March 20th, 2010 - MadHacktress
See the article to which this is a reply by clicking here: Protesting The Commercial Seal Hunt
Setting aside for a moment the impossibility that any sort of hunt – seal or otherwise – can break someone’s heart *literally*, I would to also point out that supporting the seal hunt is cynically painted by anyone on the anti-sealing side as being pro-torture. Which is ludicrous. How many who support the hunt do you suppose actually profess: “yes, indeed, I love it when they twitch”. Not many, I reckon.
My question is: why seals? What makes the seals so special?
There are other doe-eyed mammals that are slaughtered 365 days a year. The very oldest calves used for veal in North America are 26 weeks old, the youngest (so called “bob veal”) only a few days. Lamb is meat from a young sheep under a year old and hasn’t worn its teeth down (which usually means they’re *much* younger). Where are the letters to the editor bemoaning the poor dead baby sheep and baby cows?
Seals are cute, furry, doe-eyed, white and make for a great photo-op. Watch the Food Network for a day and count the number of live animals – lobster, crabs, chickens, etc – killed each day, on camera, in the name of entertainment and learning. Who is speaking out against the treatment of these animals and their right to die with dignity and not for the sake of Gordon Ramsey’s ratings? I look forward to reading your letters to the editor on this subject in the newspaper next week.
My argument is against the seal hunt protest and protesters themselves; not the hunt. Personally, I think that all hunting should be outlawed unless the animals themselves are armed with guns or hakapiks, too. However, I don’t go around attacking one particular brand of hunter or fisherman, or if you so profess it, torturer, in exclusion of the rest – because I’m not a hypocrite. I am an anti-hypocrisy protester – and I challenge it at every, every, ever opportunity.
How many of us has walked past a tank filled with lobster at a restaurant and thought “how awful”. Knowing that those animals will meet their last as they breach the water’s surface in a bubbling cauldron on a stove top. Show me, please, the protest signs for the poor lobster. Show me, please, the letters to the editor, the blog posts, the vast array anti-lobstering studies and literature. If you can’t. If you think that there’s a difference between a lobster and a seal – then you need to give your head a shake.
Lobsters boil to death. They may not be babies but they boil to death.
Farmers who produce veal get subsidies (they’re a bi-product of every litre of milk you buy) , all types of fisherman get subsidies (even the guy who caught the lobster that was boiled to death in the previous paragraph), as do chicken factories, and lamb farmers who need to keep a watchful eye on their baby sheep (because if they get too old their meat is worth less – it becomes hogget and mutton).
Chickens are hanged by their feet as they run through a machine before being killed. How do you imagine these last few moment are for the chicken? Like dancing happily through a meadow, I’m sure. Where are the “Save Our Chickens” slogans and buttons? I look forward to seeing those new slogans bandied around soon.
There are good seal hunters, just as there are good farmers and fisherman. There are those who ensure that the animal is dead and dies swiftly. There are those who ensure as humane an end for their catch as is possible – let’s face it, the animal is being killed, that can only be so pleasant. Are there those hunters who are not good hunters? Of course. But on the backs of those few the whole industry should not be reviled.
I have scoured the ministry websites for notice and notification of subsidies for seal hunters. Be careful with your statistics. There are very old notes of subsidy to the industry previous to 2001 but none since. And those before were intended to assist with marketing the product. Any government websites, or documentation on government letterhead (rather than, say, hsus.org) to which you can point me for substantiation of the 20$ million number would be greatly appreciated.
Some sealers probably do only receive 5-10% of their income from sealing – and some probably receive 80%. A canvasing of farmers and hunters across the country will show you the same spread. Some seal hunters aren’t in it for income. Some of them do it for a lark – just like duck hunters who don’t like the taste of wild bird. That doesn’t mean they’re not entitled to their legal right to hunt. Also, 7000 hunters take part, but not every hunter lands a seal; so using that number to figure out an average take is in error.
In conclusion: I would love to have someone explain to me why seals are more important that 4-day old calves who are slaughtered for bob veal, why they are more worthy of our column inches and woe than the lobsters who boil to death every day. Why are their lives more precious than the billions of 6-week old chickens, many of whom are born, live and died in captivity having never seen the light of day, that are killed each year? And if they are not then, again I ask, where can I find the post about those atrocities? Where can I get my Save The Chickens button? Where can I read the letter written to Corus Entertainment and its partners about the exploitation of the deaths of animals on its Food Network for the sake of their ratings and entertainment?
Please, continue your protestations, for you have advocated the cessation of torture for but one in a series of worthy animals and I await the result of your fine efforts in support of the other. I look forward to the passion, substantiation and statistics that you put forward to rightfully end their suffering as well.
Posted in Pure Opinion | 4 Comments »
