I don't profess to be qualified to know if the cull of Harp seals is necessary from a survival point of view for the indigenous population who undertake the massacre but I doubt it. It may well be part of the culture but I suspect that the motivation has much more to do with greed than necessity but the true motivation aside I find it impossible to believe that if it has to be done at all, it has to be done in such a brutal manner (video link).
This is not an issue for me of 'cute cuddle baby seals' I would feel the same if it were something very much less attractive, say crocodiles, that were being treated in this manner, it is utterly needless to cause such suffering to anything. I know for sure that given the choice I would far rather be on the receiving end of bullet in the head than have someone repeatedly club me to within an inch of my life and then leave me to die slowly. Those involved in this practice maintain that death is quick, the evidence is sadly very different in many, many cases.
I'm sure there are those that will feel that the loss of three human lives is somehow more important than the deaths of hundreds of thousands of seals every year but again I make no apology, I don't, I feel that somehow just for once the tables were turned and maybe justice was done.
Do those that believe we as humans are somehow of a higher status in the natural world than animals not do so because our minds have the ability to rationalise, to consider and make decisions based on that and to behave therefor, in an appropriate manner? Where then is the rational in causing such horrendous, unnecessary pain and suffering? How does that make us superior to animals in any way? Does it not make us worse, in that we flout the very abilities we consider make us superior and utilise them in a manner that no other creature in the natural world would?
I don't usually support the eye for an eye principle but I can't help but feel in this instance that just a tiny bit of retribution was bought to bear.
Perhaps there are valid reasons this massacre continues in the way it does but I have yet to hear them!
9 Comments:
Gemmak, good to see your are more compassionate about seals that about human life.
How can ANYONE with any sense of decency say that the loss of 3 human lives is justified??
Perhaps go back to your bike riding, cappuccino drinking ways and leave the intelligent commentary on the news to the pros?!!
PS in your "About gemmak", its "curve balls" not "curved balls". Kinda hard for a ball to be curved?? ;)
BigRabidDog: How can anyone with a sense of decency consider that the clubbing to death of anything is acceptable and then expect to be given compassion?
Oh....and I find it quite interesting that thus far the only individuals who have disagreed with me here are both from one of the very areas this happens and that you both seem more interested in abuse and petty 'name calling' than in trying to explain the reasons for the cull, or how it is carried out.....both aspects of which I have plainly mentioned being interested in hearing in my post.
On the 'curve balls', my error.
Technicaly, one would not use the past tense of "curve" in reference to a baseball pitch. However, we do grant some lattitude to our British cousins who are more familiar with cricket. Even so, it's not as serious a gaffe as clubbing a helpless seal. ;o}
Inning score:
Gemmak 1, Dog 0
Actually gemmak, if you had bothered to ask me (rather than assuming), I am against the seal hunt in its current form. I agree that clubbing a seal is not a humane way to carry out any "hunt".
It should be pointed out however, that the great majority of the hunt is performed with a rifle, it is only the images of the clubbing that certain media outlets want to show. After all, if the hunt is carried out in a humane way, where's the news??
I don't pretend to fully understand the science behind the rationale for the cull (do you?), but I do know that if you want your fish and chips in the foreseeable future, the seal issue has to be addressed.
I know some will say let natural order rule, but just leads us back to humans dominating all species and doesn't really solve anything.
As for the "petty name calling", I'm fine with that..... much better than being someone who can rationalize the loss of 3 lives as being acceptable.
Bulldog, the Brits are the one's who are the supposed upholders of "proper" english. If they can't get it right who can???!!!!
Bulldog: ;o)
BigRabidDog: "Perhaps there are valid reasons this massacre continues in the way it does but I have yet to hear them!" I think I that was my request, not an assumption, was it not?
I am aware that a percentage of the hunt is carried out with a rifle and that for me at least is way more acceptable. I would of course prefer the cull didn't happen at all but no, I don't understand fully the rationale for the cull but I can accept that there may be valid reasons. However, for me supply of my fish and chips is not one of them and yes, before you pick me up on the point, I do understand you didn't literally mean 'my' fish and chips). I would want to see an issue of greater importance (for any culling.
Incidentally, could you quote for me please where I said that the loss of three lives was acceptable?
As for the English language, we don't play baseball here much, maybe it's an 'Americanism', the 'curved ball' was a phrase I
liked that I picked up from an American but I think you will find if you 'google' it both phrases are listed. I unfortuantely don't have The Complete Oxford Dictionary to hand but my being English in no way qualifies me as having a perfect command of the language, there are far greater people than myself trying to do that!
Surely BigRabidDog is not the same person as the original Roger Nobell? The style of writing and (dare I say it)...punctuation (shudder) is completely different. I don't think it takes a Brit to be able to point out, as I did, that Roger's comment was pure ranting gibberish.
Pointing out a mistake in Gem's about page doesn't really help does it? It's like the foreman of a jury standing up and saying "Yes, he's guilty and deserves the death penalty, the evidence against him was overwhelming - plus he has a terrible haircut".
...and this justification of "if you still want your fish and chips" - get a grip, do you not know what she means when she says SHE IS A VEGETARIAN. So she doesn't actually care two stuffs about fish and chips - especially if it means that it justifies brutality.
It's a fair point about the news satanising the cull - but are you saying they are not beating the crap out of seals, for whatever reason?
Nobody deserved to die - two wrongs don't make a right.
Intelligent debate is not, and should not, of course, be limited to news sites (good God no!) and to imply people should go back to drinking Lattes and not bothering their pretty little heads about it is stifling debate about the subject; are we all entitled to have an opinion and express it so that if it is misguided it can be corrected or attuned to reality?
Bulldog, the Brits are the one's who are the supposed upholders of "proper" english. If they can't get it right who can???!!!!
Dog, now you've done it. It's incumbent on me to point out the "greengrocers' apostrophe" and the lack of capitalisation of the word "English." Then there's the matter of multiple interrogation and exclamation points. If we're going to have reasonable discourse on clubbing seals, AND concurrently criticise blog grammar, then let those in glass houses stow their stones - or, at least put the correct curve on them.
what a bastard to put find glee in the loss of four lives. you describe yourself in the profile as
A 'forty something', obsessed with computers, cappuccino and motorbikes, who took half a lifetime to learn just one thing:
it's not how many curve balls life hurls in your direction that count.... it's how fast you can duck!
so i guess you can duck my comment. we have been hunting seals for over four centuries here and the hunt is no different then culling any other animal. beef,pork,no different.the only thing is that the world gets to see it and the animal rights activist and movie stars make more dollars from it then the sealer that risks his life to put food on the table for their families. if those seals become endangered then we'll be the first to stop the hunt.the ones who will suffer the most are the activist who swindle money from the gullible.
table mountains: I will resist the temptation to merely reply by launching a personal attack on you as you did me and instead suggest that should you choose at some point to read this post and it's comments correctly, you will find that most of your accusations and points have already been addressed..... and that nowhere did I mention feeling 'glee' at the loss of life.
I will however say that the comments this post has drawn from some of you guys involved, or at least local to the subject, have been unusually vitriolic...raw nerve perhaps?
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