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urbpanI haven't posted about any controversial topics lately, but I just read an article about seal hunting (best headline ever: Cute, cuddly, edible) that got me interested. I've read posts from people on my friends list from people that were passionate about the topic, from pro and con perspectives. I'd love to hear discussion here, but let's keep it civil and above the belt, okay?
The article (click the headline link above to read it) is quite level in tone and does a good job of presenting the less-well-known pro-seal hunting side of the story. Ecologically speaking, the Canadian seal hunt is quite sustainable; in other words, at the level that seals are being hunted, the practice could continue for a long time without having an impact on the total seal population or the environment. This is more you can say for much of the fishing industry, or even the petroleum industry for that matter.
But what of the spectacle of beefy men bloodily whacking cute seals on the head with pointed clubs (which I learned from the article are called "hakapiks")? Surely this display of barbarism is cruelty to animals at its most graphic. According to "a study published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal," 98% of the clubbings are considered humane. This percentage far exceeds, for example, the rates of successful humane slaughter performed in North American cattle and pig processing plants (http://204.200.219.26/survey/2007.restaurant.audits.html). A hakapik in proficient hands is more humane than a rifle shot (sometimes suggested as a middle ground between hunt-banners and seal-clubbing).
I think this comes back to what the McCartneys said: "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." What is meant by this is that the acceptance of meat eating requires a certain amount of denial. If the seals were clubbed in a windowless cinderblock building instead of out on a treeless landscape in front of cameras, there wouldn't be a serious effort to ban the hunt.
No one wants to watch animals be killed, and yet most people want to eat meat. What moral grounds does a seal-hunt ban have? Should those who support a ban on the Canadian seal-hunt themselves be banned from eating meat? How long until a performance artist builds a glass-walled slaughterhouse?
The article (click the headline link above to read it) is quite level in tone and does a good job of presenting the less-well-known pro-seal hunting side of the story. Ecologically speaking, the Canadian seal hunt is quite sustainable; in other words, at the level that seals are being hunted, the practice could continue for a long time without having an impact on the total seal population or the environment. This is more you can say for much of the fishing industry, or even the petroleum industry for that matter.
But what of the spectacle of beefy men bloodily whacking cute seals on the head with pointed clubs (which I learned from the article are called "hakapiks")? Surely this display of barbarism is cruelty to animals at its most graphic. According to "a study published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal," 98% of the clubbings are considered humane. This percentage far exceeds, for example, the rates of successful humane slaughter performed in North American cattle and pig processing plants (http://204.200.219.26/survey/2007.restaurant.audits.html). A hakapik in proficient hands is more humane than a rifle shot (sometimes suggested as a middle ground between hunt-banners and seal-clubbing).
I think this comes back to what the McCartneys said: "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." What is meant by this is that the acceptance of meat eating requires a certain amount of denial. If the seals were clubbed in a windowless cinderblock building instead of out on a treeless landscape in front of cameras, there wouldn't be a serious effort to ban the hunt.
No one wants to watch animals be killed, and yet most people want to eat meat. What moral grounds does a seal-hunt ban have? Should those who support a ban on the Canadian seal-hunt themselves be banned from eating meat? How long until a performance artist builds a glass-walled slaughterhouse?
