OPED: Canadian seal hunt inhumane, unsustainable and unjustifiable
- From: an569@xxxxxx (John Whelan)
- Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2006 17:16:50 -0500
OPED: Canadian seal hunt inhumane, unsustainable and unjustifiable
Patrick Tohill, Campaigns Manager for the World Society for the Protection
of Animals, takes aim at the defences used to justify Canada's commercial
seal hunt
Attention: Assignment Editor, Environment Editor, Lifestyle Editor, News
Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor
TORONTO, ONTARIO, OPED--(CCNMatthews - March 3, 2006) - The arguments of
those media pundits and government wags who defend the hunt seems to be
based on four key premises: that the seals killed are not pups, that seals
are not endangered, that the manner of killing is "humane" and that sealers
livelihoods are more important than seals' lives.
The first point is hair-splitting, since sealing regulations allow the
killing of seals as soon as they begin their first molt, having lived a mere
12 days upon this earth. During last year's hunt, 98% of the seals killed
were less than 12 weeks old. For an animal that, in the wild, can live for
up to 35 years, they are most certainly pups by any reasonable definition of
the word.
According to a 2005 report by Greenpeace, entitled The Canadian Seal Hunt:
No Management, No Plan, the government's data is "inaccurate, incomplete and
out of date". Population projections are based on flawed assumptions that
"all other environmental and biological factors will remain unchanged during
the period over which the hunt is carried out, a premise which is, at best,
highly questionable."
From the point of view of the World Society for the Protection of Animals,the world's largest federation of humane societies and animal protection
organizations, the central point is not whether the seal hunt is sustainable
but rather do they suffer?
When farm animals are slaughtered, in order for slaughter to be considered
"humane" under internationally accepted standards, there must be immediate
loss of consciousness that lasts until death supervenes.
Standards for humane killing of animals, other than farm animals, are
nowhere near as rigorous. Most usually recommend, however, that where rifles
are used, the shooters be trained marksmen or that the animals be
immobilized prior to shooting so a single bullet can be delivered to the
brain.
Canadian Sealing Regulations designed to ensure that the hunt is conducted
in a humane fashion are openly flouted, year after year. The Humane Society
of the United States last year observed "conscious baby seals stabbed with
boathooks and dragged across the ice, wounded seal pups left to choke on
their own blood for more than an hour, and conscious seals sliced open and
skinned as they struggled." This dovetails with similar accounts from the
International Fund for Animal Welfare over the past ten years.
In 2001, an independent veterinary study concluded that in 42% of the cases
they examined, the seal did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to
guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning, meaning that, in all
likelihood, these unfortunate animals were skinned alive! Furthermore, video
footage taken by hunt observers shows that many sealers do not conduct the
"blink-reflex test" to ensure each seal is rendered unconscious before
skinning, although the test is quick, simple and required by law.
As for those animals that are shot, observers report that many seals are
shot by sealers positioned on moving vessels to be collected later. As every
bullet hole, depreciates the value of the pelt, it is not uncommon for seals
to be struck and not killed, leaving them to suffer as they bleed to death.
WSPA is not an animal rights organization. We are also not a vegetarian
organization. However, we do believe that where animals are killed for human
purposes, the killing must be conducted in a humane fashion. The Canadians
seal hunt, as it is presently conducted is, most assuredly, not humane.
By all accounts, the seal hunt makes up less than 1% of the province's Gross
Domestic Product and just 2% of the fishery's total landed value. Only a
small proportion of most sealers' annual income is derived from the hunt
(most are involved in the fishery or are otherwise employed the rest of the
year). The indiscriminate and inhumane killing of more than 300,000 seals a
year is not justified in order to maintain what is at best part-time
occupation for those involved in it.
What's more, this same argument about people's livelihoods being affected is
used to justify all manner of animal cruelty from fox hunting in the UK, to
bullfighting in Spain and Latin America, to bear farming in China and was,
less than two centuries ago, used to justify other equally abhorrent
treatment of our fellow human beings. Like the abolitionists who fought to
end the slave trade our concern should be for those beings that are
exploited, not for those that would exploit them.
Sincerely,
Patrick Tohill
Campaigns Manager
World Society for the Protection of Animals, Canada
960 - 90 Eglinton Ave East
Toronto, ON M4P 2Y3
416-369-0044
The World Society for the Protection of Animals is the world's largest
federation of humane societies and animal protection organizations
representing more than 600 member societies in more than 130 countries.
/For further information: For interviews, information, contact:
Patrick Tohill, Campaigns and Communications Manager, Canada
416 369 0044 work # 416 898 9448 cell # tohill@xxxxxxx /
IN: ENVIRONMENT, FISHERIES, INTERNATIONAL, POLITICS
Link to article:
<
http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=582830 >
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