Filmmaker says blindness to plight of dying seal indication of hypocrisy

[Swede]

Animal-rights activists are outraged they were caught on tape ignoring a dying seal for more than an hour and featured in a documentary on Canada's commercial seal hunt, Quebec filmmaker Raoul Jomphe said.

He said the activists were filming a promotional segment for a fundraising campaign when the incident occurred.

Jomphe said Rebecca Aldworth, the Canadian director of wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States, called him to complain, after she discovered he had captured the incident on film.

"She was really mad at me," Jomphe said


http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=34599621-7e5e-4e77-b86a-837700309d25&k=65838

[kestrel91316]

1. Uh oh.

:popcorn:

I'm stayin' outta THIS one.

[Aware]

5. Seal hunting in Quebec and Newfoundland

For those of you that do not understand. Seal hunting is necessary. True that it is not the nicest form of hunting, but it is necessary to keep an equilibrium since they are simply too many. Cod ,salmon and other species of fish are eaten by seals at an alarming rate.Seals do not just pick a cod fish and eat it. They take a chunk out of one and go for the next. The fisheries are going to pay for that later.

I understand that the hunt is disturbing, but then again have you ever seen how a pig or bull gets slaughtered before becoming your meal ? Do you feel bad when you go to Burger King or Wendy's to eat a big fat burger ? That bull, before it came to you in a paddy was hammered in the head with some kind of a an air tool. How do you feel about that ? Should we all stop eating beef ? Of course not !

Animal lovers like to take it out on seal hunters but are not able to understand that a poor bull went through the same thing ! That bull didn't kill itself to be on your plate !

We have to control our environment if mother nature doesn't do it for us. Other species depend on it.

Think about it!

[Matilda]

6. It is not necessary to cull the seal population.

Your argument is specious on two counts:

1. The seals are being killed for their fur, not to cull their numbers. That is why they're
clubbed to death in such a cruel way - to avoid spoiling their fur. If they were simply being
culled, the hunters would just shoot them.

2. Seals are now in danger from global warming. The same melting ice caps that are endangering
polar bears are also endangering the survival of harp and hooded seals, and no human culling
is necessary at all.

As for fish stocks - they're falling because the fishing industries all over the world are
resisting sensible regulation of their activities. Oceans are being overfished in both hemispheres -
it's human beings who are the threat, not the seals. Most species are wiped out by human activity,
not by other animals.

[LeftyMom]

7. Welcome to DU.

Okay, you seem to have missed a few things.

1. Sealing is actually bad for the cod population, as the seals only get about 1.5% of their diet from cod. Much larger percentages of their intake come from predatory fish that eat juvenile cod. Additionally, the decomposition of seal bodies contributes to low oxygen levels that threaten cod stocks.

2. The problem with the cod fishery is that people ate all the cod.

3. Seals are nowhere near record levels.

4. Global warming and poor ice conditions are already grave threats to the seal colonies.

5. Real animal lovers don't eat cows or pigs, either.

[ends_dont_justify]

8. The bull deserved better, too

But the bull doesn't get bludgeoned to the head anymore, either. This in turn created the sawyer family, but I disgress :P

Have you people ever heard of guns? Or mercy? What the hell kind of hunters are you to bludgeon animals to death and let them die slow painful deaths? If you're going to kill an animal kill an animal, but fur traders of any sort are the vilest most torturous bastards to ever walk the earth and deserve what they dish out.

On Edit: needed to emphasize that what these people do is TORTUROUS and should not be ignored

[Beaverhausen]

2. OH right. Let's blame the animal rights activists for the inhumane treatment of seals

that's rich.

[Harper_is_Bush]

3. "promotional segment for a fundraising campaign"...

that's their whole raison d’être.

If they really cared about animals they'd park their zodiaks and take up the fight against global warming.

[Mojorabbit]

4. They should have bundled up that seal

and taken it to a wildlife rehabber. People make me crazy sometimes.

[ends_dont_justify]

9. Had to add, too...

Although I already showed a portion of how I feel about fur trappers and didn't feel the need to say anything else, shame on the people who at the very least had no empathy whatsoever for the seal. The people who exploit animal cruelty for money oughta be in the same boat as the people who do it...and the real ones, men or women, who support animal rights aren't too proud to cry at the sight of things like this. I know I do.