Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[FlorenceArt]

So many good things are fatty...

[Mortis]

I have look a mother Harp seal in the eye and I'll tell you she wasn't cute, the word I would use is scary. The harp seals are not endangered in any way, in fact the population has been growing according the the Fisheries and Oceans Canada web site. Florence I know you weren't saying they were, I just thought the numbers might be enlightening

Copied from the same link I posted a few posts ago.
"The Northwest Atlantic harp seal population is healthy and abundant with an estimated population of 9 million animals, more than four times what it was in the 1970s."

My experience is that if it tastes good. it has to be either fattening or bad for you.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Mortis

I have look a mother Harp seal in the eye and I'll tell you she wasn't cute, the word I would use is scary.

Really? That's not at all the image I had in mind. I saw some footage of seals being killed on the ice, but that was taken from the air so of course I couldn't see their eyes. Maybe that was another species?

The image I remember is that the seals looked completely helpless, they didn't even seem to be trying to run.

Which, again, is no worse than a cow in a slaughterhouse, and at least the seals got to leave their lives in the open before they were killed.

I'm as much a hypocrite as everyone else of course, I should be a vegetarian but I love meat too much.

[Mortis]

Here's an image of one, they are cute I'll admit, but so are cows



For reference, that one is about 350 pounds, and pissed off they can easily tip small boats. They smell like fish and the smell never goes away. When I lived in Frobisher Bay, now called Iqaluit, I never did get used to the smell of untanned seal skin clothes.

[FlorenceArt]

Cows have beautiful eyes. Homer likened Hera's eyes to cow's eyes, I think.

[Mortis]

Seals eyes do look a lot like cows eyes, come to think of it

[FlorenceArt]

But they smell very different.

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

But they smell very different.

Not that much, the difference is the seals smell like wet crap, the cows just smell like crap

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

Right now (whilst you mob must have been sleeping) I am worrying about the fur seal hunt!

seal hunt

No one sleeps 'round here. The interwebz is always open.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Now theres a topic that is both a shame to Canadians and in some areas pride. I personally don't advocate the seal hunts, I find it distasteful and a waste of time. It won't stop until there are other viable ways for those people to make a living. The average family earns as much as 35% of their annual income through these seal hunts.

I think if the images of the seals being, well you know how they are harvested, weren't so graphic and ugly, no one would object at all. I have been there for the hunt and I found it unpleasant, to say the least. I also found a meat packing plants kill room unpleasant, it's all how you look at it.

I again say that I do not advocate it in any way, but if you have an open mind and are willing to look beyond your preconceived or media derived notions of what is happening, take a look here for some information from "Fisheries and Oceans Canada" the regulatory body that polices the seal hunt.

I am not trying to change your mind, just give you some information to base you opinion on something other than the media and PETA.

I have to say I agree. It's abhorrent, but so many things we do are.

[SneakySnake]

Can't they kill them neatly like cows?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

Can't they kill them neatly like cows?

[SneakySnake]

I am not sure I am ready to watch that! Maybe in the morning. Now it it time for bedsky byes and camomile tea.

[kennyc]

Perfect nighty-night lullabye.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Now theres a topic that is both a shame to Canadians and in some areas pride. I personally don't advocate the seal hunts, I find it distasteful and a waste of time. It won't stop until there are other viable ways for those people to make a living. The average family earns as much as 35% of their annual income through these seal hunts.

I think if the images of the seals being, well you know how they are harvested, weren't so graphic and ugly, no one would object at all. I have been there for the hunt and I found it unpleasant, to say the least. I also found a meat packing plants kill room unpleasant, it's all how you look at it.

I again say that I do not advocate it in any way, but if you have an open mind and are willing to look beyond your preconceived or media derived notions of what is happening, take a look here for some information from "Fisheries and Oceans Canada" the regulatory body that polices the seal hunt.

I am not trying to change your mind, just give you some information to base you opinion on something other than the media and PETA.

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I agree. I haven't seen either in person, but I find it extremely unfair that so many people gets to emotional about seals and happily eat meat every day. Years ago I came back from a vacation in Namibia with a couple of sealskin purses and everybody was horrified. The sealskin came from a farm, if I remember correctly, and I don't see why a seal farm would be more objectionable than a cow, pig or chicken farm.

Of course the matter is different when the animals killed belong to a potentially endangered species, or excess killing may endanger the species.

I am not a vegetarian but I can understand people who are. What I cannot understand or accept is people who choose some species arbitrarily and decide these species should be protected more than others. I remember a guy ranting on a forum years ago that the Chinese were barbarians because they eat dogs. I'm sure this guy ate cow, pig or chicken several times a week. What's the difference?

Rationally, I totally agree with your rational approach.

Things get a little more complex to handle if one approaches things also from the sentiments angle. That is irrationally.

To me in this case it does not make much difference as I tend to have my sentiments focused toward humans, actually single individuals, much more so than toward animals, plants, things, ideas even ideals and groups of humans.