Help End the Cruel Harp Seal Hunt
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From: pearl on 12 Mar 2007 10:05 "Nobody" <not(a)home.anymore> wrote in message news:Xns98F07512234E1v2rt(a)204.153.245.131... > pearl wrote: > > > > The seals do not belong to you. > > You think that they belong to you? They belong to no one. You cannot truthfully own other beings. > You aren't anywhere near Canada yet > you think it is YOUR duty to tell us how to manage OUR resources. Wildlife exists for its own ends, not yours, and you NEED telling.. > No > wonder kooks like yourself have little credibility. You can't manage > your own affairs but feel the need to manage the affairs of everyone > else. 'Opinion polls consistently show a clear majority of Canadians oppose the commercial seal hunt. Nearly 70 percent of Canadians ... oppose the seal hunt outright, with even higher numbers against specific, inherent aspects of the hunt - such as the killing of seal pups. (Environics Research, 2005). In recent months, domestic and international opposition to the commercial seal hunt has steadily gained momentum as images of extreme cruelty at the hunt - including the skinning of live animals - have been broadcast around the world. This opposition has resulted in effective consumer action campaigns targeting Canada's seafood and tourism industries. In light of the high level of public opposition, and the potential threat to other industries, many people ask why the Canadian government continues to defend and support the seal hunt. The answer is rooted in a history of fisheries mismanagement and the current political situation in Canada. Seals - an ideal scapegoat In the 1950s and 60s, industrial fishing fleets decimated fish stocks off Canada's East Coast, hauling up in one hour twice the amount of fish a sixteenth century ship would take an entire season to catch. By the 1970s, it was clear the northern cod population was on the brink of collapse. At the end of the same two decades, the harp seal population was also in a steep decline as a result of massive over-hunting. By 1974, senior Canadian government scientists were so concerned they warned that the harp seal population could be lost forever in the absence of a 10 year moratorium on sealing. The world acted to save the seals. In 1983, responding to intense public pressure, the European Union stepped in and banned the import of whitecoat and blueback sealskins - the main products of the commercial seal hunt at the time. Since Europe was the hunt's primary market, kill levels dramatically declined and the harp seal population slowly began to recover. "All scientific efforts to find an effect of seal predation on Canadian groundfish stocks have failed to show any impact. Overfishing remains the only scientifically demonstrated conservation problem related to fish stock collapse." - From a petition signed by 97 scientists from 15 countries at the 11th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Dec.1995 The cod were not as lucky. In the 1970s, Canada established a '200 mile limit' to protect fish stocks from foreign fishing fleets. But instead of using the new law to allow stocks to rebuild, Canadian fishing companies dramatically increased their own take. Ignoring and suppressing advice from its own scientists, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) authorized highly unsustainable quotas throughout the 1970s and 80s. By the 1990s, with northern cod stocks at only one percent of their historic levels, it was clear decades of over-fishing had resulted in an ecological catastrophe. In 1992, a moratorium was declared on cod fishing. As 40,000 Atlantic Canadians lost a primary source of income, the DFO attempted to blame factors beyond their control. And despite a consensus in the scientific community to the contrary, seal predation on cod was at the top of their list. Given the residual anger about the EU sealskin ban, the failure of the cod stocks to recover, and the prevalent myth that seals harm fish stocks, seals were a perfect scapegoat for the dwindling fish stocks. Government and independent scientists argued that only 3 percent of a harp seal's diet consists of northern cod, and that harp seals also consume many significant cod predators. But their advice went unheard, and calls for a seal cull echoed loudly through Eastern Canada and within the DFO bureaucracy itself. Political background ........ http://www.archalifax.com/resources/Why%20the%20Government%20of%20Canada%20supports%20the%20seal%20hunt.doc > > Put your own house in order. > > You first. Get real.
From: pearl on 12 Mar 2007 10:51 "Chom Noamsky" <e(a)t.me> wrote in message news:NxWIh.75335$cE3.55818(a)edtnps89... > "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> wrote in message > news:et0rna$phc$1(a)reader01.news.esat.net... > > > The seals do not belong to you. Put your own house in order. > > Yes they do. No, they do not, regardless of what you have decided, to suit you. > All animals that reside within the territorial waters and > boundaries of Canada belong to Canadians, and can be used as a common > resource in any way Canadians see fit. > > That's the way the real world works, get over it.
From: pearl on 12 Mar 2007 10:52 <10x(a)telu�s.net> wrote in message news:i568v2dkts43rgml5uh80tpk5h96bn6ma6(a)4ax.com... > On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:23:15 -0000, "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> > wrote: > > > > >> I HAVE done research and > >> THAT is why I can honestly say what I do. YOU, on the other hand, > >> recite someone else's propaganda. > > > >Let's see your data for seal meat exports then. > > It isn't about seal meat exports. It is about the local folks being > able to supliment their diet with seal meat and not have to be > dependant on farmers who have destroyed wildlife habitat for their > food. 'Most of the meat is wasted and left on the ice. Some if it is sold to fur farms and some is ground up into animal feed. A few thousand seal flippers are sold for human consumption in Newfoundland. There is also a growing black market demand for the seal penis bone in the Far East as some sort of voodoo quack remedy for impotence. .... There are few indigenous peoples involved in the commercial seal "hunt". Inuit or Native people in the North hunt mostly in the arctic and primarily ringed seals. Most of the sealers in the Gulf of St.Lawrence are residents of the Magdalen Islands of Quebec. These are French speaking people. Most of the sealers of the Newfoundland Front are descendents of the European immigrants. There are about 4500 Inuit in Newfoundland. However, the original Newfoundlanders, the Beothuk, were driven into extinction by the European immigrants. The last member of the Beothuk nation died in 1912. The Newfoundlanders had a bounty on the Beothuk and most were slain by MicMac Indian bounty hunters from New Brunswick and Quebec. Newfoundlanders also drove the Newfoundland wolf, the walrus, and the Labrador duck to extinction and extirpated the polar bear, and the pilot whale from Newfoundland territory.... ....' http://www.harpseals.org/hunt/faqs.html > Harvesting wildlife is the least environmentally damaging way to get > food. The habitat remains, a core breeding population remains, the > habitat is unchanged, and the remaining population is genetically > selected to evade capture. > COntrast that with the slash, burn, and monoculture methods of > vegetable farming. The pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizer. > > ANd don't pull this "organic farming" BS. If pesticides, herbicides, > and fertilzers were not used there would be enough crop failures > coupled with reduced crop production to make sure that vegitables were > a scarce commodity. Organic farms only exist because their neighbors > are NOT organic farmers and there is a pesticide and herbicide barrier > around most organic farms. 'Cornell Ph.D. student works the land by hand at Bison Ridge Farming in harmony with nature By Lauren Cahoon Special to The Journal August 4, 2006 VAN ETTEN - What if every farmer decided to turn off his machinery and go without fossil fuels once and for all? And along with that, what if they all stopped putting pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers on their fields? What if every gardener stopped pulling out their weeds and tilling their soil? Chaos, you say? Mass shortages in crops and foods, gardens choked with weeds? Perhaps so. But Rob Young, a Ph.D. student and lecturer at Cornell University, has done all of the above with his small farm - and the business, like the crops, is growing. "We just got a new client who's running a restaurant in one of the local towns - we brought them some of our lettuce and they went crazy over it ..... our lettuce just knocked them over, it's so good." Young's Bison Ridge farm, located in Van Etten, runs almost completely without the use of fossil fuels, fossil fuel-derived fertilizers, or pesticides. The land has been farmed since the 1850s. Young and his wife, Katharine, purchased the farm in 1989. Before that, Young worked as the Sustainable Business Director for New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman. When he discovered Bison Ridge, Young started working the land even while he was still living in New Jersey. Eventually, Young and his wife moved to the Ithaca area so they could start their graduate program at Cornell. "We started doing a little gardening... then added more and more fields ..... at first, we just wanted it to be an organic farm" Rob explained. Running an organic farm is admirable enough, but at some point, Young took it a step farther. "I had an epiphany," he said. "I was transplanting beets after a spring rain, and I noticed how the land felt all hot and sticky - almost like when you wipe out on your bike and you get a brush burn. I know it sounds cheesy, but I could feel how that (farmed) land had gotten a 'brush burn' when it was cleared and plowed. "That's when I decided, I want to work with this land rather than against it." After that, Young started throwing common farming practices out the window. He reduced weeding, adding copious amounts of composted mulch instead and, because of the life teeming in the healthy soils and fields around the farm, Young lets natural predators get rid of any insect pests. No mechanized machinery is used except for the primary plowing of new fields. In fact, except for driving to and from the farm (in a hybrid car, no less), no fossil fuels are used in any part of production. Irrigation of crops is either gravity-fed from an old stone well dug in the 1800s or through pumps driven by solar energy. Super-rich compost is used on all of the crops along with clover, which fixes nitrogen and adds organic matter to the soil. Crops are grown in multi-species patches, to mimic natural communities (insect pests wreak less havoc when they're faced with diverse types of vegetation). In addition, the farm has a large greenhouse where most of the crops are grown as seedlings during the late winter/early spring to get a head start. The entire structure is heated by a huge bank of compost, whose microbial activity keeps the growing beds at a toasty 70 degrees. During the spring and summer, most of the plants are grown in outdoor raised beds - which yield about three times as much per square meter as a regular field. "When people visit the farm, they comment on how we're not using a lot of the land - they don't realize we're producing triple the amount of crops from less land," Young said. "It is labor intensive, but you can target your fertility management, and the produce is so good." Young's passion for earth-friendly farming has proved to be infectious. As a student, teaching assistant and teacher at Cornell, Young has had the chance to tell many people in the community about Bison Ridge, which is how Marion Dixon, a graduate student in developmental sociology, got involved with the whole endeavor. "I had wanted to farm forever - and was always telling myself, 'I'll do it when I'm not in school,'" she said. But when she heard Young give a speech about recycling and sustainable living at her dining hall, she knew she had found her chance to actually get involved. Dixon and Young now work the farm cooperatively, each contributing their time and effort into the land. "I've had a lot of ideas," Young said, "but the work has been done by a lot of people - it's a community of people who have made his happen." He said that because of Dixon's input, they now have a new way of planting lettuce that has doubled production. Although Young and Dixon are the only ones currently running the farm, during the summer there are always several people who contribute, from undergrads to graduate students to local people in the community - all united by a common desire to work with the land. "There's personal satisfaction in working the soil, being on the land and outdoors," Dixon said. "You get to work out, and get that sense of community - plus there's the quality, healthy food. ... It's about believing in a localized economy, believing in production that's ecologically and community-based." The combination of working with the earth's natural systems and community involvement has paid off. Over the course of several seasons, Bison Ridge has grown a variety of vegetables, maple syrup, wheat as well as eggs from free-range chickens. They have a range of clients, including a supermarket and several restaurants, and have delivered produce to many families in CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) programs. Although small, Bison Ridge Farm has prospered due to its independence from increasingly expensive fossil fuel. Young said that, since little if any of their revenue is spent on gas, advertising or transportation, it makes the food affordable to low-income people, another goal that Young and Dixon are shooting for with their farming. Although Young and Dixon are happy about the monetary gains the farm is producing, they have the most passion and enthusiasm for the less tangible goods the farm provides. "It's such a delight to work with," Dixon said. "You feel alive when you're there." http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20060804/NEWS01/608040306/1002
From: pearl on 12 Mar 2007 10:52 <10x(a)telu�s.net> wrote in message news:hs58v25csg5buka3gca337btdtom9hqdmk(a)4ax.com... > On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:13:58 -0000, "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> > wrote: > > >"Chom Noamsky" <e(a)t.me> wrote in message news:poKIh.62334$Du6.57729(a)edtnps82... > >> "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> wrote in message > >> news:esvh94$7h0$1(a)reader01.news.esat.net... > >> > "Chom Noamsky" <e(a)t.me> wrote in message > >> > news:_IHIh.62302$Du6.38382(a)edtnps82... > >> >> > "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> wrote in message > >> >> > news:esvf0i$6lg$1(a)reader01.news.esat.net... > >> > > >> >> > 'Bullies project their inadequacies, shortcomings, behaviours > >> >> > etc on to other people to avoid facing up to their inadequacy > >> >> > and doing something about it (learning about oneself can be > >> >> > painful), and to distract and divert attention away from > >> >> > themselves and their inadequacies. Projection is achieved > >> >> > through blame, criticism and allegation; once you realise this, > >> >> > every criticism, allegation etc that the bully makes about their > >> >> > target is actually an admission or revelation about themselves. > >> >> > >> >> That was a great general description of PETA and its membership. > >> > > >> > You're still doing it.. > >> > >> I'd have to say the role of bully is being played by PETA. It's really none > >> of PETA's business (headquartered in the US) to interfere in the affairs of > >> the sovereign nation of Canada. If anyone finds sealing objectionable, > >> simply refrain from buying the products. If there wasn't any market for > >> seal products there wouldnt be a hunt, except perhaps a cull to help > >> Canada's over exploited cod fishery to recover. > > > >The seals do not belong to you. Put your own house in order. > > Nor do the seals belong to you or any animal rights group. > The seals are there for those that need to eat them. That includes > marine predators, and non marine predators. They are part of the food > chain. You are claiming that man can not eat them but killer whales, > sharks, and polar bears can? You are claiming that these wild > predators are some how more mercifull than man? Stop pretending that this slaughter is about real need and survival.
From: pearl on 12 Mar 2007 10:52
<10x(a)telu�s.net> wrote in message news:f168v2lkmj6sog2gnqbaqagt9j29hqak85(a)4ax.com... > On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:15:51 -0000, "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> > wrote: > > >"Nobody" <not(a)home.anymore> wrote in message news:Xns98EFCFF5C75ED1v2rt(a)204.153.245.131... > >> Chom Noamsky wrote: > >> > >> > "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> wrote in message > >> > news:esvh94$7h0$1(a)reader01.news.esat.net... > >> >> "Chom Noamsky" <e(a)t.me> wrote in message > >> >> news:_IHIh.62302$Du6.38382(a)edtnps82... > >> >>> > "pearl" <tea(a)signguestbook.ie> wrote in message > >> >>> > news:esvf0i$6lg$1(a)reader01.news.esat.net... > >> >> > >> >>> > 'Bullies project their inadequacies, shortcomings, behaviours > >> >>> > etc on to other people to avoid facing up to their inadequacy > >> >>> > and doing something about it (learning about oneself can be > >> >>> > painful), and to distract and divert attention away from > >> >>> > themselves and their inadequacies. Projection is achieved > >> >>> > through blame, criticism and allegation; once you realise > >> >>> > this, every criticism, allegation etc that the bully makes > >> >>> > about their target is actually an admission or revelation > >> >>> > about themselves. > >> >>> > >> >>> That was a great general description of PETA and its membership. > >> >> > >> >> You're still doing it.. > >> > > >> > I'd have to say the role of bully is being played by PETA. It's > >> > really none of PETA's business (headquartered in the US) to > >> > interfere in the affairs of the sovereign nation of Canada. If > >> > anyone finds sealing objectionable, simply refrain from buying the > >> > products. If there wasn't any market for seal products there > >> > wouldnt be a hunt, except perhaps a cull to help Canada's over > >> > exploited cod fishery to recover. > >> > >> Well said. I wonder what interest 'pearl' from the UK actually has > >> in the issue. At least Karen Gordon is Canadian. > > > >I care about the seals and the environment. Duh. > > You probably do care about seals and the environment. > > Sadly you are a vegetarian. The demand by folks who eat ceral crops > and vegetables has decimated wildlife habitat. The energy and water > used for irrigation alone is a major environmental disaster. > Maybe you are part of the problem? 'Livestock a major threat to environment ... Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth's entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing. Land and water At the same time herds cause wide-scale land degradation, with about 20 percent of pastures considered as degraded through overgrazing, compaction and erosion. This figure is even higher in the drylands where inappropriate policies and inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification. The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth's increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things to water pollution, euthropication and the degeneration of coral reefs. The major polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops. Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment of above and below ground water resources. Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the production of feed. Livestock are estimated to be the main inland source of phosphorous and nitrogen contamination of the South China Sea, contributing to biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems. Meat and dairy animals now account for about 20 percent of all terrestrial animal biomass. Livestock's presence in vast tracts of land and its demand for feed crops also contribute to biodiversity loss; 15 out of 24 important ecosystem services are assessed as in decline, with livestock identified as a culprit. .... http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html Impact of livestock grazing on wildlife and habitat worldwide: http://www.wasteofthewest.com/Chapter6.html "global arable land" = "present cropland".. From Technological Trajectories and the Human Environment. 1997. Pp. 56-73. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. "How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature?".. 'By eating different species of crops and a more or less vegetarian diet people can change the number that a plot can feed. And large numbers of people do change their diets. The calories and protein available from present cropland could provide a vegetarian diet to ten billion people. A diet requiring food and feed totaling 6,000 calories daily for ten billion people, however, would overwhelm the capability of present agriculture on present cropland. The global totals of sun, CO2, fertilizer, and even water could produce far more food than what ten billion people need. ...' http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4767&page=56 |