Canadian Harp Seal pup hunt starts Friday, nearly 300,000 will die

[Shoelace]

By now after all the years of Harp Seal hunts, we all must know how tragically brutal, savage and barbaric these hunts are. Within hours, this hunt will start again. The bludgeoning death of 12 day old to 2 month old Harp seals will be the reason for the season.

After years of fighting this senseless slaughter, the largest marine mammal hunt on earth, there's no end in sight. Fully 300,000+ Harp seal pups will die at the hands of Canadian fishermen whose yearly income is upped by a mere 5% for the fun of it.

Why? Because Prada, Gucci, Versaci, Dolce & Gabbana, all the folks who supply rich bitches with their vanity wares, are going to be hard at work to fashion coats, neckties, assorted goodies made from baby Harp seal pelts.

Their skinned bodies are left to rot in the Arctic ice, what's left of it.

Just in the past few moments, I heard that the Canadian government will NOT allow any observers this year. First time ever!
The US Humane Society has always been allowed to observe albeit to the great endangerment of life and limb as the hunters threaten them, chase them away, etc.

There are ways to help fight this Marine Mammal Holocaust. First off, start by boycotting Red Lobster Restaurant, Publix Market, two of the biggest buyers of Canadian seafood. Let them know why too.

This link will provide you with email contact information to many Canadian govt. people as well as detailing all the major brands of Canadian seafood products which you can boycott.

http://www.all-creatures.org/alert/alert-20080320.html

Please send this to as many friends as you can.

Also, The IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) has a website here that will update the events and also provides some very good but graphic videos about the slaughter.

http://blog.stopthesealhunt.com/campaign_updates/index.html

Also, the US Humane Society has a very great website with little videos easily viewed to show what and how it actually happens. Their first hand accounts are priceless and heartbreaking.

http://video.hsus.org/index.jsp?s&fct=true

Finally, I hope that with the many great souls here, we can be of one voice to somehow put an end to such an unspeakably horrific and bloody event this year.
May we all here work to that end~

[Shoelace]

1. No observation permits issued for start of Canadian seal hunt

The EU Environmental Commission is considering a ban on all Harp seal products.
I suspect that this is the reason for this "first time ever" ban on Harp seal pup slaughter now.

No observation permits issued for start of Canadian seal hunt
Marianne White , Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
Animal welfare activists accused the Canadian government Thursday of denying them access to the start of the seal hunt to "cover-up" the annual harvest just as the European Union is weighing a ban on the import of seal products.

The hunt was to begin half an hour before dawn Friday in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence but observers and journalists will not be able to document it because they were not issued permits by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"The government is determined to do everything in its power to stop people from documenting what happens on the ice flows," charged Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

"This says to the world that there is something to hide out on the ice flows off Canada's East Coast," she added.

The Department of Fisheries confirmed that it hasn't issued any permits for observers and explained it is holding off until it has a better idea of the sealing activity.

"We are not in the business of running a travel agency here and we have to make sure this is a safe and orderly hunt," said department spokesman Phil Jenkins.

The Humane Society was planning on taking journalists, mostly Europeans, to the first day of hunting Friday by boat and helicopter.

Another leading opponent of the seal hunt, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), said it will attend the first day of the hunt no matter what.

"Regardless of whether we have the permits or not, we will use our helicopters to go observe the hunt tomorrow (Friday)," said Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with the IFAW.

Aldworth said it's the first time in 10 years of documenting the seal hunt that she is not able to get permits to attend the kick off.

She blames it on the fact that the Canadian government is lobbying against a possible ban on seal products by the European Union that could come as soon as June.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=b61ae675-cb1f-4589-9a6f-fe1107298b88&k=75579

[Zynx]

2. I hate high fashion, particularly when it results in innocent animals being brutally slaughtered.

[lligrd]

3. One Of My First Causes (Whales Were My First) Thanks To GreenPeace

and yet 30 years later it is still ocurring.

[Shoelace]

5. Sea Shepherd will be in this fight

I think that Greenpeace is still busy with the Japanese whalers but am not sure.
I do know that Sea Shepherd has vowed to be there during the hunt.
The Canadian govt. is of course not going to "allow" them but that never stopped them before. God bless them and may they carry this battle with the right wing Canadian govt. to the bitter end - with my full support!


Sea Shepherd to oppose seal hunt in gulf after it starts Friday
1 day ago

HALIFAX — Despite a stern warning from Ottawa to steer clear of Canadian waters, animal rights activist Paul Watson is vowing to head to the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence next week to oppose the annual seal hunt.

Watson said Wednesday he and members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will sail into Canadian waters aboard the Farley Mowat to document the "perverse abomination" of the hunt from outside Canada's 12-mile territorial limit.

The commercial hunt is set to begin in the southern gulf Friday. A much larger hunt off Newfoundland and Labrador will open in April.

"We intend to document the killing of seals," he said from New York City.

"This is a Dutch vessel with an international crew and I think it will be an international incident if Canada tries to board a Dutch vessel in waters which are not within the 12-mile limit."

The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972, while the Netherlands and Belgium recently introduced bans on seal products.

European Union officials said Wednesday they're considering measures to protest the hunt.

EU spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is drafting a text that would be presented before June.

"Commissioner Dimas is looking into the nature of the inhumane killing of seals," Helfferich said.

The European Union is considering a ban on all seal products, having outlawed the sale of the white pelts of baby seals in 1983 - a move that almost shut down the industry until the mid-1990s.

The killing of young, white-coat harp seals has been banned since 1987.

Animal rights groups say the hunt, the largest marine mammal hunt in the world, is cruel, difficult to monitor, ravages the seal population and doesn't provide a lot of money for sealers.

But sealers and the Fisheries Department defend it as sustainable, humane and well-managed and say it provides supplemental income for isolated fishing communities.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hiuva2MROMcav7JFClhIO0oKo8Xw

[tuvor]

4. And more than twice as many calves are slaughtered for veal in the USA...

About 700,000 baby cows, according to www.noveal.org.

The month of March on DU means a lot of passionate anti-Canadian baby seal hunt outrage.

You'd think there'd be twice as many similar anti-USA veal posts.

But there aren't.

Hm.

[Shoelace]

6. well, let's make that happen then!

my god I didn't know that this many calves were slaughtered for as useless a purpose as the Harp seal kill to fill the folly of the rich. Please post more about this and keep us updated.

And there are those amongst us who say Humans don't have an impact on this earth! Sheer karma bespeaks our impact~

[EV_Ares]

7. I stopped eating veal a long time ago when I found how they make the calves

stand in cage type settings with no light supposedly to make the meat more tender. Totally cruel and just more of the unnecessary bs that goes on so some humans can feed their faces or wear some type of clothing they don't need.

Good point, not taking away from the seal hunt that animal rights needs to keep reminding all about. Thanks.

[SteinbachMB]

8. As a Canadian

...I can tell you that this story isn't very big here. Sure those who are committed to ending the seal hunt are heard, but most of us don't have a problem with it.

[GliderGuider]

9. Agreed. Seen in the context of other commercial animal slaughters it loses some significance

Of course the hunt should be stopped on general principles -- respect other life, take only what you need etc. But when you look at the true barbarities of mankind -- beef and pork feedlots, commercial chicken operations etc. -- this is small potatoes. On the other hand the hunt is nicely photogenic, what with all that pristine white ice, shocking red blood and those big brown eyes...

[EV_Ares]

10. Guess that is part of the problem of why the barbaric practice of the seal hunt continues, Canadians

do not have a problem with it. Hopefully, the rest of the world will continue to more and more have enough pressure and if the monetary value decreases, it will go away eventually. Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue to do what we can to help get it stopped.