In the past I wrote about my opinions of animal “rights” supporters. I talked about how I felt these individuals were misguided and their actions were absurd. My justification: Why would one support the “rights” of animals over the rights of humans? Isn’t the causes of fighting human poverty and crimes against humanity a more just cause than “saving” the animals? It’s not like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Universal Declaration of human rights includes animals…

One angry commentor on my site tried to “trap” me by asking if I’d support human charities always before animal charities (such as PETA). The fact is, there was never a trap, and they were confused. I had thought I made my self clear enough in the entry, but that’s exactly what I explicitly said: Human issues take precident always over animal issues. Until an animal has the ability to solve my differential equation assignment, and the world recognizes their “rights”, my view won’t change, and I find anyone who thinks otherwise very misguided.

This topic comes up with the onset of the 2006 Canadian Seal Hunt. Every year this takes over the news and people protest and we see countless pictures of the “inhumane” activities. The fact is (alot of this taken from CBC) that the methods used have been evaluated by the Canadian Veterinary Journal and given approval. The governement closely watches the hunt and ensures the hunt is performed humanely. Seal “rights” sites twist the truth, such as on this website, Harpseals.org, where the show multiple images of white coats, despite the fact killing white coats is illegal. The still provide links to poaching videos of the 70’s. All of this propaganda is used to advance their cause which is severely misguided. They seem to ignore the fact that the seal hunt provides much needed income for East coast families. I’m sorry, is it wrong to support income for families so they don’t starve at the expense of the death of a few brainless seals?

Of course all the environmentalists don’t talk about the environmental benifit of the seal hunt. Since our society chooses more to breed our food in controlled situations, the ecosystem needs controlled hunting to reduce animal populations to balance the food chain. The government decides exactly how many seals can be hunted to maintain the population and ensure they don’t grow out of control, thus effecting other populations such as fish. As a classmate has said, the only reason people protest this is because seals are cute….no one cries foul when you boil a lobster live or hook fish with barbed hooks and cut them up while still living. In fact, just because nerve spasms show movement doesn’t mean it is alive…like many seal protesters claim. They need to focus their energy elsewhere.

Today the Globe has an interesting article about confrontations between Hunters and Protesters. My favourite part, where they talk about the “angry hunters charged the protesters’ boat and flung seal intestines and other pieces of carcasses at the activists.” A week ago it was reported that Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette responded to a letter from an american couple in regards to the seal hunt. She replied saying that they were misguided and what she finds horrible really is “the daily massacre of innocent people in Iraq, the execution of prisoners - mainly blacks - in American prisons, the massive sale of handguns to Americans, and the destabilization of the entire world by the American government’s aggressive foreign policy, etc.” I’m glad that we have a tenured senate that is willing to actually say what is on the mind of many Canadians.

All this talk about seals has encouraged me to go have a Mammoth Burger at Chill and Grill…or if you are DQ, the Grill.

Random Wikipedia Article: Libertarianism

Currently Listening to: MODS professor drone on