The clubbing of baby seals in Northern Canada?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2004%2F04%2F15%2Fdo1502.xml

Nice article I think. Well reasoned. Love the line about 18 year old English guys being allowed to go clubbing.

Yeah it is a good read although I do have a problem with the manner in which they kill the seals. A bullet would be more humane as the clubbing method doesn't always result in a clean kill causing the seals to suffer unnecessarily.

Bullets make holes in the fur.

What's happened to all the killer whales and sharks?
It'd be better if nature was addressing the imbalance than humans...

And the lead isn’t environmentally friendly.

Reading them religious scripture has also been proven ineffective.

yep, the article does a good job of putting things into perspective

it would be nice if there was another way to kill them though

Is just another example of how man has fucked up the ecological balance so badly that drastic measures like this need to be taken.

On a semi serious note I wonder if there is a market for seal meat in Japan given that the seals are killed for their pelts. Do they use the seal meat for pet food? Just interested as to what happens to the carcasses/ bodies. It would be a waste if the meat wasn't utilised as well.

as a bumper sticker, instead of having "i heart puppies", i've always thought that "i club baby seals" would be a winner.

This is shocking, clubs?

fuck off, there was a picture in a newspaper here and the guys club had a fucking huge spike on the end and the pic was taken when the 'club' was about to be swung, the seal looked fucking terrified, how the fuck can someone do that?

there are too many seals, they need to be killed. i don't really see the problem.

it's a shame that idealology doesn't apply to humans t.e.c.

but like the article says, we kill cattle and sheep all the time.... i'm sure the sheep have a terrified look on their face before they get electrocuted... not to mention, their lives are a lot harder (at least the seals run free until they're killed).

It doesn't necessarily condone the killing, or especially the manner in which they're killed.. but there's a double standard here... and the media is simple doing a good job of manipulating the public to increase it's sales

sure, it would solve some ofd the world's problems.

but seals aren't humans are they? if there are too many of them, and they are threatening to wipe out one, or several, species of fish then an organised cull is exactly what should be done.

seals are a very intelligent mammal though and the kills aren't always clean. They should have people present to make sure all seals are killed swiftly and as humanely as possible. I think shooting them would be better irrespective of the environmental outcome which would be minimal.

but you don't get the tactile pleasure that you get when you bash a living animal to death.

i admit there is some satisfaction to be had in killing something from a distance with hot lead, but it's not the same if you don't come away from the task covered in blood now is it?

i'm gonna assume you're trolling

why?

as you pointed out, there's a big double standard working here. if you're going to stop the killing of some animals, you're going to have to do away with duck hunting, fly spraying, flea bombing etc..[/list]

These are intelligent mammals we are talking about but I can see where t.e.c is coming from. The fishermen no doubt love getting to waste the seals and take out their frustrations on poor defenceless animals who eat all their fish.

With respectto shooting them I would advocate doing it up close with a clean shot through the head.

So with your logic we should cull most of the humans in the world as well. You need to work on your logic a bit there.

Its pretty strange really. I can only assume all this angst over a few tens of thousands of seals is due to the human desire to anthromophise cute seal pups. I mean, no one cares about the genocide of the Painted Apple Moth in West Auckland do they???

no you're wrong.

right then, maybe you could point out where I am wrong then.

If we dont kill them then in thew future they will starve.

Killing on group of animals to manage the population of that and other populations is quite acceptable justification.

I think most people are able to understand the reason why the seals must be culled, its just the method being used that I have a problem with. Surely there is a more humane and efficient way than whacking them over the head, sticking a spear through their side, and dragging them into a pile to die