Seal Hunting? Oh Deer

You know, if you're required by law to stay at least thirty feet away from sealing boats, you probably shouldn't complain to the press and officials that sealers threw seal guts on you. I've never thrown seal guts, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they don't fly too well. I wonder how hard it is to fling them thirty feet?

Just like they do every year, the protesters are complaining that they were rammed. Again, I'm happy to say I don't necessarily know what I'm talking about, but if the sealers have a legal right to be on the waters working, don't they have the right of way? And if so, how hard is it for a Zodiac to get out of the way of a big, relatively slow, fishing boat?

Nice to see the authorities reigning the protesters in.I'm all for freedom of speech and movement, but a smear campaign is a smear campaign.

You know what's really funny? The protesters complain about the hunt being the largest 'slaughter' of marine mammals in the world. I don't question that. But why aren't any of them vocally protesting the deer cull in the United States?

The seal hunt allows for the harvest of 325,000 animals in two zones. Meanwhile, 484,000 deer were killed in 2003-04 in Georgia alone. The limit is 12 per hunter per season and the national population is estimated at about 30 million.

On top of the 484,000 taken in Georgia, Minnesota hunters take down about 200,000 per year. Another 214,000 in North Carolina.Throw in another 20 or so states with significant deer populations and I'm pretty sure the number of deer killed pales in comparison to the number of seals. I've never heard of celebrities protesting that though.

Comments

[Jamie]

In the Province of Newfoundland/Labrador the EI program requires that the minimum anual family income must not exceed 20,000 - 30,000 dollars per household. In 2006, the EI program required a person to work 420 hours (not exceeding an anual family income of $30,000). If the total hours is not meet, then the person would be required to work 910 hours in 2007. So, between a small family of 2 people they must work 840 hours but not make more than 30,000 dollars. Yes, most people would say than work full time all year round, but keep in mind that the minimun wage is $6.75 for adults. At minimun wage, the people of this province are living of $1080.00 per month. They still pay just as much money for housing and hydro. They still have the same bills as you and I. So after paying your rent, hydro, cable, telephone bills how much money do you have left over for food when you start with $1080.
Many Newfie/Labradorians rely on seal meat as a main diet to feed their families. Not only do they eat seal to survive but also wild duck, turr, moose and carribou. So when you go to the store and buy your pork, lamb, beef and VEAL (which is in fact BABY cow) take note of how much you spent on these things. Is it that hard to believe that substituting these meats for wild ones is a necessity for some, rather than a barbaric act. Perhaps, you don't even eat meat. You think the killing of ANY animal is barbaric. You, with your vitamin supplements and your soy milk. Go down to a small town in Labrador. Look for soy milk and green salads. You'll be more likely to find carrots, cabbage, potatoes and turnip, because those are the only vegetables you will find. They don't have the luxury of vegetarian friendly groceries. So, personally people I think you should cut these "archaic, barbarians" some slack, they don't have much but they do a damn good job with what they do have!
I would like to inform you that it is absolutely Illegal to kill a baby seal. The cute white coat that you see in the magazines are taken by animal activists who are trying to promote their campaign. It is also illegal to skin a seal alive. Not only is this act illegal but nearly impossible! A seal easily outweighs a human, and seals are extreamly aggressive. They are not going to lie there 'crying' as you put it, while a person skins them alive. They are preditors of the sea.
There is however 'one' case where these animal activist leaf lickers did film a 'baby' seal being slaughtered and skinned alive. They had one of their own people tranquilize the seal, and then payed a man $5000 to club and skin the seal while it was still breathing. So what kind of people are you defending here.
i would like to say that I do not, have not and never intend to hunt seals.'I' am lucky enough to live in a province that supports my survival. But I'm not going to sit on my high horse and look down my nose at those less fortunate than me.

have you ever been to a slaughter house? For beef I mean. You should go, you'd be surprised at how much blood gets around when animals are being slaughtered. Those poor animals, some of them never see the light of day. You see, it makes the meat more tender when they don't move around to much.
My point is, the blood it's everywhere! Horrifying! I mean, sometimes, it's hard to tell because it all soaks into the dirt and stuff. But there's still alot of it. I thought to myself, just to get a better idea, what if dirt "white" this would absolutely terrify me! Oh.... wait a minute, snow is white. Yes, I could see how this my concern you now. Well, maybe if they could just turn all the pretty white snow flakes into brown dirt you wouldn't be so disturbed.
Newborn pups are about 85 cm long, weigh about 11 kg and are yellowish in colour. In about 3 days the fur turns to a fluffy white from which the pups derive the name "whitecoats". Young harp seals rank among the fastest growing and most precocious of young mammals. They are nursed for about 12 days and then abandoned by their mothers. During this period they more than triple their weight on milk which contains up to 45% fat (compared to 4% for cow's milk). When weaned, pups weigh an average of 35 kg. More than half of this weight is fat in the form of blubber.

After the pups are abandoned by their mothers, they begin to lose weight and to moult their white coats. Partially moulted pups are called "ragged jackets". After about 18 days this coat is completely shed and is replaced with a short silvery one, flecked with small dark spots along each side and sparsely flecked on the back. The pups are now young adults called "beaters".
Ipsos Reid poll

Fisheries Department has armed itself with a $5,000 poll that suggests the majority of Canadians support the hunt.
The Ipsos-Reid poll, completed in February, found 60 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they supported to some degree Ottawa's current policy on the annual hunt.

The telephone survey found 22 per cent of respondents strongly agreed with the federal policy and 38 per cent somewhat agreed, while 23 per cent strongly disagreed and 16 per cent somewhat disagreed.
I think you will find that in The eastern and northern provinces, people are more likely to support the hunt. In the western provinces majority of people will be opposed to it and that in the Interior Provinces, majority of people are either undecided or don't give it much thought. But don't take my word for it. Just read the press releases, that's where all of your other information come from.

I must say, I love the role model's you animal activist choose as the faces of you cause

Brigitte Bardot - Racist, fined for inciting racial hatred after attacking gays, Muslims in her book

Pamela Anderson – Porn Star

Paul McCartney – Drug addict

Heather Mills – Hooker

[Mareli]

Yeah you heard me..i called you SCUMBAGS!!!!
And thats not all..I think that you guys should just %@#$-off!!!!

[Mareli]

You all suck for supporting the cruel seal-hunt!Im a kid and yet I know how wrong it is...looks like you guys are just lazy old scumbags that cant afford to disagree with your grandparents...you should be ashamed of yourselves...

[Steve]

"Canada has placed itself alongside China as the cruelest and most self-serving nation." -- Morrissey

You must be doing something correctly up there, if you've offended that droning, irrelevant windbag.

[Kim Hogg]

No kidding. Stop killing Bambi! End the slaughter! Killing for pleasure is wrong!

(Do you think any of them are listening?)

[Joe]

That's the great part.... seals ARE ugly. Or at least the ones we are allowed to kill are. The cute ones you see in the news/front page of the paper are baby seals, or whitecoats. Havn't been allowed to kill them for around 25 or 20 years.

And hey, deers aren't exactly ugly :)

[Mike Peacock]

I'm sure if seals were ugly there wouldn't be half the number of protestors.