Tag Archives: Jim Winter
Sealing industry protests lack of talks on EU ban at summit in N.L.
Implemented by the EU in 2009, the trade ban on seal products, based on ethical concerns, deprived thousands of seal hunters in Eastern Canada of their most important market. The sealing industry, whose biggest footprint is in Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador, has never recovered. Gil Thériault, the head of the association representing Quebec’s seal hunters, said planning two days of bilateral meetings in Newfoundland and Labrador, “the very place Ottawa abandoned,” and not bringing up the seal products ban “sends a message of complete disregard for people in coastal communities.” According to groups representing seal hunters and processors, the EU embargo is the result of an extremely effective lobbying campaign from animal-rights groups, who depicted the hunt as an inhumane slaughter. Sealers say that’s false and that the hunt is sustainable and conducted without cruelty. >>click to read<< 10:53
Save our seal(er)s – Jim Winter, St. John’s
The population of harp seals off Canada’s East Coast is about 7.5 million. For over 50 years, marine mammal scientists have studied the herd, and from this science annual quotas are set. During this period, the herd has more than tripled in size. The seals we hunt are fully weaned and independent. Harp seal dames feed their offspring for 11 to 15 days and leave them; they are not helicopter parents. The use of anthropomorphic words like “baby” is merely heart-tugging propaganda. The only study portraying the killing as inhumane was paid for by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and conducted by a group of British vets and was never peer-reviewed, as is customary with studies of this kind. Every other study, including one by the International Veterinary Group, has found the hunt to operate as humanely as any slaughterhouse in the Western World. click here to read the letter 16:11
