More On The Seal Hunt

Okay, as a follow-up to my post Let The Truth Be Heard... Okay, so I came across this blog entry last night entitled Clubbed a baby seal lately? - and with a title like that you can only image the content. The entry was largely based upon a message sent out to members of a PETA listserve, and I felt the need to comment on this entry and stated:

Glad to see that you have bought the misinformation and lies of the animal rights groups hook, line and sinker.

First, baby seals (i.e., whitecoats and bluebacks) aren't hunted - haven't been since 1987 (but why let facts ruin a good photo op and what can be a lucrative fundraising campaign). Second, the vast majority of seals that are harvested aren' clubbed (approximately only 10% are in fact). Third, clubbing is just as humane a way of killing an animal as the steel bolt through the head that they use to kill cattle, but I don't see PETA protesting outside of ranches. Fourth, the vast majority of teh seal is actually used - the coat for fur, the blubber for oil, the meat is eaten, the bones are used by a growing number of native artists, etc.. Finally, the seal hunt brings in approximately $55 million dollars into the rural Newfoundland economy, a region which can see seasonal unemployment reach levels of greater than 25%.

But why let the facts get in the way of of a great crusade!

When I woke up this morning, the author of this blog had written me an e-mail, to which I responded figuring that I was wasting my time getting into a pissing match with an extreme animal activitist that simply wouldn't listen to me. Boy, was I wrong!

In her original e-mail to me she spoke of clubbing baby seals in front of their mothers and such, so I felt the need to reply to her with the following:

They don't club seals in front of their mothers and they don't club seals that are packed (cause those are female seals that are still weaning their young). Law prohibits either of these groups of seals from being included in the harvest. I should also note that approximately 90% of the seals are killed by riffle, not by clubbing

I will admit that prior to 1983 (when the Europeans banned the importation of Canadian seal products), there were some less than humane things happening. The Canadian Government closed the hunt and in 1987 re-opened it with very strict procedures. It fact, it is the most regulated harvest of wild or domestic animals in Canada.

My biggest problem is that organizations like PETA and the US Humane Society purposeful use misinformation about the hunt to ellicit the sympathy of people like yourself (and in many cases the money of others). For example, if you go to the US Humane Society's website and look at their protect seals area. At the top of the page you'll see a picture of a cute little whitecoat (illegal to hunt since 1987) and an image from a 1964 film of a seal being skinned alive from the IFAW (it was later discovered that the IFAW had paid the sealer in the movie to commit these acts of cruelty so they could be caught on tape).

Now because of these lies, they have a well meaning person like yourself out in California who has never seen a seal in their lives believing that these cruel and inhuman people go out and club baby seals to death as they lie in front of their mothers or skin the fur off of the seals while they are still alive just to watch them suffer because that individual is only interested in the fur. I can honestly say that nothing could be further from the truth.

The vast majority of sealers are from Newfoundland and Labrador, a province that typically enjoys an annual unemployment rate of twice the national average (about 10%-12%), and because the vast majority of their industries are resources based and seasonal in nature there are times when that average reaches 16%-18% (and as high as 25%-30% in rural areas). The seal hunt comes at a time when there is little employment in this seasonal cycle in rural Newfoundland and brings in approximately $55 million to these portions of the province.

As for the seals, there are approximately six million of them - three times the number that there were twenty years ago (I should note that there are only 506,000 people living in Newfoundland and Labrador, even though it is geographically as large as California). The annual hunt is usually in the 300,000 to 350,000 seal range. Given their growth over the past twenty year, the seal herd grows at a rate of about 200,000 each year. Scientist have acknowledged that the herd is at dangerously high levels, and is beginning to affect the health of other species of fish that seals rely upon or that rely upon the same food sources as seals - some have even called for massive one time cullings of upwards of a million seals. The Canadian Government has taken the more measured appoach of setting a quota that is 100,000 more seals that what are beng more, trying to manage this balance in a slow and delicate manner.

In any regard, I don't blame you for the position that you have taken, you have been successfully duped by a well oiled public relations and fundraising machine. I only hope that with additional and more accurate information that you'll see that the seal hunt is a responsible management of a resource that is carried out in as humane as way possible (particularly compared to how we treat other wild animals and especially compared to how we treat animals raised simply for the purposes of consumption).

The response that I got from this response was surprising, but extremely refreshing. This California journalist expressed concern that she had been duped by this particular lobby groupon this particular issue and encouraged me to post this kind of information on my site.

To Gina Smith, thanks for renewing my faith that in the notion that if people are ony exposed to the real facts that they will be much more reasonable in their approach. I say this because I don't simply dismiss people that are against the seal hunt because they are against the seal hunt. For example, these two guys - An Environmentalist's Case for the Seal Hunt and Seal hunting and why I'm a "vegetarian". Now while I disagree with their positions against the seal hunt, they both oppose it on personal, philosophical and informed rationales - and while I can disagree with them I have to respect their opinions because their opinions aren't based upon misinformation and lies.

Anyway, thanks Gina for starting my Friday out on the right foot.

Tags: seals, seal hunt, Newfoundland, Canada

Let The Truth Be Heard

Not really about the academy or my journey to get to the academy, and I should really be coding my dissertation data instead of writing this, but it is something that needs to be said.

Okay, today was a day of national protest against the seal hunt and as a proud Canadian and even prouder Newfoundlander I feel I must speak up. About a year ago I first wrote about this topic on my personal blog, Rock Ruminations (which I have since stopped updating), and that entry can be viewed here - To Those Misinformed Seal Hunt Crusaders.

I feel I must speak because while Canada is not the only nation in the world that hunts seals, as do countries like Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Greenland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, but Canada seems to be the favourite target of the hypocritical Human Society of the United States (who if you visit their "protect seals" website you'll see a picture, front and center, of a white coat - a type of seal that has been illegal to harvest since 1987 but still brings in the big bucks from an unsuspecting and ignorant audience). I also feel I must speak because much of this hunt in Canada is carried out off the coast of Newfoundland and is a vital part of the economy for rural portions of my province - places that have been hit with hard economic times, massive out-migration, and that experience seasonal unemployment rates of up to 25% or higher.

What I find so unbelievable about this issue is the massive amount of misinformation that is out there and how gullible and ignorant some people can be. I understand that the cute little white coat and the claim that it is being clubbed to death is a great way to get an ignorant Martin Sheen to speak in a commercial supporting the anti-sealing campaign. But for people in British Columbia to get a bunch of innocence children, who don't know any better, to dress them up in black clothing and have them carry little coffins through the downtown and lay them in front of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans office, telling the children that they are trying to save all of the baby seals from being clubbed to death. This is simply despicable and these people should be ashamed (the website promoting this event even goes as far to say "It will draw a lot of media attention if we can get the children ") - I know that I am ashamed to call them fellow Canadians.

So, with all of theselies that are out there - particularly in the United States - about the seal hunt, let's provide you with some facts (and reading my entry, To Those Misinformed Seal Hunt Crusaders, from last year is a good place to start).

1. 90% of seals taken from the Front (the location where most of the hunt occurs) of the hunt are killed by riffle, not by clubbing (this site provides a good description of the tools used for harvesting seals).
2. It has been illegal to hunt seal pups in Canada since 1987.
3. Seals are not an endangered species (in fact that are well above that mark and over 85% of the current populationof harp and hooded seals would have to be killed in order to make it an endangered species).
4. Seal are not killed simply for their fur - in fact, most of the seal is utilized for something or other, from the oil to the meat to the bones.

Finally, as a way to illustrate the lies and misinformation provided by those who would like to see the Canadian seal hunt end, let me quote the following:

Do sealers sometimes skin seals without killing them first?

In 1964, film of a seal being skinned alive was used by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to vilify Canadian sealers, and was screened on CBC television. Following a public outcry and investigation, a man in the film confessed in court that he had been paid to commit acts of cruelty. (See Saving society from animal "snuff" films, by Teresa Platt and Simon Ward, Fur Commission USA.)

IFAW founder Brian Davies also later stated under oath that he had never actually seen a seal being skinned alive. Yet IFAW's propaganda continues to claim that this happens.

More absurd than the allegation itself is that some people continue to find it believable. According to the animal rights mythology, skinning an animal while it's alive saves time or bullets or both. Common sense, on the other hand, should tell us that skinning an animal that is dead is infinitely preferable to skinning one that struggles and bites. And since a skinning knife is at hand anyway, in the unlikely event that an animal is still alive, the animal can still be killed with ease.

In reality, the inspiration for the IFAW-created myth was probably observation of a "swimming reflex". The following explanation is from Animal welfare and the harp seal hunt in Atlantic Canada; PDF or HTML; by Pierre-Yves Daoust et. al, Can Vet J Vol. 43, September 2002:

"When killed by acute trauma to the brain, seals, like other animals, often undergo a period of tremors or convulsions. These consist of strong lateral movements of the caudal portion of the body ... which have been interpreted by some animal welfare advocates as implying persistence of conscious life.

The frequent occurrence of strong swimming actions in seals killed by trauma
complicates the determination of their death from a distance, for example by videotape. These reflex movements may last considerably longer in seals than in terrestrial animals because of the unique adaptation of their musculature to diving, including a much larger store of oxygen associated with the higher concentration of myoglobin. Moreover, the pattern of this reflex activity can be erratic and does not necessarily decrease gradually in intensity from the time of death. For example, sheep and cattle stunned by nonpenetrative percussion collapsed with signs of tremors, followed by slow hind leg movements that increased in frequency and could develop into vigorous hind leg kicking. Complete immobility immediately following a blow to the head should actually alert the sealer to the possibility that the animal is still conscious, especially if this immobility is accompanied by contraction of the body. This fear-induced 'paralysis' is a typical behavior of harp seals and hooded seals; other authors have commented on the possibility that such immobile seals might be interpreted as dead by inexperienced sealers and, therefore, might still be conscious when skinning begins."

Saving society from animal "snuff" films By Teresa Platt and Simon Ward, Fur Commission USA

From the unfamiliar world of medical experimentation done for both animal and human benefit to the routine slaughter of cattle for steak, the images are often not what they appear to be. Animal "snuff" films, which chronicle the death throes of animals, are big business today with most of the large animal-based protection groups maintaining a library. More ...

Taken from http://www.sealsandsealing.net/FAQ.html

To end, if you want the facts about , I suggest you visit the Canadian Sealers Association.

Tags: seals, seal hunt, Newfoundland, Canada