How does Canada justify the clubbing of baby seals?

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Shelley

Umm... 'Baby seals" are not killed. It's illegal to hunt pups that depend on their mothers. Of course if you were seriously protesting the hunt you would know the regulations inside and out.

you would also know that the " Boycott" is a farce as many of the so called " boycotting' companies never sold seafood or Canadian seafood for that matter.

As for the Bat you describe ( Hakipik) the tool is hardly used anymore. And when the sealers association wanted to ban it your precious HSUS said they shouldn't because banning the hakipik would be inhumane....are you as confused as I am?

The seal hunt is a humane hunt of animals. For goodness sake Vets have even hosted sessions on the new regulations for sealers with good turn outs. Would cold blooded killers want to listen to a vet explain quick methods to kill an animal?
These animals are not tortured as you say. It is illegal to skin a seal alive...not to mention utterly ridiculous.
The animals are shot and those still traditionally hunted with hakipik die very quickly. If the first blow doesn't kill it breaks the spine, neck and skull so the animal won't feel the second. If a sealers is properly trained and knows what he is doing the animal dies quickly. Seals die a far better death than slaughter house animals.

You say that First Nations deserve to hunt seals...but you don't want them to have any economic advantage by selling the pelts? How is it fair to allow a group that has hunted animals to trade for centuries to suddenly be told they are no longer allowed to make their living on the land. They can only use what they as individuals need and cannot profit from it at all. How is it fair to let other hunters world wide get off scott free but sealers get punished because seals are fuzzy?

I think the sealers association should bring some of these groups that spread poor information about the hunt up on charges. I'm all for freedom of speech, but how is it fair that some of these sealers are getting death threats from people who don't know the first thing about the seal hunt or it's long history?

How does Canada Justify killing seals...that's easy. The population of Harp seals is huge. Over 5 million off the coast of Newfoundland. If the commercial hunt closes you can bet a cull will follow behind just like it did on the West coast. BC closed the hunting of seals because the market was no longer working out, not long after hunters were paid to kill seals and sink the bodies. To me that sort of cull is ten times worse than the Atlantic Seal hunt.
There is a market for pelts, oil, and meat. both locally and overseas.

Time and time again biologists and vets show that the hunt is humane. The Canadian is one if not the tightest regulated hunt of seals in the world.

Over and over again the public finds out that these so called animal rights groups are more than a little shady. And some of their information is fishy to say the least. Looking at other answers here I'm happy to see many people using their heads and thinking critically.

If seals were ugly no one would give a damn.

Edit:
After seeing the video someone needs to report that baby seal to DFO.
He's not using a regulated tool for the seal hunt.

He didn't do a good job of killing the guy the regulations clearly state "Every person who strikes a seal with a club or hakapik shall strike the seal on the top of the cranium until it has been crushed and shall immediately palpate the cranium to confirm that it has been crushed. "
Mr. Baby seal hit the side of the head not the top.

He does not preform the blink test. No where in the video does the baby seal check to make sure the guy is dead.

I think the baby seal is even hunting humans outside of the regulated season.

someone has to track this seal down and bring him to justice.

He's making the rest of the human hunting baby seals look bad. I suspect it's a set up by the Seals for the Ethical treatment of Humans.

Edit #2
1) Does Canada's govt. monitor the actions of seal hunters to make sure the seals are not being left wounded or mistakenly skinned alive?

There are observers sent by the Department of Fisheries and oceans checking in. Sealers are regulated to do a blink test and insure the animal is dead. If they shoot it and it doesn't appear dead then they may club it to ensure that it quickly dies. When you think about it skinning a seal alive has no advantage to sealers. A living animal is much harder to work with. These people do not want to cause excess pain and suffering, they just want to kill the animal and render the body into products.

2) How important are the revenues of seal hunts for fishermen? Is this hunt NECESSARY, do I need to consume a seal in any way and when would I?

The seal hunt holds great cultural and economic importance. I remember reading in one document sealing can bring in up to 10% of the income. Now don't quote me on that one I'm not entirely sure the figure. Even if the number was closer to 5% imagine someone telling you tomorrow that you would loose 5% of your income. Locally the hunt is necessary. While you may not have a need for seal meat there are a number of people who have relied on it for centuries. Lots of people where I live still eat a traditional Atlantic diet which includes fish, local game, and seal meat. Many Innu communities are finding as more and more people move away from Caribou and seal meat the heath is declining. Seal meat and oil is rich in omega 3 and 6 and considering the amount of heart disease we have here more people should probably consume fipper pie instead of burgers.
The meat is also rendered into animal feed. Personally I would like to see this market expanded to limit waste. Seal is a lot better for dogs than some of the crap in kibble.

Seal fur in my experience isn't about glamour. It's about living in a freezing cold and wet part of the world. Seal fur holds up to the cold and wet better than synthetic. There is nothing better than seal fur gloves for a rainy snowy January day in Newfoundland.

As I said before if the commercial hunt stops the seals will just be culled. I would rather the dead animals used in some way than left to rot.

3) Why do non-hunters have to stand 10 feet away from seal hunters? Is that to protect bystanders or is that to keep the media out?

Lots of reasons
1- they sometimes go out of their way to harass sealers. If you had to listen to some of the rubbish they say about sealers day in and day out I'm sure you would be pretty mad too. And some of these fellas just say enough is enough and start a confrontation with the protesters....which is what the anti-seal hunt groups want.

2- seals are wild animals. People have been bitten by even those cute little white coats. There are rules how close sealers can get to the whelping areas. The authorities don't want protesters bothering pregnant seals or young pups.

3- They don't want the protesters getting in the way of the hunt.

4) Why is a seal with shedded fur okay to kill but not when with fur?

Mother seals abandon their babies after about 12 days. They're not the most loving mothers, they spend very little time with their young during that short nursing time. When a seal has a white pelt they cannot swim. Once they start to moult and shed this white pelt a seal is fully independent. While seals can be hunted young it isn't a baby any longer. The practice of taking young animals is seen every day in farming and other animal hunting activities so it isn't unique to seals.

5) What can I as well as others do to protect seals and yet at the same time keep people from losing their jobs?

Seals are not at risk. They have been hunted for over a hundred years and harp seals are booming in numbers. If you want to help seals protect them from the pollution and global warming that has a far grater impact on them. You want to protect something how about the North Atlantic Right whale, or the wolffish, or the bubble gum coral, or the cod fish, or the many other not so pretty animals that honestly could do with a little HSUS PR.

You keep posting us video's to watch. Here's one about the hunt from a family who have actually hunted seals. http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/ancestors/

The killing of any animal is not going to be pretty. It isn't the nicest thing to watch. But I don't think it's fair to demonize the sealers or hunters who make their living off the land.

Randy B

Yep, they do. Its a very old and very traditional activity that has been going on for over 4000 years. In Canada, the season for the commercial hunt of harp seal is from November 15 to May 15

And nope, what the pamphlet states is essentially true. The main method of killing seals is with the hakapik, a heavy wooden club with a hammer head and metal hook on the end. The hakapik is used because of its efficiency, the animal can be killed quickly without damage to its pelt or a chance to get away. The hammer head is used to crush the skull, while the hook is used to move the carcass.

Of course, what the pamphlet doesn't tell you is that according to recent studies done by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), the hakapik, when used properly, kills the animal quickly and painlessly. Several American studies carried out from 1969-1972 in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska came to the same conclusion. [Its a far more humane way of killing the seals then anything else they have come up with.] Shooting leaves too many opportunities for wounded seals to get away and suffer before dying.

I don't know what most other Canadians feel about it all and personally I don't care. It's not anything that I worry about. If it wasn't for the seal cull every year we would have even more of an over abundance of seals in our waters then we have now. They over populate, they eat all of the fish stocks and they are generally a nuisance when they get to the numbers they do left un-hunted. At least this way it supports both the aboriginal way of life and provides a regulated income for the hunters and the industry.

If they were ugly animals, would people care as much? I doubt it. PETA and organizations like them just use the hunt to gather attention, much like their recently announced protests against weddings and DJs who play the Chicken Dance "song" (which mocks chickens and promotes cruelty) and against soft toilet tissue (which uses new wood and not recycled paper). Laughable at best.

Mathew H

Newfoundlanders and other East Coasters generally justify it by comparing it to other practices, or by stating facts about it.

Some of the facts....
- Since whalers (many of them European and American) decimated the whale population on the coast about a century ago, the seals ahve actually become a problem, overpopulated and often interfering with the fishing industry (that is also dead from foreigners illegally overfishing Canadian waters). It's very comparable to how mid-westerners kill gophers... only you don't see us demanding a boycott on American cattle.

Just because the animals are furry and cute, it doesn't mean it's any different of a scenario. The only difference is, in alot of mid-western states gophers are actually becoming endangered... on the east coast, the seals are not.

Compare lifestyles. I know first hand from visiting out there, those fishing communities in Newfoundland are very self-sufficient and have a very low environmental footprint. The same people demanding they stop making a sustainable living (and it is sustainable, these seals aren't going extinct), are the same people that drive SUV's, eat at fast food restaraunts that purchase Brazilian cattle resulting in rainforest deforestation, and that don't know a single thing about Canada other than what they hear from wingnuts like Paul Mcartney... who just do this for publicity (he was on Larry King a couple years ago and ddin't even know what province he was in).

I absolutley hate it when American and European environmental groups label this a bad thing. If seals were ugly animals, I guarantee they wouldn't. It's a sustainble practice... it actually does alot of good to the natural sea-life population.... the seals aren't going extinct... there's alot of practices in these countries that goes pretty much ignored.... so why pay attention to this when it actually has absolutley no relevance at all to the eco-system?

Because seals are cute and cuddly.... it's absolutley ridiculous.

michinoku2001

Seals are tasty. The boycott will go nowhere because the gourmets who buy the high end product are tired of being told they can't eat foie gras, veal or whatever. At the low end no one knows where their fishburger came from in the first place.

http://ca.entertainment.yahoo.com/s/afp/090421/canada/lifestyle_canada_gastronomy_animals_seal

oldson

it is a controlled hunt that has been practiced for hundreds of years, like deer hunting, I know it looks cruel but it is part of their culture, and I think the humane society should focus on cats and dogs and stop trying to put fishermen around the world out of business, I think they are fraudulent when you go to chain pet stores and go to check out they ask if you would like to make a donation to the humane society most people think they are helping dogs and cats when really they are contributing to putting small fishing communities out of business, forcing people to lose land owned by their family's for generations, I have seen this first hand, they kill as many animals in a year as anybody if they used the money that is used ruining fishermen& family's lives they could keep a lot of dogs and cats alive a lot longer.

MasterPython

The few seal hunters that use hakapicks destroy the brain with the first blow making it impossible for the animal to feel any pain. Most of them shoot the animal in the head with a centrefire rifle causing an instant death. If you eat meat you should have no problem with animals being killed in such a manner. Unlike the cows, pigs and chickens killed in slaughterhouses these animals have a chance to get away.

Verden

I went clubbing last year, it's extremely difficult.

They do it for fur, they're working men, you know?

Alphabetty

How does the US justify the murder of millions of chickens exceeding levels of the 50's and 60's? the seal hunt is an industry just like the meat industry everywhere else.

1) no baby seals are killed it is illegal for a hunter to kill a seal that is still dependent on its mother . . .but since the baby seals look cuter on the posters . . .

2) it is an industry, all parts of the seals are used, meat and fur etc . . Many communities of First Nations people rely on the seal hunt for food and income and have hunted harp seals for thousands of years. Many hunters from the east coast also rely on the seal hunt to make a living.

3) the number of seals killed is strictly monitored and only enough seals are killed to maintain the population.

4) Canada is not the only country that hunts seals, Russia, Greenland, Norway, and Naimbia also have seal hunts

5) compare the killing of seals to the killing of other animals we eat for meat and think what is more humane; hunting a wild animal that is a part of the natural ecosystem (as human beings have done since our existence), or raising animals in cramped barns in levels that are unnatural and detrimental to the environment, feeding the steroid injected "pseudo" food until they are unnaturally fat and then herding them into a killing machine?

6) poeple only complain about the seal hunt because it is outdoors, it is a visible spectacle and the red blood against the white ice makes a more compelling picture then a cow with a metal rod being shoved though its brain. baby seals are cute and they look a lot more adorable on a poster then say a Herring [the over fishing of our oceans is a much more poignant issue then the responsible hunting of some seals with a healthy population]

Americans should boycott all seafood, from every country our oceans are dying because of human gluttony. Sp put down your shrimp cocktails and maybe do a little research before you decide to raise your voice against an industry much more responsible then a lot of them at your own front door!

in answer to your questions

Several very important questions

1) Does Canada's govt. monitor the actions of seal hunters to make sure the seals are not being left wounded or mistakenly skinned alive? - yes there are people on the ice ensuring all rules are followed . . .and the men are well trained and would rarely wound not kill seals, and no one is stupid enough to skin a seal alive

2) How important are the revenues of seal hunts for fishermen? Is this hunt NECESSARY, do I need to consume a seal in any way and when would I? - yes entire communities rely on it for their income

3) Why do non-hunters have to stand 10 feet away from seal hunters? Is that to protect bystanders or is that to keep the media out? - to keep them for interfering they pose a greater danger to the animals getting in the way causing an animal to be wounded rather then killed, scaring seals etc . . . not to keep the media out from ten feet with a telephoto lens a photographer could get as good a shot as they could from one foot

4) Why is a seal with shedded fur okay to kill but not when with fur?- wtf are you talking about here?

5) What can I as well as others do to protect seals and yet at the same time keep people from losing their jobs? - why do you even want to protect the seals? because they are cute? so are baby cows but when they grow up and get ugly you happily eat them.

Avis de J.J. / J.J's Advice

Because it's tradition...seal clubbing is fun, their fur can be used for clothing, and their flesh can be eaten.

Why should we have to justify it, anyways? How do Canadians _and_ Americans justify hunting game, for sport? Only the vegetarians think _that's_ "cruel"....

tuppenybitz

this is old worn out news

blah blah blah

cycle4

It is more humane that just kicking the s**t out of them.

Wolfenstein

It's so amazing how people treat this "seal-hunt" like it's the freaking Holocaust. They're SEALS! They're not human! Dogs are more intelligent than seals!

In my opinion, Canada should boycott Danish goods for them taking over one of our Arctic islands.

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