Seal Slaughter Delayed Until March 29th

[debs]

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) announced that the opening of the harp seal kill in the Gulf of St. Lawrence will not begin until March 29, 2005. The seal slaughter off the coast of Newfoundland has been set to start on April 12th. Last year the hunt started in the Gulf on March 20th.

DFO has made this move to disrupt plans by conservation and humane organizations to film and photograph the annual kill. Groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) had booked helicopters out of Charlottetown to reach the hunt. They will now have to rebook and reorganize to reach the sealers from another location. The ice floes are moving northward away from the Magdalen Islands.

Captain Paul Watson said, “I believe that the delay in the start of the seal killing has come about because of the increase in protest activity. The government is also trying to spin the hunt as a hunt for adult seals and not pups. This later date will ensure that white-coated seal pups are not killed. However, a four-week old baby seal is not an adult and this still remains a slaughter of harp seal pups.”

“Our ship the Farley Mowat is in Liverpool, Nova Scotia,” continues Captain Watson. “We have been unable to find facilities to repair our hull breach. We are continuing to research the possibilities of drydocking the ship for a day or finding an underwater welding operation to do the job.”

The volunteer crew of the Farley Mowat are now into their fourth week of this campaign to oppose the Canadian seal slaughter.

"It's a good crew," said Captain Watson. "They are all dedicated and working hard to keep this ship up and running. We have been hit hard by the bureaucrats and by the ice but we are still afloat and we continue to oppose the seal slaughter."

The Farley Mowat crew will participate in the International Day of Protest by attending the demonstration in front of the office of the Canadian Minister of Fisheries Geoff Regan in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[MarkuisMellvile]

And now it has begun.

Authorities say the hunt is now more humane and that the rising seal population needs to be controlled.

Who are we to say that natural selection isn't enough and that humans should determine the optimum seal population?

[chrissie]

The reason behind it is that we (referring to all of man kind) are frightened that the seals will take 'our' reserves of fish, therefore we must kill all the seals so they won't bankrupt people. what a horrible world we live in!

[MarkuisMellvile]

The same is true for all wildlife of course Chrissie. Where humankind perceives them to threaten our food supplies, and a market exists for animal carcas products, then wiping out as many as we can get away with is what usually happens.

If only we dealt with over-consuming westerners in the same callous way!

[reality]

Don't all animals kill those that pose a threat to them?

[jaunty albatross]

reality,

Like it or not, this is a planet of predation where all life must devour life
to live, and both humans and animals cooperate in the process. But now
the oceanic stocks are so over-fished restrictions are imposed and
fishermen who have families to support and bills to pay are furious, but
what can anyone do? Too many people doing too much of a bad thing
makes it worse until that particular life-support system collapses - and
everyone will be pointing fingers of blame at each other, but it's really our
burgeoning, demanding species that can never get enough of anything
without grasping for more and more, till stopped by ecocide.