Yes.
This could be the death knell for it.
Its only China and Russia that are keeping it going(coats for Russian prostitutes and penises for impotent chinese--I know, I know, 1.3 billion chinese suggests they dont have an impotency problem).

The Canadian government wastes millions searching the water for a lost sealer body--let him remain a popsicle forever.

PS
Inuit are hypocrites. They have tvs and western weapons but they want to continue hunting? Their selectivity when it comes to what traditions they want to keep and which ones they want to abandon is quite typically human.

Well, if you ban the seal hunt altogether, you are taking away Native hunting rights. Do you believe that the Native People (in the US they are called American Indians) should lose their hunting rights and their traditional way of life?

You can answer "yes" or you can answer "no" - but it is a part of the issue that is missing from this discussion so far.

What do you think of the hunting of moose or rabbits or bears? Are your views concerning the seal hunt consistent with your views concerning the hunting of these animals or are there important differences?

There is no real comparison between sustainable life ways and commerical harvesting...

Treefrog - the anti-sealing groups do not distinguish between "sustainable life ways" and "commerical harvesting" - they want it all to stop.

I think that there are further regulations which can be put in place which can reduce the hunting of seals, but it is never going to be eliminated altogether. There are too many who consider it part of their heritage and traditional way of life.

Danny Williams, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador knows that it would be political suicide for him to ban the hunt altogether.

Danny Williams is more dangerous to anti-sealing groups than even his Minister Tom Rideout - he has made it one of his twin mandates to take you guys on (his other mandate you would be more in favour of but is off topic). It is best to know what your enemy is saying:

Province to Participate in Celebration of Sealing Industry

As the opening of the 2008 seal fishery nears, the Provincial Government will join with sealing industry representatives and supporters to celebrate the history, culture and traditions associated with the seal harvest in Newfoundland and Labrador.

On March 15, the Honourable Tom Rideout, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, will participate in an event in St. John's organized by the Fur Institute of Canada to recognize the benefits of the seal fishery and to promote the truths of the harvest. March 15 is the annual anti-sealing global day of protest. ...

"The seal fishery has been a vital contributor to Newfoundland and Labrador for over 500 years," said Minister Rideout. "This type of tradition is worth celebrating, and it is certainly worth defending. Our seal harvest is humane, sustainable and economically viable. Our government has been very proactive in our defense of this fishery, and our efforts will certainly continue." ...

http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/fishaq/0314n04.htm

Province Alarmed by PETA 2 Attack on Canadian Sealers

The Provincial Government is alarmed by a new anti-sealing video which is being distributed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) 2, in Germany. The Honourable Tom Rideout, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, expressed his disappointment and concern that this group would draw such a vile comparison to the Canadian sealing industry, which includes one of the most well-managed harvests anywhere in the world.

The video compares the harvesting of seals to the violent physical abuse of a human.

"We are now witnessing a new low on the part of anti-sealing organizations," said Minister Rideout. "We in Newfoundland and Labrador have become accustomed to the misinformation and inaccurate depictions of the seal harvest that are presented around this time every year. However, this particular attack is the most vile that I have ever seen myself in my almost 30 years in public life. It is completely indecent for this group of people, who have likely never even visited our province, to present such a disturbing depiction of sealers."

"It is ironic that this group, which is making such an unethical attack, has the word ethical in its name," said the minister. "Their ethics are certainly nowhere to be seen in this approach to addressing their concerns with the Canadian sealing industry. It is also ironic that this attack is coming from Germany where there is a harvest of wild animals including the hunt of 1.2 million deer and over 500,000 wild boars per year."

The seal harvest off the east coast of Canada is based on sound scientific evidence which shows healthy populations. The harvest is conducted in a very humane manner with a great deal of scrutiny and regulation. The commercial harvesting of seals is more tightly regulated today than ever before in history. It has been observed by independent veterinarians and their recommendations have been adopted to further ensure the humaneness of the harvest.

http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/fishaq/0320n01.htm

This is because people have forgotten how to live. There are so many addictions in life, this is the behavior of addicts. There is a way to tell the difference between a life way that is very efficient and one that exploits everything. This information is being lost in the extinction of the natural world. I don't live a sustainable life but I do know how difficult it is with all the laws and policies that create an unnatural life.

If you are serious about taking on Danny Williams - pulling a Weird Al may be in order:

http://www.pcparty.nf.net/media.htm

I can only say that is the wrong direction and is not sustainable.

The (Canadian) seal slaughter is going to end, it is simply a matter of time. The economics are against it (pelt prices are declining, and fuel costs are rising), and it is clear that the international community finds the whole thing repellent (Russian hookers and impotent Chinese males notwithstanding). At some point (soon) even the most ardent supporter of this nonsense will not be able to argue the "economic sustainability" of the slaughter; at that point the Canadian government will be left arguing that the slaughter should continue solely for "cultural" reasons. It won't. There are very few people who are willing to run around ice floes, beating seals on the head because it is part of their "tradition"; the work is hard, miserable, and dangerous. Nobody is going to want to do it if it doesn't pay the bills. As for Inuit traditions, people are too wrapped up in romantic visions of a life-style that died half a century ago. Inuit today run around on snowmobiles, they live in insulated, heated homes, they talk to their buddies on cell phones, and they shop for food at the local supermarket, just like everyone else. Most Inuit would not know how to build an igloo if their lives depended upon it, and the thought of hunting a polar bear for sustenance is consistently trumped by the desire (and logic) of simply buying a pizza at the local Sobey's. If anyone out there has any doubts of that, then please take a hard look at the "new" Canadian (Inuit) Territory of Nunavut; the primary job-creator in Nunavut is the federal government, and while their are many new economic initiatives that are proposed by the Territorial government, subsidies for the seal-beating industry are not among them. And before you all go off thinking that I am somehow against the Inuit, I am not. I want them to succeed (as well as I do the seal-beating Newfies); I just don't think that clinging to uneconomic and unpopular anachronisms from the nineteenth century is the way to do it.

y2kcockroach - you underestimate how bad the economy is in NL. They would continue the tradition just for the meat.

RE: I can only say that is the wrong direction and is not sustainable.

Probably not, but in Newfoundland and Labrador, almost every voter is either a seal hunter, friends with one or somehow related to one.

The only argument the locals will listen to is that over sealing could lead them to the same situation as over fishing did. And, as far as they are being told at the moment, the quotas prevent over sealing.

50 year old films of seals being clubbed when the present generation hunts them with guns instead tends to make these locals more apt to believe that Danny Williams (and his pro business buddies) are being more honest than you guys are.

Danny Williams knows that it is popular to stick up for seal hunters and to insult Harper by calling him "Steve" (Harper hates being called that). But things are not going good at home for poor Danny Williams with that breast cancer scandal.

So far Danny Williams is saying that he did not know anything about it.

Since Danny Williams is portraying himself as an honest broker and the anti-seal hunting bunch as a bunch of liars - Danny William's credibility is the issue.

Danny Williams comes from the same party as former Premier Frank Moores (whose name came up in an arms dealing scandal) - but it may be too much of a stretch to link those two.

To "vaudree": I wondered about that (the idea that the Newf's would eat seal meat for "sustenance"), and I came to the conclusion that the seal-slaughter could not be sustained, even if that were to be the case. Firstly, I have not heard of a substantial number of Newfoundlanders (or anyone else for that matter) eating seal meat. That is understandable, because it tastes awful (yes, I have tried it, and yes, it tastes awful). I doubt that people are going to develop a "taste" for seal-meat, paticularly in response to a perceived need to keep the seal-slaughter going. Secondly, did I mention that it tastes awful? The reason (I believe) that few people eat seal-meat is that it is disgusting; that isn't going to change, no matter how much people try to pretend it doesn't. Thirdly, the current seal-slaughter is a killing on a grand scale; even IF a substantial number of people started eating seal-meat, it could not ever justify the current money-losing operation that is the Canadian government-sponsored annual slaughter. It would at most be a cottage industry, left to a few enterprising Newfoundlanders (not unlike the Chilean as-yet-not-quite-burgeoning penguin-meat food industry). Fourthly, it is now, and forever will be a VERY expensive, and VERY dangerous way to club one's dinner. The unfavourable economics of the commercial slaughter is what is going to end it, and it simply will not be financially viable for individuals to carry on with a "hunt" without the Canadian taxpayer subsidies, civil-servant manpower, Fisheries Department resources, and RCMP and Coast Guard assets that are currently poured into it. Simply put, nobody, and I mean NOBODY is going to pay what it really costs to harvest the seals, in order to buy them at the supermarket (rump roast and prime rib will always be cheaper). And finally, did I mention: seal meat tastes awful! The Japanese government and their whale-killing industry lobbyists are spending much time, energy and money trying to figure out how to get the Japanese to keep eating whale meat (which does taste somewhat better than seal meat, but is still far less palatable, and far more expensive than say, a rib-eye steak), to the point that they are considering forcing the stuff onto children's school-lunch menus in order to "create" a demand. Seems the Japanese have figured out what everyone else who eats the stuff eventually figures out: it tastes awful, and that is the reason why nobody else eats it. Nope, in the final analysis the seal slaughter, and even a possible small cottage-industry type cull would not survive the poor economics, the negative image, the declining market and the crappy taste. It will end; it is simply a matter of time.

Vaudree

I think this hunt has created an ecological imbalance and that whenever this happens there will be a period of adjustment. I would think that people should examine thier lives for sustainable change and that can only be a good thing. I look for ways to change but it is difficult with all the rules where I live. Most of them don't make sense, they are for someone else's priority.

Treefrog, and y2kcockroach

RE: - clubbing

Think of it, why bother with clubs when guns are easier and much more efficient! No one uses clubs any more and the Native Cultures have always had a taboo against the harming of baby animals.

Danny Williams says that it is against the law to kill the babies (who have a distinct coat). I don't know whether to believe him or not - but will leave that part up to you.

Unless you can prove that Danny Williams is lying, we are killing adult seals with guns.

RE: - I think this hunt has created an ecological imbalance and that whenever this happens there will be a period of adjustment.

By "ecological imbalance" do you mean that the seals are being over hunted or that the humans hunting seals is the reason many that the polar bears are starving? There are no polar bears in Newfoundland and Labrador, but this can be a problem in the Canadian Arctic where polar bears do live and eat seal meat.

RE: - Firstly, I have not heard of a substantial number of Newfoundlanders (or anyone else for that matter) eating seal meat. That is understandable, because it tastes awful (yes, I have tried it, and yes, it tastes awful).

I am not a big meat eater and prefer the softer meats, such as ground beef, wieners and chicken myself. I would also not care for the former Newfoundlander tradition of sending their children to school with sandwitches made of lobster meat. And it seems that your view explains an observation made by the Canadian Sealers Association:

RE: - Sealing communities desire to see even greater use of the meat but, outside these communities, there is no cultural habit of eating seal.
This is true even though seal is a high protein, lean and healthy meat. It also lends itself to 'meal' production - the same as fish meal. This has tremendous potential as a protein supplement in food aid programs.

http://sealharvest.ca/html/commentary/nni_jwinter.html

Clothing made by seal is both warm and water proof - but I was not brought up to sew my own clothes either. I tend to wear the type of winter garments which fill landfills.

The Canadian Sealers Association is not above their own scare tactics - they accuse you guys of suffering from "Bambi Syndrome" and saying that, after seals, you are going to go after cows and chickens.

RE: - Simply put, nobody, and I mean NOBODY is going to pay what it really costs to harvest the seals, in order to buy them at the supermarket (rump roast and prime rib will always be cheaper). And finally, did I mention: seal meat tastes awful!

But not any easier to chew (which is a real concern involving certain meats). I don't understand why anyone would eat ribs - they are tasteless and usually have a lot of blubber on them (mixing BBQ sauce with bacon grease would give you much the same taste). A roast is something you might eat once or twice a year, if that, and not miss very much if you didn't. Maybe a beef pie once in a while or a Tortierre, but you are not talking about the main part of a person's diet with those meats either.

Steak is something you might be able to enjoy every couple of years, if it is not too hard to chew.

RE: - The Japanese government and their whale-killing industry lobbyists are spending much time, energy and money trying to figure out how to get the Japanese to keep eating whale meat (which does taste somewhat better than seal meat, but is still far less palatable, and far more expensive than say, a rib-eye steak),

You have made the point that small fishing operations are more ecologically sound than bigger ones - whether you planned to or not. Smaller whale or seal hunters have more of a tradition of catching and eating the meat than bigger (corporate) ones or urban dwellers.

And it is a bit of a con for the focus of the government lobbying to be on the smaller seal or whale hunter rather than on the corporate giants (though, as you indicate, these giants would be stupid to get into seal hunting).

There is an issue that is relevant to the seal hunters which does not concern the Japanese whale poachers.

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have lived there for many generations and want to continue living there even though jobs are scarce. Some will look at the seal hunt as one of those things which prevent them at home rather than living in a tent in Alberta working the oil rigs.

Some of these seal hunters may even work for a few months each year in Alberta.

There is also a greater proportion of Maritimers (including NL) which serve in the Canadian Military than any where else in Canada. A job in the Military allows their family to keep living in NL rather than having to move to other provinces for work.

Any way, as long as they see you guys as misinformed, they are not about to give up their ways.

"Vaudree": you're stoned, right? I have read your last post several times, trying my best to figure out what it is that you are trying to say ("weiners" are a "softer meat"?). I really don't know what "chewability" has to do with it, or whether Newfies send their kids to school with lobster sandwiches (as opppsed to bologna sandwiches, or peanut butter sandwiches, or bananas for that matter), or whether they use Hakapiks, rifles, or hand grenades to kill the damn things, but my point (and really, the only point that I was trying to make) was that the economics of the commercial slaughter will kill it faster than anything else will (for example, there is no way that the Canadian government could justify spending the money that it does on this thing, in order to make protein-based animal feed, no matter what the seal-beaters say on their websites). For the record: I couldn't care less what people eat, or what their views of the morality of the seal-slaughter are, or whether they feel badly for seal-beaters or not; the bottom line is that the commercial slaughter is going to end by economic necessity, and the chances of a localized seal-beater industry thriving without Canadian government lucre propping it up are virtually nil. In the end, there will be no seal-beater industry left, just unemployed seal-beaters. You may like it, you may hate it, you may be indifferent to it, but it is going to happen. Yeesh.

I have trouble chewing - get pain at the back of my head just above the neck if I bite down hard on anything. It is one of the consequences of being allergic to "air freshioner" and not being able to avoid it completely. It started with not being able to eat raw apple and then progressed from there. It got to the point where I could not eat hot cross buns before I got it treated, but I still can't eat raw apples and tough meats.

The point was that I have no interest in either seal meat or any of the cuts of meat you mentioned.

The kids used to eat lobster sandwitches because their parents were poor fishing people who could not afford to send their kids with what they considered to be "better" (ie more normal) sandwiches. They will continue to eat seal meat for the same reason.

RE: whether they feel badly for seal-beaters or not; the bottom line is that the commercial slaughter is going to end by economic necessity, and the chances of a localized seal-beater industry thriving without Canadian government lucre propping it up are virtually nil.

You are talking about very poor people supplementing their incomes and their food budget. You are talking about traditions which go back a couple hundred years for some and even further back for others.

If this was Toronto, these would be the same people trapping pigeons and having it for Thanksgiving dinner to avoid the cost of buying a turkey in the store.

Agree with you that it will never be a big industry.

RE: seal-beater

I think that terms such as "seal beater" and "Bambi Syndrome" are both out of place. I think you know that we slaughter cows to get many of the cuts of meat that you think are more tasty than seal meat (and which probably are).

Canadians kill cows, pigs, chickens and seals. We slaughter them. We are supposed to be slaughtering them as humanely as possible. If we are not, we need to improve our methods even more.

We don't torture seals to death - or, at least, it is illegal for us to do so.

For the record, I have never eaten rabbit. My dad's mother got a bunch of rabbits, which she was fattening up for food, but which my dad thought were pets. My dad refused to eat the rabbits and we never ate rabbit as children.

Some people hunt and eat rabbits for food (or even just to keep them away from their gardens and fields).

Some people think that dogs are pets and others think of them as meat.

Some people step on snakes because they don't like them. They kill them on purpose with no intention of even eating them or using their skins.

Manitoba Hydro employees volunteered their time to built tunnels under roads so that the Narcisse snakes could get to the other side without becoming road kill. It worked - the Narcisse snakes are actually using the tunnels!

This is just one of the ways humans differ.

Stop eating air freshener Vaudree. Or else eat apple sause and canned seal blubber.

LOL KEM -- sometimes you ARE toooo MUCH

I know ____ so is Vaudree. She can't eat hot cross buns, ___ so much for hot sex.

Well, she won't bite come to think of it.

Canadian industrial policy seems to follow the capitalist standard: Create as many jobs as possible, ignore whether the demand is virtue or vice, encourage demand through marketing, addiction if possible, and keep centralized control over the production if you can.

The progressive standard is to first ensure that all populations are self-sufficient in the basics, and the trade is limited to avoid power concentration, resource depletion, and environmental destruction. The vice demands are suppressed with taxes, and the virtue demands are encouraged with tax breaks. The self-sufficiency is the most powerful component. It both protects people from greed destruction and stifles the greed in people.

I wish I could stop being exposed to airfreshioner - but my points were valid - and that is the point. I can eat hotcross buns now - but I was not such a wimp to ask the doctor to help me out when it was just at the point where I could not eat raw apple. It gives me really bad heart burn if I am expose to airfreshioner (and if I lie down I can pass out for a couple of hours), but I can eat most things and I can walk without a walker now - so it is a fair trade.

And Kem, I agree with you more often than not so I put down your bullying, whenever it occurs, to PTSD.

On one side there are well-fed anti-seal protesters and on the other side there are very poor seal hunters in an economy where there are very few jobs.

The seal hunt is not going away because it is traditional (hundreds of years) and, even if it just fills the freezer, is enough to allow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to keep living in the Province instead of leaving permanently.

You have a better chance of getting the farmers in Afghanistan to stop growing poppies than stopping the seal hunt.

Same issue - poor people trying to feed their families.

RE: The progressive standard is to first ensure that all populations are self-sufficient in the basics, and the trade is limited to avoid power concentration, resource depletion, and environmental destruction.

So you are saying that the quota is too high and should be lowered? That is different than saying that the seal hunt should be banned outright.

I think you made that point before and I made this point before.

I guess this is good news, but I would prefer to see national bans, rather than an EU-enforced ban as this further erodes national sovereignty.

I wonder if people supporting the ban appreciate the irony (or hypocrisy) that they will most likely have beef or chicken for dinner (same applies to climate change brigade, industrial farming is responsible for a much larger proportion of CO2 and other pollution than cars.)

What is the difference between a seal and a chicken or a cow? If people truly care about animal welfare, why protect seals, yet continue eating meat? Industrial farming methods are a disgrace to a supposedly humane and civilised society. I don't want to sound like a pretentious, self-righteous bore (honest!) but vegetarianism/veganism is the only truly ethical, sustainable, progressive, civilised lifestyle.

http://rebelconservative.blogspot.com

And what is with Namibia being one of the top three countries responsible for killing seals? lol, you couldn't make it up...

It wasn't intended to be "bullying" ~Vaud~, I was teasing you for laughs at your expense. I'm a teaser as you have detected, but can take the same with good will and laugh at myself. Glad you can now eat hot cross buns, and am sure you don't eat seals, or canned seal blubber. ___ Nor should anyone who doesn't need it. The true "Aulets", or Eskimos require that sort of food in order to survive frigid cold weather conditions for months at a time. The word "Eskimo" means blubber eater.

I'm fairly certain we humans and the other world's animals are ALL suffering from PTSD to some extent by now, some worse than others with the large amount of microscopic sized DU dust blowing in the wind all over the planet.

Rebel - there is no difference. But if one is a vegan or a vegetarian then one is not being hypocritical.

Kem - "teasing at your expense" - (smirk) - I only use the "b" word if I see an attempt at ganging up. One person acting alone does not a "b" make.

RE Eskimo - "blubber eater"

"Eaters of raw meat" dues sounds a bit kinking after a few beers. Seriously, they call themselves "Inuit" or in Newfoundland "Innu" - and "Eskimo" was the derogatory term the Native Peoples (ie American Indians) used to describe them.

DU - with Uranium from Saskatchewan ...

Seems that "prey" tends to automatically have a bit of PTSD.

Thinking of a metaphor for Cheney sending the boys and girls off to war - something worse than hunting seals - oh yes, Cheney is guilty of organizing human "dog fights".

Training dogs to fight to the death and then betting on the outcome - puts it all in prospective, doesn't it Kem. ;)

Save the cockroaches! What ain't they cute enough?

P eople
T ired of
S cumbag
D eMOKERYacy

Namaste