Seal hunting: Double standards anyone?

[HoreTore]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

Don't get me wrong, I'm big on animal welfare. But it's simply hilarious when they're all up in arms on this issue, while they have absolutely no prolbem with factory farming or animal transports where a large number of the animals die due to dehydration or suffocation.

Compared to a lot of the animal transport that takes place within the EU itself, clubbing down the seal issue just looks pathetic.

[Husar]

Man, seals have fur and they're totally cute, would you want to cuddle chicken?

[Guildenstern]

Compared to a lot of the animal transport that takes place within the EU itself, clubbing down the seal issue just looks pathetic.

You may be right, but I think ecotourism is emerging as a far more sustainable and humane alternative.

Just have a look at this one: http://www.stopthesealhunt.co.uk/sit...Baby_Seals.htm

[Don Corleone]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

Don't get me wrong, I'm big on animal welfare. But it's simply hilarious when they're all up in arms on this issue, while they have absolutely no prolbem with factory farming or animal transports where a large number of the animals die due to dehydration or suffocation.

Compared to a lot of the animal transport that takes place within the EU itself, clubbing down the seal issue just looks pathetic.

Things must be very different in Norway. PETA in America think that sewer rats and cockroaches have more rights than people. I hear what you're saying, but the animal rights crew I know object about anything to do with animals, cute and cuddly or otherwise.

[HoreTore]

Things must be very different in Norway. PETA in America think that sewer rats and cockroaches have more rights than people. I hear what you're saying, but the animal rights crew I know object about anything to do with animals, cute and cuddly or otherwise.

If that was true, disgusting stuff like packed animal transports and such wouldn't be allowed. Yet that's legal, but the seals are about to get banned, which is a LOT less cruel than that....

[Redleg]

If that was true, disgusting stuff like packed animal transports and such wouldn't be allowed. Yet that's legal, but the seals are about to get banned, which is a LOT less cruel than that....

THen you might want to research PETA just a tad bit. The group works on several things developing programs that seek such a stance as that. Just because its not illegal, doesn't mean that attempts are not being done.

Man for the most part is still a hunter/gather which requires a source of protein, and meat from animals is still popular with the masses.

PETA often protests at Rodeo's for the use of animals for sport, and the means in which they are transported and treated for the events.

[seireikhaan]

Mmmm.... seal meat... the babies always taste the best, not as tough as the older adults.

Good thing I clubbed it nice and good, it made it nice and tender.

[Viking]

The largest markets are in Norway, China and Russia; however, one-third of the trade in seal pelts, meat and oils passes through the EU market, Dimas said.

Heh, can't be meant for human consumption.

[HoreTore]

THen you might want to research PETA just a tad bit. The group works on several things developing programs that seek such a stance as that. Just because its not illegal, doesn't mean that attempts are not being done.

Man for the most part is still a hunter/gather which requires a source of protein, and meat from animals is still popular with the masses.

PETA often protests at Rodeo's for the use of animals for sport, and the means in which they are transported and treated for the events.

Yes, and that's why I didn't mention PETA in the OP, but the EU instead, who are the people passing these things

[Tribesman]

If its OK to shoot them then why isn't it OK to club them ?
Shooting doesn't guarantee an intant kill any more than clubbing does .

[HoreTore]

If its OK to shoot them then why isn't it OK to club them ?
Shooting doesn't guarantee an intant kill any more than clubbing does .

It's probably because they're OH SO CUUUUUUUUTE!!!111

And a pig looks like a pig. Why care about what happens to them?

[Husar]

It's probably because they're OH SO CUUUUUUUUTE!!!111

And a pig looks like a pig. Why care about what happens to them?

Would you want to marry an ugly woman? No? But they want a guy, too, why don't you care about what happens to them?

I can already see people complain about food costs rising even more once every pig gets it's own lorry to be transported in. Will this only end when half of europe has been starved to death?

[Mikeus Caesar]

Great, so now the annual clubbing will be scaled back, there'll be more seals around, and thus greater competition for fish between us and them. Humans will throw a hissyfit at the price of fish rising by 5 cents, while huge numbers of seals starve to death due to the lack of available food.

inb4 'so why dont we just stop fishing'. Not viable, and i like eating fish.

[Xiahou]

Great, so now the annual clubbing will be scaled back, there'll be more seals around, and thus greater competition for fish between us and them. Humans will throw a hissyfit at the price of fish rising by 5 cents, while huge numbers of seals starve to death due to the lack of available food.

Well... at least the polar bears will have more seals to eat. Getting torn apart by a bear has to be a lot better than being shot or clubbed, right?

Let's face it, I don't think many seals meet a happy end however they go. As long as hunters aren't depleting the population or being needlessly cruel and wasteful, let them hunt.

[lars573]

It's quite regulated by the federal government. They felt Newfoundland couldn't handle it. Each ship has to get a license to take so many pelts.

Well... at least the polar bears will have more seals to eat. Getting torn apart by a bear has to be a lot better than being shot or clubbed, right?

But with the receding ice flows the polar bears can't get to the seals.

[Fragony]

I don't mind being a hypocrite when something looks that cute as a baby seal. But I agree with Horetore for a change being worked up over this when you compare it to the sorry life of meat-cattle. It's the people wearing it I guess, they lost the fight already and should be baking cakes no dead seal is going to change that. teh futility. And those eyes awwwwwwwwwwwwwww eww eww

[Tratorix]

The plan announced Wednesday covers hunts worldwide, but especially focuses on Canada because of claims by anti-hunt campaigners that it is the cruelest. Canadian seal hunters use spiked clubs and rifles to kill seals.

Using spiked clubs and rifles is too cruel? What are they supposed to do, gas them? It's not like the seals are being waterboarded to soften them up or anything. Of course, the enviromentalists would rather the hunt was shut down, so the population gets out of control and the seals start to starve. That's much more humane.

[Ja'chyra]

I think people are mixing two different things up here, if we let the seal population manage itself then of course some would starve but it would quickly even out, that's what nature does, this isn't cruel it's just, well, natural.

As for clubbing them, if we choose to regulate the population or even harvest them we should do so in a controlled fashion which should also take into account economic issues as these aren't divorced from environmental issues. I would reckon, and I'm no clubbing expert that a trained hunter/clubber/seal killer, call them what you will, can make clubbing if not humane by PETA standards at least quick and relatively painless, and I say this as an animal lover but also a meat eater.

[HoreTore]

I think people are mixing two different things up here, if we let the seal population manage itself then of course some would starve but it would quickly even out, that's what nature does, this isn't cruel it's just, well, natural.

Nature has a thing for screwing itself up.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I think people are mixing two different things up here, if we let the seal population manage itself then of course some would starve but it would quickly even out, that's what nature does, this isn't cruel it's just, well, natural.

As for clubbing them, if we choose to regulate the population or even harvest them we should do so in a controlled fashion which should also take into account economic issues as these aren't divorced from environmental issues. I would reckon, and I'm no clubbing expert that a trained hunter/clubber/seal killer, call them what you will, can make clubbing if not humane by PETA standards at least quick and relatively painless, and I say this as an animal lover but also a meat eater.

Actually many animal populations experience rather large swings between when food is plentiful and when it is not. The snowshoe hare and lynx are perfect examples of this, but the charts I read on this were in a biology textbook and it is too late for me to search for them on the net. Anyway the point is when food is plentiful animals often over-reproduce which leads to periods of starvation, population decline and thus a new abundance of food. This cycle doesn't just even out into ideal population levels for many species, though there are of course some species who manage to reach carrying capacity and then maintain a fairly steady population.

[LittleGrizzly]

Don't get me wrong, I'm big on animal welfare. But it's simply hilarious when they're all up in arms on this issue, while they have absolutely no prolbem with factory farming or animal transports where a large number of the animals die due to dehydration or suffocation.

Well i don't think we should complain about them improving animal welfare just because thier not doing it across the board, not that i know if this does improve animal welfare but if it does then why complain about the other methods, getting the legislation through means the vegetarians can now concentrate on factory farming and animal transports...

So is seal any good or what ? all this talk of meat is making me hungry...

[KukriKhan]

So is seal any good or what ? all this talk of meat is making me hungry...

Seal Recipes; the meat is reportedly "dry and fishy", and seems to require lots of boiling, as in a stew.