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Should the Canadian government outlaw the seal hunt?
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Results so far:
| No | 27% | 111 votes | Total: 413 votes | |
| Yes | 73% | 302 votes |
No
by Adam Sprott
Created on: July 06, 2008
The Canadian Government should not outlaw the seal hunt. To do so would severely escalate the problem, not solve it. Seals are not as endangered as many people are lead to believe; there are far more seals now than there have been in previous years. Seals are not hunted excessively, and the seal hunt helps control the population. If seals were not hunted, the seal population would increase exponentially, causing many problems for both the seals and for humans. If the seal population increases, the fish populations that seals hunt decrease and this makes it harder for fishermen to catch fish and make a living. Also, as there will be fewer fish and many more seals, the seals themselves will start dying of hunger as only a few of them will be able to catch the food they need to survive. Not only will this affect the seals, but everything else that eats those fish will suffer, and in a chain effect the entire ecosystem is affected.
The seal hunt cannot be compared to other endangered species of which hunting is outlawed, such as of the elephant. In those cases the elephant is endangered, but with the seal hunt it is actually the fish the seals hunt that need protecting and to protect the fish the seals have to be hunted.
The seal hunt is nowhere near as bad as it is portrayed. The seal hunt and the seal hunters are vilified only because these animals are cute and cuddly. As a result many people feel it is not right to kill these cute creatures. However, the fish stocks that seals hunt are largely depleted. Are fish not creatures as well? Can they not feel pain? For some reason I don't see anyone protesting to protect the fish. I guess they just are not cute enough. Sorry fish, as ironic as it may seem we are still going to allow the seals to eradicate you.
Banning the seal hunt will only create a poaching industry. Right now there is a demand for seal products, and as long as there is a demand there will be someone who tries to meet that demand. With the Canadian seal hunt, the hunt is far more controlled. The seal population is kept in balance with its environment, and the methods by which the seals are killed are also restricted to more humane ways. If the hunt was outlawed, this control would be lost and the seals that are killed would suffer far more.
As it is, the methods used in the hunt are humane. It may seem cruel to club the seals to death, but at least the body is recovered. Quite often the bodies of seals and other marine animals that are hunted are lost when they are shot as the body becomes lost in the water or beneath the ice. If the seal is not dead yet, it has to suffer and be in pain for a long time; and another seal now has to be killed since the first one was not recovered. I think it is far more humane to kill one seal, perhaps a little more violently, than to kill several seals and watch their bodies go completely to waste.
The seal hunt also provides much needed income for small communities that depend on the seal hunt. Many of these communities have largely lost most of their incomes from fishing. Whose rights are more important here? The people of these communities who depend on the hunt, or the cute and cuddly seals.
The Canadian government could institute new legislation and provide more humane ways for the seals to be killed, such as by some form of quick electrocution similar to the methods used to kill livestock, but banning the seal hunt is out of the question.
Outlawing the seal hunt is the worst thing the Canadian Government could do with this issue. It will create far more problems than solutions. All the attention given to this exaggerated issue should be focused on more pressing concerns, such as the truly endangered species that do need our help and protection and the effects of climate change that are going to cause many more species to become endangered or possibly extinct. If seals were not as cute as they happen to be, this would not be an issue.
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Yes
by Oxpictus
Created on: October 30, 2008 Last Updated: December 30, 2010
Fun fur. FUN FUR? Maybe some of you have not heard that phrase, but anyone following women's fashions can tell you that designers frequently use fur for everything from hats to footwear. Designers like Prada, Dolce & Gabanna, Odette Leblanc Collection, Petit Nordand, Pajar. Some of this "fun fur" are skins from baby harp seals.
Canadian fishermen, in their off-season, armed with rifles and a device called a "hakapik"- go onto the ice where female seals are with their babies that are from 12 days old to three months old. Hakapiks are club-like weapons with a large spike near the club.
These fishermen club the baby seals, sometimes gouging the babies' heads with the hakapiks, and sometimes skin them while they are not only alive, but are still conscious! Can you imagine the pain these babies must feel? Some of those that are shot are only wounded, and sink into the ocean to die.
What was once a beautiful baby animal by its mother's side is now a piece of raw meat with haunting, lifeless eyes. The frozen blood on the ice of the Gulf of St. Lawrence gives mute testimony to the carnage that has just taken place.
To some of these men, this is great sport. Clubbing a baby animal and skinning it alive. Great sport. This is barbaric beyond belief.
Almost 400,000 baby seals are killed by these fishermen every year. This is allowed and even encouraged by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, counting the 400,000 slaughters as part of the "Total Allowable Catch",despite a 1984 import ban on baby seal pelts by English Parliament. The Humane Society of the United States decries this grisly hunt, and encourages people to boycott seafood from Canada. Canada ignores the outrage of the many people who want this hunt of baby seals stopped.
Those who approve this slaughter argue that to ban the hunt will place undue hardship on the income of the fishermen. The fact is, Canadian fishermen, during the majority of the year are involved in standard fishing operations, and hunting baby seals only accounts for 5% of their annual income.
Despite denials from the Canadian government, environmentalists and scientists believe the hunt is a threat to the survival of the species. Perhaps, when the Canadian fishing industry completely tanks, will the Canadian government put a stop to this massacre.
I am sure the women's fashion industry can survive quite nicely without "fun fur". the skins of these baby harp seals.
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