You are looking too much at the macro level, on averages and percentages. what you really need to see is the affect it has on a group of families whom sealing has a great impact on their livelihood. There are families who NEED this income. It’s quite shallow to group all East coast fishers in the same bunch.

You assertion that they are hunted over the limit is groundless. It is very highly regulated and monitored. The fact that the seal population CONTINUES to grow with the hunt (hence the continueing increase in limit to compensate) shows how your assertion is untrue. We don’t “kill off all the seals”. Your hyperbole is absurd and your remark on squid population is misinformed. The ecosystem is alot more complex then just seal eats squid eats fish. (I can’t find reference to eating squid, but they do eat fish, which means that less fish are eaten, your argument is balanced).

So I can kill any animal if I eat the meat? Other parts of the seal are used, especially the fat. The Fur isn’t the only thing (though I will admitt it is the primary commodity. Regardless, the age of the seal doesn’t matter. It’s a seal. I don’t cry over the age of my lamb. What’s it going to come to next? People campaigning over the sale of roe because the fish never had the opportunity to live? These assertions are outrageous.

And paragraph four “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.” Its really a shame that ever year the hunters go over the limit and that if we kill off all the seals then there’s going to be a bigger population of squid to eat all of our little fishy friends.

“no one cries foul when you boil a lobster live or hook fish with barbed hooks and cut them up while still living.” …Yeah its true… But we eat them… Most of the meat from the seals get left behind… The seal hunt is a fashion driven hunt.

I really don’t want you to get me wrong… I do feel that people come first, but I don’t see why a 2 week old baby seal needs to die so that we can throw away its meat and make a pretty coat out of it…

I am ok with the seal hunt, provided it’s done in a humane and environmentally sound way. I’m not sure this is the case (I don’t know much about the seal hunt), but I don’t know that it isn’t. I have to say that the website on the hunt that I found (http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html) was fairly convinced that it wasn’t, but this site was also given to fairly over-the-top statements, so I don’t exactly trust it.

I must say, whatever my feelings on the seal hunt, I really appreciate Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette’s comments. Nice to see someone pointing out the pot calling the kettle black.

A lot of causes tend to have fewer educated people in the, and even fewer informed people. For example: pesticide bans. My 4th year biology friend has pointed out to me that there isn’t a strong scientific basis to ban most of what’s being banned. And yet there are people very dedicated to it anyhow…

But seriously, the baby seals, while extraordinarily cute, will grow into adult seals. The seal hunt has a purpose – it controls the population, which ensures good fishing for people, and other wildlife. The ecosystem has adapted to a certain number of seals in existance, and if the hunt was suddenly cancelled, who knows what would happen? Seal populations would likely increase at an alarming rate, and negatively impact the rest of the ecosystem. Ask me more about the biological perspective . . . I’d love to expand.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

I once read a short story called the The Pre-Persons. (Wow…Wikipedia had an entry on it!) As you can read, this story’s society allowed children to be aborted up to the age of learning algebra, hence my math reference above. The story really stuck in my mind, even though I disagree with it’s intent. In this light, no…we can’t treat artsies like animals…though we could ask…who knows, Peter, the resident Artsie here may enjoy it…heh

I understand Peter’s comment about Universalists, and yes, everyone does have different views of the world, as Mike has different views on abortion than me, and Christine different views of the Catholic Church. (BTW, such a Poli Sci view of the topic…) I don’t know what posseses aging Musicians and Augmented past Baywatch stars to take on these beliefs, but I’d hope that they at least research both sides before they go on their media parades.

The extention of ‘human rights’ to animals is much a question of particularism vs. universalism. A animal rights universalist simply extends his ‘human rights’ to all living beings (with the exception of plants for some reason). Whereas a particluarist values the difference between human and not human, much in the same way you would treat the difference between your brother, and a stranger on the street.

Of course personally i’m a particularist (you can have the cow tortured every day if it makes the meat cheaper/tastier)… and I think the universalists are a bit too selective in valuing a cow or a seal above a tree. I mean, a cow is really just bush made out of meat, and a tree would scream if it had vocal chords and a nervous system. That being said, there is firm ground for an ethical universalist to stand on, and extend rights to animals. The individuals are not misguided, and their actions are not absurd, they simply make different moral assumptions about the nature of the world.

Now who wants some steak?

Does this mean that I can treat an artsie like an animal? Here’s hoping.