I've been watching the BBC reports on the seal hunts which have just started.Talk about it to just about anyone and most of us Europeans find it hard to stomach.

What is the average Canadians attitude to these hunts and indeed
the way it is carried out? Does it get much media atention? Do they talk about it?

My mum phoned me and is as i am really upset about it all, do they really need to do it like that ? poor things sometimes i am so ashamed at what we humans do

Yeah ,its just how its done.When you look at the world around you and see how other so called 'thirdworld 'cultures kill it is always done with so much respect and thought concerning the animal.Was watching Ray Meers Bushcrafts. He was in Africa watching a 3 tribal hunters track a kudo all day long,the animal just gave up in the end and laid down he just couldnt run any longer,it was killed but so humanly.. the hunter sat down next to it and thanked it for dying for him, it made me cry not because it lost its life but there was so much respect in those final seconds between animal and man.. it was peaceful.

No peace out there on the ice.

Me too!

How is that more humane than wacking it with a club and killing it instantly?

it had a chance!

They killed the animal for food, so they could eat, why are we killing the baby seals the way are, its evil.

Really, whether its the seals we hunt or the cows, chickens, whatever we keep, we're not very nice.

A hunt, whether you club it or chase it all day long is more humane than what we do with domestic animals.

Nobody here raises but an eyelid. It's just foodstuffs, innit.

Canadians are like Aussies.

But the Europeans are oh so sophisticated, evolved and advanced. Which must be why they live like a nest of ants, crammed in vile stinking poverty, festering in their miserable world of social tension and urban bitterness. Caught like rats in a sophisticated trap.

R.

Well, you won't want to eat any meat when you move to Canada, then.

A cow that lives with 100,000 other cows in a feed lot or a chicken that lives in a barn with 10,000 other chickens lives in conditions of sheer hell.

While you're about it, better not wear any leather or wool either. It's quite a feat to accomplish in Canada. I've actually tried it.

Your other option, if you eschew leather, is to buy cheap, synthetic shoes and handbags. The problem with them, unfortunately, is that they're made in Third World countries, in sweat shops, and often with child labour.

Have you heard about the ships on which live Australian sheep are sent to the Middle East, when they've finished producing wool, so that they can be slaughtered by methods that are consistent with the requirements of Muslims' halal rules? Something like 80% of the world's wool comes from Australia and, if you buy anything made of wool, you're almost certainly supporting that industry.

Don't wear anything made of down either. Geese are plucked 4 or 5 times during their lifetimes, and it's a very painful process for them.

Silk is out, of course. It's painful for silk worms to be boiled to death.

A fish suffers when it's harvested, either with a painful hook or drawn out of the water with a net. The feeling it has when it comes out of the water is the equivalent feeling that we get when we're held under water.

Then there is human encroachment on natural habitat that deprives species of their livelihood. Have you witnessed the violence that's involved when humans go in and tear up a natural space (by plowing it for agriculture or whatever)? I have, and I can tell you it's not a pretty picture.

Then there's unnecessary animal testing of cosmetics, drugs, etc.

The military establishments of many countries also carry out very cruel testing on animals. The USA, for example, has subjected tens of thousands of primates to various conditions, such as radiation sickness, in an attempt to predict how long humans could continue to operate planes, tanks, etc., under a variety of circumstances.

Your husband is a chef. I hope he doesn't use veal and foie gras in his cooking. Clubbing a seal pup to death is humane by comparison.

If you have a shred of internal consistency, you'll at least pay three times as much and buy free range chicken and beef when you move to Canada.
x

I hate any sort of animal cruelty in ANY way so the seal thing makes me really upset - i try not to watch it or read about it as much as possible. |However I have to say can we be surprised that there are people out there who can cause this kind of 'distress' or injury / death whatever to any animal when we do it to other humans??
I think it just comes down to the person - your either someone who 'feels' or someone who doesnt. And no im not saying that a person who can hurt animals will also hurt humans - im just trying to say it basically comes down to the person you are.

Ive spent years campaining for animal rights in one way or another - nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to what humans can do - Though i wouldnt want to be married to someone whos job it was to go about an club baby seals round the head just because they dared to be born - i just get the feeling that anyone who could do that ( or injure animals purposly) just couldnt be a 'nice' person - id be pretty scared of p*ssing him off thats for sure lol. But thats just me as a person. Im sure theres some very lovely men ( or women) out there who murder baby seals for a living who are just wonderfully kind and sensitive people

Time to get the popcorn out.

lol no popcorn here - I have retired from getting into arguments about animal welfare / cruelty etc etc - it like debating religion / politics - it gets you knowhere

Animals don't have rights, they're not subject to laws.

On a positive note, the McCartneys won't be visiting Canada this time.