I have lots of hunting friends in Europe.
They really upset in the way seals are huntend in Canada.
I tried to explain, but I see it doesn't work well.
What do you think about hunting selas in Nflnd and Labrador?
Do you think is ethical the way they kill them?

Peter

I know that the largest humane society in Canada at the time (the Ontario Humane Society) did a study of the seal hunt in 1972, and had no problem with the way the seals were killed. That was back when humane societies had reasonable "animal welfarists" working for them, not the animal rights wackos that have taken over the organizations now.

The way they are killed now is essentially the same as the way there were done then.

This has really become a non-issue. Even Greenpeace has moved on to other things.

So how else are you supposed to kill that many seals effectivly. There are 3 times as many seals now as there were 10 years ago. 99% of them are unconcious in an instant, dead in less than a minute or so if not immediatly. Much faster than most so called "humane" methods of slaughtering farm animals. Yeah I'm sure they been viewing the standard video clips of a seal flipping around being beaten about the head but that seldom happens when experienced seal clubbers are in action. In fact they probably set up the scenes they constantly show on TV or found some guy who was learning to club his first few seals, is uncoridinated, shouldn't be out there anyway, and obviously hadn't been shown the proper method. In reality it is a pretty humane and efficient method of harvesting a product for a market. To me it's no different and less cruel than netting fish which flop around gasping for air for twenty minutes, shooting a pig and cutting its throat, watching it bleed and flail away for a few minutes or even cutting down a tree for lumber for that matter.

they have it rough down there as it is with the low fish stocks. if they didnt have the seal hunt that is a 40 million dollar hunt, there would very little down east.

the antis what to kick them when they are down.

It may sound a bit far-fetched, but I'm curious to see if it has any effect on our cod supplies. Those cute little seals don't stay cute or little very long, and they eat a hell of a lot of fish. Any opinions out there on this? Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Maybe we should club a few anti's and ask them if they felt anything.

I don't have a problem with the seal kill but do have have a problem with calling it a hunt. That's not hunting in any way shape or form. Call it what it is, seal killing.

JMO I JUST THOUGHT THAT WAS THE WAY CANADIANS HUNTED.....JUST TAKE DOWN A BABY CRITTER AND BEAT IT TO DEATH......350,000 SENSELESS DEATHS OF A SPECIES OF ANIMAL IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO ME.

All capital letters signify shouting. I am not hard of hearing.

Tasco 74, how about we send you 350,000 seals we have no room for, maybe they could hang around your pool and you could pay for half a billion pounds of fish to feed them a year, that would be a starvation diet of 4 pounds of fish a day each but they probably would survive on that for a while. Meanwhile the millions of other seals remaining here will reproduce and well have to kill twice as many next year. Maybe you could send us 10,000 killer whales to keep their numbers under control, oh I forgot killer whales can't survive under the ice pack. Oh well I guess we'll just have to continue killing them ourselves. Maybe we could just let them eat ALL the fish and then they would all starve and become extinct.

Tasco,
this is not hunting this slaughtering same like the one happens in butcher house. This gives people employement and get rid of pests.

If you eat meat from your local store you support more or less same thing.

Greetings

Peter

DO YOU EAT THE SEALS? ARE SEAL SKINS GOOD FOR ANYTHING? I AGREE THERES A PROBLEM WITH THE SEALS ....BUT I STILL FEEL FOR EM... THEY ARE LIVING ANIMALS THAT DO FEEL PAIN.....IT'S JUST TO BAD THEY ARE SO PROLIFIC I GUESS....JMO GET A GRIP!! AS I'VE SAID BEFORE ON HERE I'M NOT SHOUTING....I'M TYPING.....ACUALLY I'M WHAT I CALL ONE FINGER HUNT AND PECKING..YOU SAID YOU ARE NOT HARD OF HEARING I'M GLAD TO SEE THAT WRITTEN..... THE KEY WORD HERE IS WRITTEN.... IF YOU CAN HERE ME PECKING ON THIS KEYBOARD YOU CAN REALLY HEAR WELL!! I USE CAPS BECAUSE I CAN SEE THEM BETTER AND I DON'T HAVE TO SHIFT...THAT SLOWS ME DOWN.. AND I'M PRETTY SLOW ALREADY......

THE SECOND AMENDMENT PROTECTS US ALL.....

I don't see it as much different than killing varmints in the praries.

They seem to think they have a problem and need to kill off some seals. Fly at it. I doubt it will effect the Cod stocks much though.

MARKUS I THOUGHT THE WHOLE POINT OF THE EXERCISE WAS TO IMPROVE THE FISHING THERE. WHY WON'T IT HELP THE COD SITUATION?


THE 2ND AMENDMENT PROTECTS US ALL.....

Some peopel are just ignorant, I guess

The seal 'hunt' is termed a hutn because it is a 'hunt' of sorts. In the old, ancient sense, like a 'market' hunt. It is not a sport hunt. In the 'old' days they used to wheel out cannon type guns on barges, full of shot, and nail dozens of waterfowl at every shot. It wasn't about fair chase then, and it isn't about fair chase now...

When you see videos of seals being 'skinned alive' I really question that. Teh seals may be squirming, but they are probably quite dead...When you put a bullet through the brain of a cow or pig or dog..it keeps moving and even kicking for some time, but I am sure it is feeling no pain, it is ust nerves being played out, like cutting the head off a chicken.

Seals are killed primarily for thier skins, just like trapping of muskrat, beaver, minl, or anything else.

If humans were n ot part of the equation, there would be plenty of fish for the seals. But humans fish for cod and salmon, and we are not going away.

To regulate the fish stocks, humans need to regulate thier fishing practices, and the seal population. When you combine a fishery with an overpopulation of seals, it spells disaster for the fish, the fishery, and ultimately the seals..

If there is plenty of seals, I see no reason not to kill a few, as humans are, and have alwys been, part of the equation.

Tasco,
I think you are the wrong site, go to http://www.peta.org/ if you're just going to talk out of your ass

I agree he should go to PETA. They need guys like him, maybe he will get a job as dressed hunter killing little bear so they can film it

Greetings Nimrods

Peter

For more information on the seal problem click on this link.

"Some peopel are just ignorant, I guess"
Yes that's a fact. You can tell which ones they are by the way they spell people.

I don't think killing some seals will affect the Cod stocks for the same reason Gatehouse gives. The low levels of Cod are due to over fishing, by people most likely.

In the 50's or 60's (not positive which) the Canadian government thought the whales around the Saint Lawrence river were to blame for falling Cod stocks. The Air force used them for bombing practice and drove that spieces to the brink of extinction. The Cod stocks did not recover.

The Canadian government also closed a region in the Atlantic to fishing due to low levels of fish left. You know how the locals responded? They went fishing to protest the area being closed.

Kinda like cutting down the last trees if they shut down logging because there were not enough trees left.

But I do agree if Seal populations are too high and need to be culled then go for it. I thought I read they no longer clubbed them due to the out cry in the past. They are now shot I believe.

Markus,

Clubbing is one method used. They're required to check the eye reflexes before they start skinning. If you touch the eye and they blink, gotta club 'em again.

Shooting is allowed, too. But I understand it's notoriously difficult. They have to be shot in the head so they don't dive into the water. Try hitting a target the size of a seal's head while on a rocking boat, or even on the moving pack ice. I don't even want to think about where a ricochet off ice is going to go!!!

I'm one of the biggest softies out there. But I don't stand against animal culling that is backed by scientific data/facts!!

I won't be out there clubbing anything. But that's MY choice. I won't push that on anyone else!



BUT they do also use rifles (as per hunting) and spears (kinda like low velocity arrows??)



I know what damages over populations can do. AND have the antis not ever seen the results of overpopulation? The starvation and other outcomes are heartbreaking.



Nope - population maintenance based on science is about as solid as it gets.



PS

Writing in all capitals does denote yelling TASCO 74!! Hit the caps lock key once and stop cyber-yelling!!

I apologize for Tasco's lack of Computer manners. We no longer teach manners, respect or politness in American Schools.

I think some of the reason for the cod stocks being low even though our fishery has been closed for many years is because we only can regulate the harvest of fish within our (I believe it's a 200 mile offshore limit) beyond that it is international waters. These cod are somewhat migatory and can be fished by any international commercial boat with a licence and they sit on that boundary, and lots of them ignore that boundary, and catch every fish they can. If we could keep the fish within the 200 mile limit and the foreign boats out we would have plenty of cod, haddock,salmon hake and whatnot. The same as the salmon that spawn in canadian and American rivers are pretty safe until they hit the high seas then they are decimated by everyone who can get their hands on them. The seas are simply overfished. It will take a serious international effort to restore fish stocks. I doubt that will happen. We can only do what we can and if it is murdering a few seals from an already overpopulated herd that is gobbling up the few remaining fish stocks then so be it.

don't aplogize for me mickey!! i'm not sorry for anything i've said on on this subject and don't need your help!! BY THE WAY TIKKA AND THE REST OF YOU CANUCKS FUCK YOU!!! i am beginning to see that these animals are varmits much like our prairie dogs and such here. it just seems barbaric to beat them to death.why not set up a shack out on the snow and take em with a rifle? kida like the guys do here setting up on a dog town to take out prairie dogs.seems much more sporting. as for the PETA bullsit you're talking don't suppose you know who i am. i love good meat of all types cooked all different ways.

tasco 16 said

Quote:

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BY THE WAY TIKKA AND THE REST OF YOU CANUCKS FUCK YOU!!!

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tasco 16, that was a fantastic response. I'm guessing you're about 16 years old...now go upstairs and ask your mommy for a warm glass of milk.

And before you jump down my neck about spelling your name wrong, it was intentional. It's a little trick Bush Sr. used during Desert Storm � when he intentionally mispronounced Sadam's first name. But I guess you wouldn't remember that, you were still suckling at your momma's tit.

The seal cull is an economic operation. Seals are sold for their skins and some use is also made of the meat and other body parts. It is much like commercial fishing. We do not ask that commercial fishermen use flies to make it more sporting.The seal "hunt" used to target the new born or whitecoats until pressure groups used the cute, cuddly babies as a way to sway uninformed city dwellers to oppose and eneventually ban the hunt. Then there was a time in which professional hunters were paid to shot adult seals which were left to rot. Isn't it better to make use of the young for meat, skins etc.?
As for being an inhumane method it is cheaper and safer than shooting and effective. As for any movement after the clubbing I see another poster has mentioned cutting the heads off chickens. I have seen them run and flop 30 yds or so after having the head removed. An uncle of mine used to home over and help slaughter steers. As a 10 or 12 year old my job was to fetch water as soon as the steer was shot. By the time I returned with water there would be two halves of skinned beef hanging from the rafters and a heart laying on the floor still beating. I doubt the steer was still "alive"
ANother reason for culling the seals is they are a host for a tapeworm that lives in the gut of seals and in the flesh of fish such as cod. When the seal cull was banned it was noticed there was a large increase in the tape worm infection of cod fish. This led to more wastage of cod and higher processing costs associated with the removal of the tapeworm cysts from the fillets.

Holy cow! Quite a thread! Gotta say I sure like my seal skin mukluks my Newfie friend brought back from 'The Rock' last winter. Some of these guys still make a living from the seal hunt, when the pelts are worth something. Pretty sure the fisherman from outside Canada have affected the cod stocks to a much greater extent than the seals; so much for that argument IMO. As far as the way they are killed, any worse than the way sheep and cattle and chickens etc. are killed? Nothing like having an electrode shoved up your ass...

Guys cool down,
that Tasco smart ars just like to get us going.
He is not a hunter but bear hager and piece of....

Have a good day

Peter

I'm with the seal hunter, and against peta and everything it stands for.
How many of us have "clubbed" a fish flopping in the boat bottom? Not the same? Well, to Peta it is! They will inch their way into anything, and before you know it, hunting and fishing will be so regulated you won't bother (their ultimate goal)

Right on John Y

I don't think I've ever heard Canadians express this much outrage. You know guys, maybe there's hope for us after all. If we have to club the seals, for heavens sake let's be sporting. Nail the litle suckers with hockey sticks.
Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

2 minutes for slashing!

I too am against PETA, however when we attach the word "hunt" to seal hunt, canned hunt, etc, those PETA morons assume that we are all out there clubbing our game and sucking out there blood before they die. Then the public that doens't hunt or fish, watches an Animal planet special about seal hunting and they show these dudes pounding on cute, fluffy white seals, they just assume that this is how hunters hunt everything and that we're a bunch of cold hearted slobs. Then they're hearing and absorbing all this garbage PETA is feeding them and jump on the PETA bandwagon. May as well say what it is, clubbing seals. The guys that are out there doing the clubbing aren't hunters, they are just doing their job.

MG