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Canada’s Seal Hunt Left Obama Outraged in ’06
WASHINGTON-Campaigners leading a global effort against the Canadian seal hunt believe they have stumbled across a secret weapon that could bring Ottawa to heel - a letter of outrage from Barack Obama that condemns the annual cull as "inhumane."
Hunters gather pelts as the annual East Coast seal hunt starts in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence around Quebec's Iles de la Madeleine on Monday, March 23, 2009. (ANDREW VAUGHAN/CP PHOTO) The newly disclosed letter, written in April 2006, when Obama was a rookie senator from Illinois, leaves no doubt where he stands on the issue. In pointed language, he promises an unnamed constituent he will work with colleagues "to ensure that we take all the necessary steps to express our outrage" to the Canadian government.
"I share your concerns about the Canadian seal hunt," wrote Obama, who has not spoken publicly on the issue since he became president in January.
"As you know, Canada annually opens its eastern waters to commercial seal hunting. The United States and European Union have been unified in their opposition to the slaughter of seals by passing legislation decades ago to restrict the sale of seal-based products within their borders," Obama wrote.
"I certainly believe in the spirit of these acts; the U.S. should not condone this recent Canadian action."
The letter was made public yesterday by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) after it was "recently rediscovered in the files of a member who keeps very good records of our correspondence with the U.S. government," a spokesperson for the animal rights group told the Star.
Circulation of the Obama letter caught both governments off guard. In Washington, a White House aide told the Star that while the seal hunt was hardly uppermost among the administration's constellation of concerns, "we will have to digest this before saying anything."
In Ottawa, a spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans Canada refused comment, saying: "I'm going to have to put that one up to Foreign Affairs."
A Foreign Affairs spokesperson also declined comment, saying he needed to consult with colleagues.
PETA, however, seized upon the letter as the latest and strongest sign of momentum in its campaign against commercial seal hunting. Last month, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin surprised environmentalists by banning sealing in Russian waters, calling the practice "a bloody industry" that "should have been banned a long time ago."
The Russian move further isolated Canada, which maintains the largest annual hunt for harp seals, with a quota of 280,000 this year. Greenland and Norway also allow the hunting of harp seals, limiting the harvest to an annual catch of 50,000.
"What is so refreshing about the Obama letter is the wording. There is just no questioning where he stands on this issue. What we want now is to bring that spirit of outrage into the Oval Office," said PETA senior vice-president Dan Mathews.
"When you have the leaders of Russia and the United States speaking out on this issue, it ratchets up the pressure more intensely than ever. Canada, which is so progressive in so many ways, is getting a black eye around the world and everyone is perplexed by it."
The Canadian government remains robustly committed to commercial sealing, arguing that the industry is "a significant source of income in many small isolated coastal communities throughout Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the North.
10 Comments so far
Show All"The Seal hunts inhumane, but I want to double down on my war in Afghanistan. I mean, Seals are so obviously > than people." (Essentially Obama's position)
The hypocrisy keeps on growing. I'm as liberal as the next guy, but when it comes to the seal hunt it is NOT inhumane. The seals are used for oils, fur, meat, etc. They use the whole body!
Now, When it comes to inhumane shouldn't we be worried about Darfur? Shouldn't we be worried about sport hunting where people shoot an animal and use none of it? What about the millions upon millions of chickens and cows slaughtered all the time, not just 200 000 during a hunt in the late winter/early spring?
Maybe Obama would like to discuss it with Danny Williams?
If the seal hunt was banned it would NOT affect me personally. I have no stake in it. However, it would affect the many many seal hunters who would financially be stressed.
Priorities people! Priorities.
You are as misinformed as the other "liberals".
These Seals are killed for their "pelts"----a relatively narrow swath of skin with fur that runs along the back of the animal--the carcass is left on the ice for the Gulls to scavenge.
The Seals are slaughtered at the early age while still nursing because that is the optimum time for the most luxurious fur, which in the natural world is there on the back of the baby Seal to keep it warm while the mother forages for food. It also is the optimum time for the 'hunter', to make the "kill' since the baby Seals cannot enter the water with that fur since it is not water proof. Take a look at those obese 'hunters', and you will see that if those "fat boys" really had to hunt they would starve---after consuming all of that body fat of course.
The only reason those "fat boys" ----all of the White by the way---are out on the ice is that there is a market for the fur for other "fat White guys" "babes" to wear out in public as a status symbol---of wealth, power, position in a truly screwed up society that the Anglo Europeans brought with them from Europe along with Jesus, disease, genocide, and a human and animal slaughter that would make the Romans blush in its volume.
The comparisons you use in your posting reveal your huge volume of ignorance as well as your vast arrogance.
My bet is that you are an Anglo/Christian (probably Catholic), middle class, Canadian, and like so many of your counter parts here in the USA---suffer from a serious case of "cranial rectum insertion syndrome"----(you have your head so far up your ass, you can't tell if its daylight or dark outside; and most likley do not care.)
In addition to that, you are so misinformed/ignorant that you are a danger to yourself, and other life forms on the planet.
Good Luck Canada, you really need it.
If you could stop your abusive rant for awhile and do a little independent research you would know that it has been illegal to hunt "white coats" since 1987. If you look at the photo accompanying the article you will see the pelts are all grey pelts. The seals are killed humanely and are dead before they are skinned. There has been study after study to confirm this. By the way the whole skin is taken, not just the back, and some of the seals are also taken for food.
The seal hunt is a very important source of income for people in this area. Some people make a quarter to a third of their annual incomes at the seal hunt and they risk their lives doing it. The reason they take on this very hard and very dangerous work is that there are few opportunities to earn money in this area and they take what they can get.
It is you who is ignorant. You are ignorant in your lack of knowledge of the seal hunt and you are ignorant in how you respond to the other posters. As well, you are very arrogant in your ignorance. In the future, please do some research before you attack someone.
Give a 'citation' (Please) for the Law that you mention. There is no other use for those animals. No secondary products, no meat, no "oils" etc. Just the pelts, which are used for "fashion" trends mostly in Europe.
I am very familiar with the "seal hunt".
The photo you refer to shows adults dead in the ice, and these were most likely the mother seals who would not leave their young and were killed, in order to get to the young.
The females give birth on the ice, and nurse the young on that platform while the young fatten off the very rich milk until the pelts "shed", when the offspring are able to hunt for themselves.
The seals developed the "habit" of this method to preserve the young against most predators---except Humans (if you can call Anglo Christian Canadians humans),
The "limits" set by the "government" are to allow enough young to survive the "harvest" in order to reproduce for the future "harvests" .If those "humans" PLANTED SEALS, it might be a different matter.
Before the Europeans arrived, bringing with them the "market" for those pelts, the Native peoples considered the pelts virtually worthless since they need "extra care" to maintain that "pretty look" that so many find rewarding.
I just love that second paragraph you wrote. Those people who make a third of their income by risking life and limb for what essentially is a "club to the head of an otherwise defenseless animal",----- not for food, but so that some wealthy European "bitch" can look "good"---- is typical of the attitude the Europeans brought to the Americas----and it looks to me like you folks aren't doing to very well lately. Could it be because you do not know how to live in harmony with our Grandmother the Earth, so you become "parasites"---sucking the life out of every environment you live in. The Canadians have the same history as the Americans when it comes to their "settlements" here in the Americas----and the sooner all of you die off---at your own hands---the sooner the rest of life on the Continent and the Planet for that matter, can go on and live in harmony.
Like so many other of your mind set, you started this huge pile of "political rhetoric" with a lie----there is no law that prevents the killing of "white coats"---so what you did was make yourslef look even more foolish, and a typical White man, 'speaking with a forked tongue'----most of you will tell a lie even when the truth sounds better.
Want to go for some more?
Good Luck Fool, you really need it.
Take another look at the picture, those are pelts, not seals.
Here is the link to the regulation:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showdoc/cr/SOR-93-56/bo-ga:l_IV//en#anchorbo-ga:l_IV
In case you can't find the relevant lines here they are:
"Prohibitions
27. No person other than a beneficiary shall sell, trade or barter a whitecoat or blueback."
"30. No person shall fish for adult harp or hooded seals in whelping or breeding patches."
There are a series of videos explaining the seal hunt beginning here:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/seal-phoque/video1-eng.htm
I have no love for the Harper government nor the nameless federal bureaucracy, but these links I have given you agree with what biologists I trust have said.
Yes, I am white, but that doesn't mean I don't live in harmony with nature. Nature can be very brutal. Animals die in order to feed other animals. The bones that I find under the eagle nest that we protect are testimony to that. Some humans kill as part of their livelihood. At least they are not just killing for sport. They may not eat the meat of every seal they kill, but they are putting the income they make towards their families.
However, some of the meat is eaten, here is a recipe for seal flipper pie:
http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/25/137570.shtml
If this one isn't to your taste, just Google "seal flipper pie" and a number of other recipes will come up.
Now, I do not believe you are Native. No Native I know uses the phrase "speaking with a forked tongue". In fact, they would be quite insulted to see someone impersonating them using Hollywood inspired phrases. I would suggest you stop.
The term "speaking with a forked tongue" is a barb at YOU PEOPLE,
and was delivered -------------------------------------------------in "Quotation Marks"("you" "know" "like" "these" "funny" "little" "marks")
And the flippers are all you eat?
You made a good defense of your stupidity---but those are words are so much
"smoke on the wind"----------you still defend the waste by using the term that they are "supporting their families".
The links you gave are 'government' biologists ----I am sure that the Government of Canada does not use undue influence over those on the payroll for propaganda or other purposes---------------aren't you? As for the "law" quotes, I am sure that Canada has as "honorable" a record of observing their own laws like say, the "good ole USA"------right!
And those are not "pelts" in the common sense of the usage of the word--those are 'skins',of adult Seals which most often go for crab trap bait in deep sea crabbing, they are full of fat, do not fall apart as other bait does, and can be used for a longer period of time than other bait----but then, all those folks there/here "need" crab meat to enjoy with their cocktail sauce---don't they.
Whether you think that I am "Native or Not" matters so little to me, that I am surprised you can think at all.
You and your people are living in the last days of your domination of this continent.
You have wasted your every opportunity to do the right thing by us, and the rest of nature. You have participated in mass slaughters by justifying those actions of those who went before you. And now your economy is falling apart around your heads, while you participate in illegal wars of aggression along with the USA---and even though many of our numbers have fallen into extinction----there will be enough of us to ride our horses through your empty cities----and you will have emptied them.
Good luck YOU really need it--------
A pelt is the skin of the animal. It is the same thing. Look it up in any dictionary, on-line or off.
Last year there were four sealers killed on the ice. Believe you me, they were not out there risking their lives in order to obtain crab bait. In Canada we bait our traps with other things which are more easily obtained.
The issue of the freedom of biologists and other scientists to practice their science is an important one in both of our countries. Governments and larger corporations in both countries put pressure on scientists to produce certain results, but these government biologists agree with non-government biologists I know, so I consider their position is correct.
Do not compare the deeds of the Canadian government with those of the U.S. Government. We are an economically dominated country, dominated by the U.S. and so our government often dances to the tune being played by the U.S. Our current prime minister is a lap dog of Bush wondering where his master went. He will most likely be defeated (please God and please people)in the next election, but in the mean time he is gutting the very heart of our country.
Even though we are economically dominated by the U.S., WE REFUSED TO INVADE IRAQ.
Even though we are economically dominated by the U.S., our economy is bad, but it is not falling down around our heads.
You will get no argument from me about how bad the U.S. government is.
You will get no argument from me about how badly the native people have been mistreated in both countries. It is a shame that will take generations to redress.
We could have a wonderful discussion about these issues if you would stop being so abusive and would stay out of your fantasy world. Instead of dreaming of what is not going to happen (the cities emptying), deal with what is happening now. In Canada large numbers of native people live in the cities. If the cities are emptied because of some catastrophe, those native people will suffer as well.
Whether we are native, white, Canadian, and/or U.S. citizen, we all live on this continent together now and there are so many serious ecological issues that we need to be working on. The time and finances which are being spent to fight the seal hunt could be so much more useful on these other issues. Let's work on those.
Let me preface this by stating I would like to see the seal hunt end.
That said some perspective in order.
The total VALUE of the seal hunt to the Fisherman is around 10 Million dollars.
This is divided up amongst a total of some 6000 sealers meaning on average some 1700 dollars per.
The amount of monies earned by the sealers ranges from 15 percent to as high as 30 percent of their total year incomes. This is the poorest area in Canada with unemployment around 16 percent.
Paul Mccartney is also outraged at the seal hunt and wants it ended. He is worth well over 1 billion dollars and likely earns some 100 million a year from various sources.
Rather then asking the Fishermen to make less money and stop hunting seals, it would seem that those who are outraged can donate money to a fund wherein sealers are paid from it NOT to hunt.
Mr Mcartney as example can do this all on his own.
Just as with forestry and coal mining (All of which *I* would like to see either ended or made more sustainable) we can not impose solution on a group of people who are amongst the poorest without allowing a means for them to make up for lost income.
Again the optics are absurd wherein the same person doles at trillions to bankers or to wage war on people where he has no issues with killer drones murdering children in Paksitan at costs of tens of billions of dollars.
Now SOME Newfoundlanders have moved elswhere to get much needed jobs. Ft MacMurray Alberta has about a third of its population of 60,000 coming from Newfoundland. There they work on the Tarsands . Others go to work on offshore Oil rigs in Hibernia or mines in Labrador.
There are people who want to shut all of that down as well without once considering the workers.
I guess they can all work at Walmart.
The way we raise cattle, chickens and pigs at factory farms is inhumane. Hunting wildlife for food is hardly inhumane, unless the population is endangered or the methods of killing are cruel. I am not a Canadian, or a hunter, and still eat meat, although not as much as I used to, but I don't get it. As said earlier, this is hypocrisy at it's worst.
Of course, chimpanzees eat baby monkeys live and raw, but we call that natural. man kills anything for food and we are evil and committing crimes against nature.
Obama has no problem bombing innocents in the Middle East, why is it a nobrainer that he will merely remain silent on this one. The corruptive nature of the Oval Office is underestimated!