So how is it different if a Polar Bear eats the seal.. digests it, and in the process uses that seal for food to provide extra fat to keep it warm in the frigid wastes, yet humans instead of eating it, do the smart thing and make a coat out of it?
One way or the other, something higher up in the food chain is going to wear it... You bleeding hearts are crying over the inevitable.. What you bleeding hearts should do instead of pissing and moaning over these terrible travesties is take your silly asses up to the canadian tundra, and go work the land. Try and raise a family up there, and I bet by the end of the year you'll be swinging that seal club to and fro to put food in your kids bellies.
Bunch of friggin crybabies I swear... On a martial arts forum no less...
Right. Here are some videos. There are more conclusive videos posted by the IFAW, but I have been told that they were removed from youtube due to the legal proceedings that took place in 2005. However, these video's will have to do for now. Sometimes, a picture speaks a thousand words, so watch them!
As for the "Americans don't take part in these hunts" statement, i will find the link for the page that describes this. But, as you can see form the videos, they do, alongside the newfoundlands.
Now, who can honestly say that they watched those videos and were not in some way affected by them?
looking at any animal being killed is hard. why is this hunt any differnt than any other type of animal farming? go hang out in a slaughterhouse for a while it is jsut as disturbing.
all the reading i have done says these hunters are just fishermen looking to make a living in the winter when times are tough in these small fishing villages. if you can find a reference that says otherwise then i will listen to what you are saying.
Whats a load of crap? The fact a bear will eat a seal to digest it, convert its mass into energy, which gets stored away as fat, which acts at a thermal insulator in the northern canadian tundra? Or the fact humans wear seal because it happens to be warm? Or the facts that its a viable commodity because quite frankly snow cones don't exactly sell like hotcakes in the cold ass north? Its the way of the world.. Cry me a friggin river man...
Akasha, I am not affected by the silly anthropomorphism of the videos. If you watch the Nature Channel (or its equivalent in the UK) you see the same--Nature, red in tooth and claw.
I understand that nature can make the soft and city-bred queasy at times, I would think that a martial arts forum where people study breaking bones, tearing joints, choking and cutting others with weapons or smashing them with sticks would be composed of a tougher lot--apparently not.
The hunt is beneficial and legal. I enjoy eating animals and am wearing their products as I type (my belt and my shoes) and I know they are good for the environment as the alternative comes from petrol products which pollute the lungs and eyes of baby ducks. I know how these products came off the animals and into the store did not transpire with Disneyesque magic, but rather someone shot a cow in the head and then cut it to pieces.
I think the objection to the seal hunts (for the most part) is based on people who lived good, soft lives away from danger, do not hunt and get their meat from a store who have lost contact with Nature. I understand their squeamishness, but I will not let them impose their morality on me.
I never said that Seal Hunts was the only type of horrible slaughtering, and I am against all forms of commercial hunting. However, the fact is, what is happening to the seal is ot hunting, it is genocide. And to the guy that said that the seal population was not in trouble, scientists report that the hunt puts the harp seal population in danger because killing such high numbers each year is not sustainable. A recent study shows that the Canadian government’s plan for harp seals risks reducing the population by 70%. Scientists also point out that there is no evidence that killing seals helps protect fish stocks. The collapse of the cod stocks in Canada was caused by overfishing – even most fishermen agree that is the case. Even if it is the case that the culling of the seals was nesessary for the fishermans survival,
why does it have tp be on such a massive scale. Yes, there are many fishermen that take part in the hunt, but many, many more are killed than what is needed.
What you have just described is natural. The polar bear eats the seal and thereby is supplyed with the nutrients that enable him/her to keep warm. Yes, I agree that indigenous people need to hunt for clothes as well as food, but a good case of this is the American Indians. When they hunted the Buffalo, the used the meat for food, the carcass for clothes, the sinews for rope, etc, etc. The seals are not killed primarily for fur; they are killed for sport, and they are killed primarily for their fur. Like I said, the indigenous people may have to kill for clothes, but the rest of the world does not need to. We have other resources; wool, cotton, etc.
Firstly, please tell me how those videos where in any way anthropomorphic. They show what is really going on. They are not a distorted view of things. That stuff goes on! And I have already explained about the nature/tooth and claw thing.
Firstly, let me just confirm one thing. I am not a soft and city bred guy. I have not had an easy time of things, but this is not what the thread is all about. And just because I find the senseless genocide of animals to be disgusting does not make me a 'weed'. Tell me, how am I less tough for caring?
Oh come on! From what I have read of your posting, you don't give a damn about what happens to the ducks. And yes, you are right, the oil-produced products are harmful to animals - but only indirectly. Seal culls is by no means an indirect threat to the seals. And you say it is beneficial. To whom? Yes, it is true that seals eat the fish that the fisherman need to fish in order to make a living. But the mass genocide is not the answer to solving this problem. there are many other ways to protect the fish in those waters. Canadian Harp Seals will soon become extinct if this continues.
No, the objection to the seal hunts is based on the fact that it is (for the most part) pointless. Canada makes money from the tourism that it brings to the country, and from the fur that it sells, but how much? I'll tell you. $16.5 million dollars. That's nothing. Seal hunting is cruel, and vile.
Oh, to the guy that asked for me to provide a link to where it shows American's killing the seal, I cannot find it, but I have asked a friend of mine at the IFAW to provode me with a link which I will post when it arrives.
True, seals have been killed for their pelts, skins, and oil here in America .... at one time., but in 1932, a law was passed that prohibited the killing of seals
In 1970, the law was changed to protect seals only during the breeding season when they have pups. Fisherman can kill seals any time they find them in their nets, but the massacres or killing seal pups for their fur and meat are against the law here in the US.
sigh, your contiued misusing of the term genocide makes it hard to take your argument very seriously. and again what they are doing is NOT commercial hunting it is a lot closer to farming practices than it is to commerical hunting.
How is my use of the term 'genocide' a misuse? How else would you describe the sensless musrder of millions of seal?
No, The main interest of the cull is Commercialim, not farming. I have already explained this, but for further info, go to http://www.ifaw.org/ and actually read some of the articles on seal hunting. There you will find you answers.
this is closer to the truth than a lot of other stuff posted on this thread.
these fishermen live in areas that are incredibly depressed economically and have no jobs other than fishing available. presently the cod supplies are depleted so these fishermen who would usually fish cod need something to bring money in, especially in the winter when fishing work is even more scarce.
although overfishing is certainly the central issue at fault there is some room for debate how much these seals effect the cod supplies. the fishermen and the government are trying to get the cod to bounce back in this area.
Not to get sidetracked here.. but I want to get this straight. Seal Hunting does not = genocide.
gen‧o‧cide Pronunciation[jen-uh-sahyd] –noun
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
When seals form their own country, in which seals of all political, racial and cultural differences come together.. and humans start killing them then.. That would be genocide. Until then.. Stop using that term. Stop making an animal into something its not.
a. this is not murder. murder is defined as follows.
mur·der (mûrdr) Pronunciation Key
n.
The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.
there we no humans involved therefore NOT MURDER.
b. this is not genocide, genocide is defined as follows.
gen?o?cide? [jen-uh-sahyd] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
since when are seals a nation, or political group?
I am not talking about the actual, down to the very last detail 'Genocide'. I am talking about the underlying principle. Ifyou wan't to get into a linguistical argument, that is for a different time. I am talking about the actual principle of the term.
Oh, and what are humans again?........ Animals. The fact that we are scientifaically, technologically, and intelectually more advanced than other animals does not matter. We are still animals.
I think it's sad that you're argument for Seal Culls has degenerated into an argument about the proper use of a word