With a quota of roughly around 350,000 seals killed annually during March and April, the Canadian Commercial Seal Hunt is said to be the largest and cruelest marine mammal slaughter. The Canadian Seal Hunt is the brutal killing of baby harp seals, occasionally hooded seals, most of them 12 days to 3 months old. The Commercial Seal Hunt should be banned against all costs because of its savagery, purposelessness and the lack of profit to the sealers themselves. Many people compare seal hunting to killing domesticated animals, but it is nowhere near the same thing. Domesticated animals are well fed and groomed, and only after that do they get slaughtered. Most importantly they don’t get killed within a few days of their birth. Also seals are …show more content…
Not only that, but after killing the seals, the seals would leave the flesh of the seals to rot on the ice. This not only is a hazard to other seals and their habitats but most of the flesh is wasted. The cruelest thing about the seal hunt is that the seals get killed 12 days after their birth. The Canadian government has stated that the seals are killed after they have shed their whitecoats, but what most people are oblivious to is that seals shed their coats after 11 days of their birth. 97% of the seals killed in the Commercial Seal Hunt over the past 5 years have been no more than 3 months old and most were one month old or less. Since, the seals are killed at a very young age, this means they can’t reproduce. This might cause endangerment or worse, extinction of the seals. Although many people excuse this by saying there is a large population of seals, you can’t really count their word on it because that’s what they said about the fishing of cod before they started overfishing it. The second reason the Seal Hunt should be banned is because it has no …show more content…
Most importantly, the Innuits only kill 10,000 seals and that too only adult seals. Also they hunt them, like a hunter would. In the letter, the native also stated, “We are skillful hunters who hunt adult animals for food that is not the same as bashing a pup, which can’t move, over the head.” The Natives hunt for survival, while the sealers hunt for a living, when their skills can be used in much more benefitting things. Lastly, relating to the purposelessness of this activity, the Seal Hunt does not profit much. On average, the Seal Hunt generates around $6.58-$8.7 million per annum. And this is considering that some of this money goes for more seal hunting or other problems in the fishing industry. Economist John Livernois conducted a study on the economics of the Seal Hunt, he stated that ending the hunt would save Canada $6.9 million per year. This is roughly how much money is spent by the Coast Guard on Icebreaker support ($4.7 million), by the Federal and Newfoundland government for lobbying and other support ($200,00), and by non-governmental organizations for anti-seal hunt organization ($2
Should killer whales be kept in captivity? Killer whales are mammals that travel in schools. These mammals eat large fish, seals, and even other whales. Killer whales can be dangerous, and are really big animals. When looking at all the evidence about killer whales in SeaWorld, laws and actions need to be enforced with this dangerous activity.
Suppose you were kidnapped from your family as a child by an alien species while your family watched in despair, crying out helplessly for your kidnappers to not rip you away from them. Now imagine then being strapped down and transported to a place unknown and once you arrive, you see that some of the other children that were also kidnapped have died. You then witness something that will forever remain engraved into your mind; you witness those monsters that took you hostage cut the children open, fill their bodies up with rocks, tie an anchor onto their feet and throw them into the ocean. The monsters then throw you into a tiny cage; you learn that you will not only never see your family again and die in that confinement but you will also work for these monsters and perform as a source of entertainment for them. You spend every night locked away into an even smaller steel cage that gives no freedom of movement at all and aren’t fed if you displease your new masters. Although this sounds like an outline for a horror movie, it is not. It is happening in real life and in our world. It is horrific, not only unethical but inhumane. This depicts the capturing process and life in captivity for public display of Orcinus Orcas, popularly known as Killer Whales since 1961. Although some laws regarding the capturing of whales have changed, whales are still being treated unethically. Just as inhumane as it is for this to be done to humans, it is equally inhumane for it to be done to animals. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, inhumanity is “the quality or stage of being cruel to other people or to animals” (dictionary.com) and that is what their captivity is...
"Orcas in Captivity: Animal Cruelty for Profit." Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. .
I for one have the common sense, along with a number of you, to know that in no situation whatsoever would it be remotely acceptable to rip a child out of their helpless mothers grasp and force them to witness her own abhorrent and gory murder. This is burdens the helpless animal for the rest of its life, and obviously renders the fear of humans through the roof. Preforming disturbing and unnatural acts for the public with this onus constantly as a reminder to the whale to live in continuous fear is repulsive. In fact, former Sea World employee Jeff Ventre said, on the subject of captive whale attacks, "[The attacks] are manifestations of stress, even madness, in animals forced into miserable, unnatural conditions." Take a minute to imagine the mental toll this calamity has on these beautiful, magnificent creatures. No part of this situation is even close to being humane, and it never will be until this is tragedy is permanently put to an
"Imagine if the world you lived in, the space you breathed in, and the freedom you played in were suddenly taken away from you." (Free Willy)
The Makah’s seemingly domestic issue of whaling has and is taking on a larger international problem. The United States plays a large part in policing the hunting of whales, one of the most recent examples being the U.S.’s ...
Since the 1500s Harp Seals have been hunted for their oil. Now a more modern phenomenon is causing them to be hunted, their white fluffy fur. Only baby Harp Seals have the white fur so this hunting adds to the difficultly of reaching adulthood. As the fur is of very high value they were hunted heavily causing population decrease. The model shows overfishing directly leads to the decline in the Harp Seal population. However, in the 70s conservation laws were passed protecting them. Yet, unfortunately Harp Seals are still-hunted adding to the decline of their population. (Kovacs,
In the article it say’s “Hearn said the hunt helped keep the numbers under control and protected the fish stocks.”(David) This quotation shows that by hunting the seals we are protecting the fish stocks. If we do not hunt the seals there will not be enough fish for us to eat because the seals are going to have the fish for themselves leaving us with nothing. When we hunt the seals we are maintaining the fish population and protecting it from the seals. Pursuing this further it say’s “Many Newfoundland fishing communities are devastated by the collapse of cod stocks in the 1900’s and the hunt is one of the few things sustaining remote coastal towns”(David). This quotation states that the seal hunt was one of the things that was sustaining and was providing food for those coastal towns. Also another thing that was stated in this article was that the Newfoundland fishing communities were devastated when the stocks for the cod collapsed because all the seals took over. In the 1900’s they did not hunt seals as much and it lead to a collapse in cod stocks. This is why going forth with the seal hunt will help maintain the seal populations and it will help maintain the fish
I think that killer whale shows should be banned because killer whales can protect themselves in the wild,they can lose natural abilities to hunt and feed themselves, and that killer whale shows can ruin the population of killer whales. My first reason is that, that killer whales could protect themselves in the wild because from a website called “animals.mom.me,” it said that “Orcas in the wild have an average life expectancy of 30 to 50 years-their estimated maximum lifespan is 60 to 70 years for males and 80 to over 100 years for females. The average age of death for orcas that have lived in seaworld is 13 years old.” So this shows that if you do not capture orcas (killer whales), they will have a longer life span because they can protect themselves in the wild and can survive much longer than 13 years in an aquarium.
In the conclusion of “Bloody Ice,” the author makes the suggestion of ranching the seals. But how is that a better method to regulate the killing of seals? Ranching seals might come off as inhumane and cruel to somebody else. The author needs to define what is inhumane and cruel. The author states, “According to Oceans magazine, before the limit of 180,000 seals was established in 1950, the number of seals had dwindled from 3,300,000 to 125,000,000.” That is a large reduction in the number of seals dying. The author claims, ”Now, even with this allotment, the seals are being killed off at an almost greater rate than they can remultiply.” It doesn’t prove to the audience that with current regulations that their is a danger of the extension of seals.
I agree with the Norwegian and Japanese positions on permitting the hunting of non-endangered species of whales as a cultural exemption. Both of these cultures have been whaling for thousands of years. One stipulation that I would add in order to qualify for a cultural exemption is that the hunting should take place in a historically accurate manner. For the Japanese, this would mean using nets to catch the whales.
The current ban on fox hunting has been very controversial, and there have been many arguments, both for and against hunting. Fox hunting is typically viewed as a traditional British activity, but actual fox hunting that uses hounds takes place all over the world. Historically wherever the British have gone building their empires, they have taken the sport of fox hunting43 with them. In addition, plenty of other countries have their own fox hunting traditions. In France, Italy and Ireland they are thriving fox hunts.
... In the debate over the ethics of whaling and its regulation since the formation of the IWC, widely diverse arguments have been made concerning the legitimacy of the whaling enterprise and the economic, ethical, and practical aspects of international regulation. Different views of ecology, culture, and legitimacy as they pertain to a valued resource and its exploitation for human purposes. While it is safe to say one must preserve the historical and cultural value of whaling nations and nations around the world, it can also be said of animals. While many nations continue to cling to their cultural ancestry, background of whaling, and the right for scientific research, it is proven that such human endeavors must be carefully and faithfully regulated.
Captivity is the state or period of being imprisoned, confined, or enslaved, according to Wiktionary. Every year, marine parks and aquariums, like SeaWorld, make billions of dollars through ticket sales. SeaWorld estimates about 70% of their total revenue is due to their performing killer whales (Jeffs). People visit from all over the world to encounter killer whales up close. “Their beauty and power, combined with willingness to work with humans, have made them legendary performers” (Gorman). In recent years, humans have gained the ability to tame and train these creatures. Killer whales should not be kept in captivity simply because it is cruel, unnatural, and dangerous.
In the Gulf of St. Lawrence yearly they open a hunt for the seal hunters to allow them to preform there duties to destroy the cultural wildlife of the sea in the Maritimes. During this time of season you can see many different vessels of many sizes travelling through the ice searching for their prey. Usually they are known as commercial seal hunters. Harp and hooded seals are the majority of prey. When they reach the seals, they continue their job by shooting any seal in sight, young, old, or even seals carrying infant seals. It is a very difficult situation to imagine when the helpless animals flee from their hunters. Seals do escape and can continue on, but the ones who are shot and are hurt usually just slip under the radar and eventually suffer and die. The hunters use hakapiks to kill the injured seals at close range, it is a big wooden club with an ice pick at the end for dragging purposes. They also club immobile injured seals. After the seal is killed, the captors then take their hakapik pick and put it into the seals back to carry it aboard their vessels. It is then the seal is skinned, sometimes while alive. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans isn’t large enough to do ...