs.... But I prefer my minerals the natural way... In meat.

If God didn't want us to eat meat, he wouldn't have made cows out of steak

[BlackMage]

I see we are going the same way as the whaling thread.
Basically meat is cool, unless it:

A. Does irreversable damage to the population or ecology
B. Is done in a overly cruel manner (like skinning a live seal...)
C. Is purely for profit, or retarded beliefs (thanks Asia, both for the whole seal penis thing and the rhino horn powder thing...*******s)

[wisp]

to get back on subject of the seals

Global warming threatens cubs
11/03/2008 22:10 - (SA)



Hamburg - Hundreds of newborn seal cubs risk dying of hunger and cold because global warming is making ice in the Arctic Circle melt too fast, the World Wide Fund for Nature in Germany warned on Monday.

"In some parts perhaps not a single one of the seal cubs born in the past few weeks will survive," the WWF said in a statement.

It said hundreds of the roughly 1 500 ringed seal cubs born this month and last month were in danger.

Seal cubs spend the first weeks of their lives in burrows dug in the ice sheet but if that melts, they find themselves in the ocean before they have built up a fat layer that will enable them to survive, WWF's Cathrin Muenster said.

"When the ice melts too fast, the cubs end up in the ice water before they have their insulating fat layer, and they die painfully of hunger and cold."

The WWF said there was less ice in the Arctic this winter than at any point in the past 300 years.

It said the seal cubs most at risk were those along the southwest coast of Finland, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga, but warned that the layer of pack ice in the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland is also thinner than usual.

WWF estimates that there are between 7 000 and 10 000 ringed seals in the Arctic, compared to 180 000 a century ago.

Scientists say the Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the planet. The phenomenon also puts at risk polar bears who could become extinct as their natural habitat melts away.



http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2285504,00.html

Most polar bears gone by 2050


Washington - Two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could be gone by midcentury if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday.

The fate of polar bears could be even bleaker than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be vanishing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species.

"There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears," said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. Arctic sea ice is already at an all-time low this year and is expected to retreat farther this month, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre.

That means that polar bears - some 16 000 of them - will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing.

Other polar bear populations could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By century's end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.

"Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realised, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world's current polar bear population by the mid 21st century," the report's executive summary said.

"Because the observed trajectory of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative."

In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, noting polar bears depended on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main prey.

The research released on Friday was sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service. A decision on the bears' status is expected in January.

Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are inefficient hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears' disappearance would probably take place as young cubs failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully.

The first polar bears probably first appeared about 40 000 to 50 000 years ago, and the species has not lived through a period as warm as the one predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientists said.

In a series of reports this year, the U.N. climate panel said with 90% probability that global climate change was occurring and that human activities contributed to it. The emission of greenhouse gases - including carbon dioxide from petroleum-fueled vehicles and coal-fired power plants - is the prime human cause of this warming trend, the panel said.



http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2179529,00.html


and for all those who throw the hippie word around
try reading up what it was all about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie

i'm glad i was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair :)

[BlackMage]

"Hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Eastern philosophy, championed sexual liberation, were often vegetarian and eco-friendly"

Yep. you are a hippie wisp. :)

[Kraken]

Well, whatever. A label has nothing to do with the integrity of what someone says. ·_·

[wisp]

"Hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Eastern philosophy, championed sexual liberation, were often vegetarian and eco-friendly"

Yep. you are a hippie wisp. :)
peace , love and ban the bomb :)

[Toi]

We're omnivores. We don't have to eat meat.

Yeah but we're like omnivores so we do eat meat.

Look, we need meat. I'm not convinced that someone who doesn't eat any form of meat is as healthy as they should be. Protein, carbs and fat are the essential micro nutrients that everyone requires. No amount of plants will give you enough amounts of protein and amino acids to achieve optimal health. That is, unless you want to stuff your face with pills.

Screw that, I'm against these threads. :p

[BlackMage]

Meat is awesome- PETA watches too much bambi- pills pollute the environment (factories production lines..etc)- don't kill what you don't need to kill- don't be cruel for the sake of being cruel...

Sums it up I think...
Anyway these threads always degenerate into hippies whining and jocks posturing (generalisation OMG!)
but they start out as wisp usally sharing some truly horrific story- which is cool, keep it up- keep it in our faces..I don't want to forget that my existence is made possible by other beings suffering- keeps me humble.

[wisp]

but they start out as wisp usally sharing some truly horrific story- which is cool, keep it up- keep it in our faces..I don't want to forget that my existence is made possible by other beings suffering- keeps me humble.
will do when it makes the news but i don't want to "overkill" (excuse the pun) the subject

[TheLionsInnards]

Maybe just create one "OMG teh pore animules" thread that you can update regularly, as these threads ALWAYS end up the same, as has been said before. All my views have been posted so no need for me to duplicate them, I just wish that everyone could try see the other side of the arguement for once. I try to do that now, and it saves my ass sometimes if I see how someone would react to what I am saying.

Right now I am seeing that anyone who openly objects to the culling of an animal to try and make up for a mistake made by past generations is obviously not seeing that the decision wasn't made by someone who said, 'Hey, let's legalise babby seal bashing". It was made by a parliamentarian, and he must have had environmentalists advising him, and must have had activists contacting him to talk about it, and this was THE BEST outcome. Do you really think a decision will ever be made that will favour animals over humans? No, not in my opinion. So unless you can call him, wisp, and tell him a viable alternative this decision will stick.

Do some research insead of just posting articles and reminding us, time and time again, that it is horrible. Maybe start a thread to brainstorm new methods of sorting out overpopulation problems. I would definately contribute to that thread.

[dunjin]

It happens all the time when a seal is hit on the head and doesn't die a sudden death, just bleeds and suffers to death.

Mass gas the seals, imo. If this isn't a morally viable option, surely, a Canadian Schindler or someone will come to their aid.

[TheLionsInnards]

Mass gas the seals, imo. If this isn't a morally viable option, surely, a Canadian Schindler or someone will come to their aid.

And how do you propose to round up 275 000 seal, put them in one area and gass them?

[Pr0wl1ng_PaPayA]

Ummm are you famliar with wittisism and sarcasm?
The refference to a Canadian Schindler should have let your lolz alarm go off.;)

[TheLionsInnards]

Ummm are you famliar with wittisism and sarcasm?
The refference to a Canadian Schindler should have let your lolz alarm go off.;)

And are you aware of the term spamming, if not I'll let you know it can be used to define killing a serious discussion with unnescessary jokes, not that anyone here considers the holocaust a joke I'm sure.
Sorry if I sound like I have a carrot up my arse, it's been a long day.

[Pr0wl1ng_PaPayA]

Personally, I found it very funny, and a breath of fresh air in a thread tjat is not going anywhere.
The thing is, most of us want meat, and as long as it's not us doing the killing, we don't give a **** where it comes from.
The people who DO care, are the hippies :p

[TheLionsInnards]

Fair enough.

[Kraken]

I think too many of these posts have gone off at a tangent. Try to stick to the topic, please.

[BattleMoose]

Havent read teh whole thread, just wanted to post my opinion on the OP.

Culling of a species is one thing, such as in the elephant culling thread, for the benefit of the species and no economic gain is to be made of it.

If communities are dependant on seal hunting, isnt it by definition not culling?

So yeah, quite strongly against seal hunting, clubbing killing.

Raising or hunting animals, humainly for food is one thing, but for fashion, my god man, get some morals. (This wasnt targetted at anyonein the thread, but to the seal hunters, and people who buy such items of clothing)

[Toi]

Do some research insead of just posting articles and reminding us, time and time again, that it is horrible. Maybe start a thread to brainstorm new methods of sorting out overpopulation problems. I would definately contribute to that thread.

Thank you young sir, the last thing I need right now is to be reminded time and time again how cruel and hartless we are.

Gimme five boy.......


http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/Sir_Toi/highfive.jpg

[Squirly]

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/LPIPOD03/BN3963_14~Seals-in-Cape-Cross-Seal-Reserve-Skeleton-Coast-National-Park-Namibia-Posters.jpg

Cape Cross, Skeleton Coast, Namibia.

There's a ****ton of them and we cull as well. They get caught in nets, they end up starving because there's barely any fish in their area (especially young seals have trouble) so they're gonna die of starvation anyway.

There's people who can make a living from this, buying food and paying rent, but nooooo don't hit the seals because they're cute and fluffy. Odds are you (in the 'you know who you are' context) say that while stuffing your face with a burger.

There are worse things than culling and the reasons against culling are somewhat limp.

[Toi]

There's a ****ton of them and we cull as well. They get caught in nets, they end up starving because there's barely any fish in their area (especially young seals have trouble) so they're gonna die of starvation anyway.


And who's fault is that? The way I see it, nature will sort itself out, it's the way the system works.

You know what they say: two wrongs don't make a right.

Explenation: we are the reason that they starve, culling them cause "shame they're starving" doesn't justify it.

[BattleMoose]

There are worse things than culling and the reasons against culling are somewhat limp.

I am not against culling, I am against cruel methods of slaughter, especially in regard to fashion.


The way I see it, nature will sort itself out, it's the way the system works.

This is true, we should note, however, that the method that nature uses could potentially be more cruel than culling. Starving to death I would guess would be more cruel than a spike to the head.

I support culling with these stipulations.

State operated/regulated,
No profit,
Humane killing method,
clear indication of overpopulation,

This is my list and I reserve the right to add to it as I deem necessary. ;)