Seal Hunting

I've been reading up a bit on the whole industry of seal hunting, and commercial hunting in general. A PETA blurb (http://www.peta.org/feat-canadaSealHunt.asp) mentions that the US baned seal fur in the 1970s. This ban is incredibly biased, giving no attention to the other fur animals that are used purely for industry. I suppose the major difference between a seal hunt and factory farming is that we at least pretend that we can't see inside the farms.

The reaction to seal hunting is initially emotional, and for many this sensation is strong enough to be turned into a conviction. But if people were confronted by the grotesque rituals of industrial farming, there would perhaps be similar outrage. Seals, especially baby seals, are maybe considered more cute than cows. In addition, violent footage of seal hunting focuses on the younger seals, defining the event as one that victimizes the small, helpless, and adorable. This concept seems to transfer to the common response to veal. In my experience, those who refuse to eat veal do not necessarily deny themselves beef.

Some of the defense arguments for industrial farming include the necessity for population control. This seems reasonable enough...It's possible that in some cases areas without hunting may lead to animal populations going unchecked and growing to quickly. But this is, of course, due to the imbalance humans inadvertently created when settling. The "Elk problem" currently in Colorado is largely fueled by low wolf populations...which is in turn fueled by over-killing to protect livestock. But in regards to harp seals, for instance, the hunt allows the Atlantic cod numbers to be high enough for successful commercial fishing.

The laws of the Canadian seal hunt indicate that the animals must be killed as humanely as possible. There are age limits imposed and licenses are distributed for the event. But regardless of whatever rules are determined, there will always be people to break them. And in such circumstances, 'breaking the rules' equates to immeasurable animal suffering. I was also suprised by how few licenses for indiginous people were distributed when compared to the numbers for general industrial hunting (10,000 versus roughly 150,000). Not that I think the numbers should be increased to equalize the injustice to Amarinds, but the figures seem imbalanced. At very least, the hundreds of years of abuse and oppression may be (very, very, very) slightly recognized by allowing indiginous ppl. to hunt as they have historically. Yet even granting indiginous people the right to hunt certain animals does not conditionally guarantee the methods will be as humane or respectful as tradition grants.

Industrial hunting is free-range industrial farming. The only 'improvement' is that hypothetically the animal was able to live a natural life prior to being killed, except for the seal cubs, of course.


(o, and my sources are the various linked official reports from the wikipedia.org article on seal hunting...)