ANIMAL FORUM

Live From the Ice

No Escape for Seal Pups
by Rebecca Aldworth
Posted April 11, 10:30 P.M.

The ProtectSeals team flew through heavy fog, high winds and
blowing snow to reach the sealing vessels. Eleven were still trapped
in the ice floes - a Coast Guard icebreaker nearby attempting to cut
a path for them. For a moment we dared to hope the seals were still
safe.

But farther north, we found more boats working their way through
the ice, killing every seal pup in their wake. As we passed one large
red vessel, we saw sealers jump off the side onto the ice. They ran
towards a single live seal pup, hakapiks in hand.

The pup, sensing danger, tried desperately to crawl towards the
edge of the water. But the two men bearing down on her were faster.
One sealer struck her on the side, then twice again on the head.
He grabbed her hind flippers and pulled her back across the ice,
stopping to club her twice more. He grabbed her front flipper and
turned her over.

But then the second sealer kicked the wounded pup with his boot.
Seeing a reaction, he motioned to the first sealer, who clubbed her
four more times on the head. Not to be outdone, the second sealer
grabbed his hakapik and clubbed the baby seal once more. He
flipped her over and began to cut her open - only to roll her back
over so the first sealer could club her three more times. This poor
baby seal was clubbed thirteen times in total.

The sealers finally sliced open the pup, then dragged her the long
distance back the boat. On board the vessel, they cut out her
carcass and threw it overboard. We watched miserably from our
helicopters, helpless to do anything to stop her suffering.

This was a brutal scene - and one that I have witnessed too many
times in the ten years I have been out here documenting the slaughter.
Tomorrow, we go back to document the second day of the hunt for
seals in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Please stand with us as
we gather the evidence we need to shut this brutal slaughter down
forever.

http://www.hsus.org/marine mammals/marine mammals news/live from ice
032408.html


Urge Canadas Minister of International Trade to Stop the Seal Hunt
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/trademinister protectseals08/nz17bmemj6

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:43:53 +0100, pearl
wrote:

So would it be acceptable for you if the seals were loaded onto ships
and brought to a slaughterhouse on shore? This is much the same as
cattle, pigs, chickens, etc being transported to the slaughterhouse.

There should be no complaints from you then.

Paul Morgan wrote in message
news:ivs304lm6g8ou18trrc7nc1p9ulr94ea9u@4ax.com...

Gee, so you believe that plants have the ability to feel pain too.

The lamest non-argument yet. No more than a nonsense troll.

Meanwhile....

Sea Shepherd News
News Releases
04/12/2008

Hysterical Hearn Hatefully Harasses Harp Seal Heroes

A clearly agitated Loyola Hearn, Canadas Minister of Fishy Business
held a media conference in Ottawa on Saturday to deliver a vindictive
and clearly angry denunciation of Captain Paul Watson and the crew
of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat.

Unable to defend the incompetence of the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, Hearn decided to get personal by referring to the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society as A bunch of money-sucking manipulators.
Hearn also said, And their sole aim is to try to suck as much money
out of the pockets of people who really dont know whats going on.

Hearn accused Captain Watson of directing the campaign from his
posh New York hotel suite where he was dining on steak and lobster.
That was a revelation to Captain Watson who is a vegetarian and last
night slept on the couch of a friend in Brooklyn.

Mr. Hearn has the resources of the RCMP at his disposal and they
can check my credit card records and they will find just how frugal
we are, said Captain Watson, but why let evidence and the facts
get in the way of good propaganda spin?

Captain Watson is currently driving to Cape Breton Island from
New York City. I know that Hearn seems to think we are fabulously
wealthy but the fact is that the flight from New York to Sydney is
simply too expensive for me to justify, said Captain Watson.

Ironically the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the smallest and
the most under-funded group opposing the seal slaughter. The crew
are volunteers. I wish we were as wealthy as Hearn thinks we are,
but no such luck, added Watson.

In authorizing the unlawful boarding of a foreign yacht in international
waters, Hearn said, We will continue to protect sealers while ensuring
the sustainable and humane management of the hunt so it continues to
provide economic opportunities for Canadas coastal communities in
the future.

The question is; what is Hearn protecting the sealers from? The Sea
Shepherd crew are armed with cameras. The only threat to the safety
of the sealers seems to be from the Canadian government. Hearn sent
hundreds of flimsy wooden and aluminum hulled vessels into very
treacherous ice conditions and because of Hearns incompetence and
his political ambitions four sealers are now dead. It was his policies
that killed these men and now he is using Sea Shepherd to distract
from his incompetence by focusing the anger of the sealers towards
hating both the seals and those who defend them and of course the
sealers are dumb enough to be easily persuaded.

The Canadian Coast Guard along with the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police and Federal Fisheries officers staged an armed boarding of a
moving Dutch registered yacht in international waters. This was a
dangerous and desperate attack. The Farley Mowat crew did not
resist the boarding for fear that some of the Canadian officers would
be hurt.

Despite this the Federal boarding party was rude, aggressive and
violent. Amber Paarman, 24 of Capetown, South Africa was roughed
up and received a blow to the head when she tried to resist being
manhandled by a Fisheries Officer. It is not known if any other crew
have been injured and the crew are not feeling very safe being under
tow by the Canadian Coast Guard who have admitted they lack both
a manual and experience in towing vessels in ice.

In seizing the Farley Mowat and arresting the Sea Shepherd crew
Loyola Hearn has done something that Sea Shepherd hoped he
would do but we did not believe he was stupid enough to do - an
unlawful boarding of foreign registered vessel in international waters.
With the European Parliament on the brink of voting to ban seal
products into the European market, Loyola Hearn decides to arrest
Europeans for the crime of documenting incidents of cruelty on
the ice.

The man has not even read Managing Fisheries for Dummies and
in his zeal to kiss the bottoms of the seal killing crowd he has
thrown reason out the window and is now shooting ad hominem
attacks from the hip and letting his mouth run away with hysterical
mutterings that are both incoherent and mis-leading. Loyola Hearn
is certainly the latest Nufie joke and the joke is about to backfire in
his face.

We are approaching the end of days for the barbaric and sadistic
seal slaughter industry. And Loyola Hearn seems to be the right
Minister in the Right place with the right foot in his mouth to assist
us in bringing about the day when seals will be left unmolested and
unharmed in their nurseries.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media 080412 2.html

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media 080412 1.html

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:04:28 +0100, pearl
wrote:


Did I say they have the ability to feel pain?
Not too swift, are you?

Animal activists often hurt their own causes
Posted By Diotte, Kerry
Updated 2 days ago
I love critters as much as most people. Ive grown up with cats and
dogs and hamsters - and treasured them all.

Having been raised in northern Ontario where we owned a cabin (or
camp, as it was called there), I also hunted grouse at an early age.
Ive since lost my love of that and now prefer to photograph wildlife
rather than see it dead on my plate.

Stories of animal abuse make me feel sick to my stomach. I truly
admire people in the field of animal welfare who try to improve the
lot of our feathered and furry friends.

What I dont understand, though, is why some animal advocates become
so strident in their cause that theres a backlash and they wind up
crippling their case.

Most people were rightly saddened to read news about the recent
drowning deaths of four Quebec sealers from Iles-de-la Madeleine. They
drowned when their disabled boat was being towed and it capsized.

But hard-core animal rights activists were actually rejoicing, not
unlike religious extremists who cheer terrorist attacks that kill
innocent people.

Sun Media received a few letters from animal rights types expressing
their outright joy that seal hunters died.

Im not a big fan of seeing seals killed, but its been a way of life
for people on the East Coast and in the North for generations.

Anti-sealing protesters have, over the years, forced slightly more
humane hunting practices, at the least.

Certainly theres more need for improvement, since seals are still
clubbed to death on the ice. New regulations require hunters to also
slit their arteries in the process.

People cant help but view the clubbing to death of any animal as
brutal. Can you imagine the uproar if cows, pigs and sheep were killed
that way? Its not the most humane way of harvesting animals. But
radical animal rights people tend to sabotage their own causes by
expressing outrageous beliefs and using questionable tactics to try to
win their cause.

Paul Morgan wrote in message
news:g6p30412jppk1dit3sgpoj1kfvcc85c1c5@4ax.com...

But cattle, pigs, chickens, etc, are not nearly as empathy provoking as baby
seals. Those big, round, watery eyes bring far more money to the animal
rights groups like Rebecca Aldworths than they bring to the sealers.
Without baby seals the ARAs would lose thier meal tickets. Nobody donates
money for the cause of pigs, chickens, cows... they are just not empathy
provoking enough... duds when it comes to fundraising and paying salaries.

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:30:16 GMT, Chom Noamsky wrote:


True, Watson and his ilk foam at the mouth at the thought of all that
money coming in. Not that the common protesters get to see any of it.

pearl wrote in message
news:ftt3qi$3pp$1@reader01.news.esat.net...

But cattle, pigs, and chickens feel pain when they are slaughtered, dont
they? There are hundreds of millions of these animals slaughtered every
year, while the Canadian seal hunt only amounts to a couple hundred thousand
seals. Why is the priority on seals and not on the vastly larger population
of domestic animals? Because seals are much more empathy provoking, and
therefore much more useful than pigs/chickens/cows when it comes to
fundraising and keeping ARAs employed.

pearl wrote in message
news:ftso2j$uci$1@reader01.news.esat.net...

The hunters knew they were being observed by ARAs so they put on a good
show. They probably would have been much more efficient had it been
otherwise.