Canada urges EU not to ban seal imports - AFP

[Eugene]

Canada urges EU not to ban seal imports

26 minutes ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Canada and other supporters of seal-hunting
on Monday urged the European Union not to ban the import of
seal products, arguing that such a move is unfounded and
would jeopardise the future of inuit and other communities.

"We must make a distinction between the myths and the reality,"
Loyola Sullivan, Canada's ambassador for fisheries conservation,
told a press conference in Brussels.

-snip-

The European parliament has called on the EU's executive arm to
impose a ban on seal products but the European Commission has
refused to do so without first studying the findings of an
investigation by the European Food Safety Authority.

Sullivan said seal-hunting was a "durable" activity which did
not threaten the seal species and that numbers had risen from
three million to 5.5 million in the past 30 years.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070326/wl_canada_afp/canadaanimalpolitics_070326184003

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hideous people. Who hasn't read that animals breed more quickly when they are endangered?

These drooling idiots take it as a sign from heaven, apparently, that they are welcome to slaughter even more of them.

[Nihil]

2. Hey Sullivan, here's a distinction for you ...

> "We must make a distinction between the myths and the reality,"
> Loyola Sullivan, Canada's ambassador for fisheries conservation,
> told a press conference in Brussels.

The Myth is that seals are damaging the fish stocks.
The Reality is that over-fishing is damaging the fish stocks.

The "distinction" you need to make is to stop blaming the seals for
the greed and incompetence of humans and using this pitiful excuse
as a justification to continue the inhumane slaughter.

:mad:

[GliderGuider]

3. The quota for harp seals is 325,000

Out of a population of 5.5 million that's a sustainable harvest. The hunt is tightly controlled. There are much bigger problems in the animal world, particularly in huge beef and pork feedlot operations that threaten the environment and the food chain as well as being morally repugnant.

I have to admit I just don't understand the emotional tsunami the seal hunt unleashes every year. It's one of the few animal harvesting operations that we have managed to keep from sliding into unsustainability. We should be proud of that fact.

[Odin2005]

4. The only reason this gets attention is because seals are "cute" animals.

Hence the emotional tsunami. If this was, say, snakes, people wouldn't give a damn.

[Nihil]

6. Strangely enough, the same thing applies for all species.

I don't recall seeing many posters of starving adults when famine is
devastating a country but there will always be pictures of starving
children. Similarly, it's not the mourning adult elephants that tend
to be filmed, it is the orphaned baby. It's called marketing.

That's why the pro-hunting people show photographs of a carefully
shot adult seal, taken away whole to an implied "processing plant"
rather than the more common case of a spiked club and a knife on the ice.

There is something about the young that triggers caring instincts in
most civilised animals. Adults are more commonly viewed as "able to take
care of themselves" but the young "need protection".

(FWIW, I've protested against the abuse of snakes as well - unfortunate
choice of hyperbole there old chap! - but I take your point. It would
however have been more accurate if you were to suggest a mammal instead
of a creature that is a significant source of phobias.)

[Nihil]

5. Apples and oranges

I totally agree that there are much bigger problems (and agree that the
"feedlot" system is a major one) but see no reason to stay quiet over
this any more than over the whales (or the cruel & unnecessary killing
of any animal - even, for Odin, snakes).

> It's one of the few animal harvesting operations that we have managed to
> keep from sliding into unsustainability. We should be proud of that fact.

I hadn't realised that we were eating the meat from humanely killed
domesticated breeds as well as using the skin ... oh, we're not are we?
We are just smashing the seals and skinning them for fashion goods.
That type of "harvesting" is nothing to be proud of.