Canada - 280,00 Seals to be Culled.

Brit I think it has more to do with the numbers... Whales and Dolphins are not over-running places, nor are they putting a strain on local eco-systems. The number of seals we have in Canada at present are whiping out an already depleted fish stock also. We have banned fishing of some species of fish and control others in hopes to increase the stock but with the number of seals having almost doubled in the last 4 years it is impossible.

We could send some of the critters to the UK :)

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"

You are probably right since you have experienced these things..

Not meaning to distract the thread, but why do we then complain about the Japanese culling whales and dolphins, but feel that seal culling is fine..

Ohh Brit, you wouldnt be calling these seals cute little things if you lived with them. I remember we used to take a shortcut to school and you had to be careful when the drift ice was in because the little monsters would come up to shore. If you slipped near one of them and they got near your hand you could count on loosing a digit. They bite worse than any dog I have seen and are surprisingly fast.

Cattle are slaughtered with this spike gun thing, really no difference. As for using them for reasons other than pelts, you gotta visit my neighbors back home, who can cook you up some nice seal flippers :)

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"

Collapse of the ecosystem as a whole will definitely come, it may not be on our life time but surely its creeping in.

The polar bear may go first then the other species. What will be left would be cockroaches..which are among the most adaptable little creatures on earth.

"simple yet complicated"

"makamal a anak"

The polar bears are dying off because the sea ice is melting. The polar bears live on the sea ice and fish. when the sea ice is gone, there will be no more polar bears. This is due to climate change (global warming - if that's what you believe in).

Motherhood...The hardest job you'll ever love! : )

There are, but global warming is tough on them as their habitat is disappearing, and even naturally there aren't enough of them to keep the seal population down, as humans are part of the food chain in that region as well.

Even the best Shooter will miss and only wound an animal sometimes too so which is crueler, killing the animal with the second blow or letting it escape into the water to it can die slowly later from a gun shot.

Aren't there any program in reviving the polar bears population? because as far as I know when there are natural predators the population will be properly maintained..

OK granted but even the best "Kakapiker" will miss sometime, there's no guarantee of hitting the bull's eye every time..

Anyway animal lovers or not, we don't have the right to question such act as we are not the ones suffering from their annoyance.

"simple yet complicated"

"makamal a anak"

There are polar bears, unfortunately THEY are endangered.

It isn't really beating them to death. A Hakapik is a club with a spike on the end, the spike is driven into the seals head killing it instantly. So it's not like taking a baseball bat and going to town on them.

Lets just think that humans are predators which are needed to maintain the population. aren't there any natural predator there except humans? How about introducing some polar bears? (they may become the problem in the long run).guess not possible with the weather condition also.

But can't they use other means in killing them?

personally I can't beat them to death like that.

"simple yet complicated"

"makamal a anak"

We digressed..

My question was about the mode of killing and Gypsy answered it..

Yes, there is ignorance about the topic because the "Animal Rights" brigade use pictures of cute pups and picture like these to aid their cause...

Gypsy - I guess having lived on a farm has made me slightly more aware that some times the most humane thing is to do the inhumane.......

Qwerty - Your opinions of seals sound like my opinions towards most of Australia's supposedly cute and cuddly wildlife.....

If everyone cared and nobody cried

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we'd see the day when nobody died....Chad Kroeger

It tastes very fishy and oily. Not my personal favourite meat.

Although I personally wouldn't eat a seal. rangy little idiots.

Exactly Mis-Cat. If you can make a bit of money off the culled animals, then great, but some animals are devastating to the environment if not culled. Like it or not humans do play a part in the food chain.

It's one of those topics that I guess people unless you've lived there, then you don't really know, similar to the Kangaroo Culls in Oz. Personally like the kangaroo culls it is a necessary thing, people don't realize the damage and impact certain animals have when they're populations explode.

If everyone cared and nobody cried

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we'd see the day when nobody died....Chad Kroeger

I remember waking up in the morning and having to chase them out of the back yard with a baseball bat. Nasty creatures. One attacked my dog once.

Not to mention that during the 10 years or so that the hunt was banned we would have hundreds of dead seals wash up on the beaches every spring, dead from starvation. That's always a pleasant smell and a great tourism boost. :P

There are literally dozens of seals for every 1 person in Newfoundland Labrador. If they weren't culled, the little bastards would overrun the island! They are not endangered or anything like that.

and yeah, I called them little bastards- seals are not nice creatures. Sure they're all cute and fuzzy as babies, but give them 10 days and they're copulating like bunnies to make more obnoxious sea-rats. Seriously. Not pleasant creatures.

I'm not saying they should be tortured to death or anything,b ut there is nOTHING wrong with the seal hunt, at all! In fact, they could probably do with upping the number allowed to be killed, for the good of the rest of the population, however articles like that one, from uninvolved and uninformed british press, means that nice liberal and progressive Canada just can't do it.

The EU isn't the prime market, Japan and the rest of North East Asia is, where you can buy canned seal.

Also the furs are sold for use in fashion.

The Hackapik, which is used to "club" the seal is better then a gun because A) when used properly it's quicker and B) if the seal doesn't die immediately from the gun shot it can get away and die under the water.

The seal hunt brings in millions of dollars a year and is virtually the only things sustaining these small villages (populated mostly by Inuit) since the collapse of the cod fishery.

Considering that 3 years ago the seal population was at 3 million and it's now at 5.6 million I would say that it is quite sustainable.

Guess Canada is becoming to small to share with the seals?

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HE WHO DARES WINS

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164706/Pictured-The-moment-seal-clubbed-death-Canada-begins-biggest-annual-marine-cull.html

Includes some pics !

Really, really wrong. What purpose do baby seals serve other then their fur?

I agree with flan, Club Sandwich not club Seals.

My thoughts are my own, but I doubt my Mum would agree with some of them.

"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365

not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the

many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers

were given. Satan - 10."

club sandwiches, not seals.

Can't they just relocate them? Or something?

Brit, where's the article?