Is Canada’s Gray Seal Hunt Cancelled Due to Lack of Demand?
Thousands of gray seals could be spared particularly brutal deaths this year because sealers have been unable to find a buyer for the pelts.
This news comes as the European Union considers a ban on all seal products, an action which some think drove typical pelt buyers to rethink their purchase this year. Multiple sources say the hunt will likely not happen, but Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans still officially say the hunt is on.
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“The cancellation of Nova Scotia’s grey seal hunt is a tremendous victory for the seals,” said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International/Canada. “It is incredibly heartening to know that thousands of seal pups will be spared from a fate similar to the unbearable carnage we documented last year during the slaughter on Hay Island.”
Some sealers worry that they will not be able to find a buyer for the larger annual harp seal hunt either.
The Humane Society has petitioned the Canadian government to buy-out sealing licenses from affected sealers and to begin developing different economies for coastal communities that rely on the seal hunts to make money.
Photo credit: MGSpiller on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
Good deception guys. Show an image of a seal of an age that it is illegal to actually harvest as part of the commercial seal hunt, write your article, and, without actually saying that baby white coats are killed, hope that people think they are.
Marcel,
It was the first image of a grey seal that I found. While it is illegal to kill the pups, many still are killed. If you think I am trying to deceive people, I can go ahead and find a different photo. But honestly — I don’t see how senselessly killing a baby animal is considered worse than killing a full-grown animal. I’ve never understood the logic. They’re both defenseless.
-Alex
I hate to tell you this Alex, but you are deceiving people with this picture. Displaying an animal that is NOT hunted and is ILLEGAL to hunt instead of the anmials that ARE being hunted pulls on the emotional strings of people and triggers a reaction. A reaction that is not targeting the truth of the matter.
And if you are going to say something such as ‘While it is illegal to kill the pups, many are still killed’, it might be nice to actually back this up with facts (not originating with IFAW or PETA who use similar tactics to yours).
Oh, and they are killing the adult animals as the pups are protected. I’m not sure how this point continues to be missed.
Interesting that when you are called on it the image of an adult suddenly appears in it’s place.
I have seen many similar marketing tactics, the video image of the baby white coat - the cut away - the image of blood on the ice - let the viewer come to what conclusion they may… unfortunately it’s all too common Alex.
I suppose you could consider the hunt senseless if you consider the economic livelihoods of the hunters to be of little or no value, or if you consider the economic hardship that a ban on seal pelts would create for the Inuit people of Canada …. some of us think things like that are fairly important though - have you considered them?
They are very much considered. In fact, they’re even mentioned in the post. Along with a call to come up with alternative economies. Are you opposed to exploring other options?
And thanks for generating some traffic to my post, by the way.
I’m not sure you can consider the traffic to your post positive Alex.
Rigorous research and actually coming up with alternatives as opposed to asking others to do the legwork for you might be a better approach. This post has numerous holes and makes it content wise not satisfying - in fact, it is at times offensive.
And by offensive I mean that this post at times misrepresents the situation to such a degree that reality no longer has a close association with the subject at hand.
Hey, no problem with the traffic Alex, I’m always glad to send a few people to a page like this, especially after they’ve had a chance to look at the before and after screen shots I’ve got up at my place.
I’m not the least bit opposed to exploring options, why not get them in place before you, and those like you, manage to create more hardship, and to further devastate, northern Aboriginal economies?
Just out of curiosity, and because you did use the sea shepherd tag, how close are your views to those of the good Mr. Watson when it comes to Inuit hunters?
Just curious, Marcel; what are you doing to alleviate the so-called “devastation” of Aboriginal economies? Additionally, how are you enabling us to exploring new options?
I doubt there’s much to earned through trolling blogs on the internet, but you may want to enlighten us.
Cheers =)
Alex, I’m sorry that idiots like Marcel and Sofia are the only ones who have commented thus far. Rest assured that there are decent people who believe that seals should not be killed for their fur, regardless of whether they are 1 day or 20 years old.