Seal product ban based on emotion

[The Straight Story]

Seal product ban based on emotion

I was born and raised in Southeastern Alberta. The largest body of water in the region was Pakowki Lake, which is officially listed as “intermittent.” In an exceptionally rainy year, it might raise its status to “slough.” But in the 65 million years since mammals replaced reptiles as the planet’s dominant animal form, Pakowki has been full probably only half-a-dozen times.

If there is a drier part of Canada, I don’t know it. And if there is a spot which has less in common with the ice floes off the coast of Newfoundland, you’d be hard-pressed to find it. Still, I would defend without hesitation the right of Canadian sealers to earn a living each spring against the hysteria and hand wringing of environmentalists and animal rights activists, particularly those from the European Union.

At present, the EU bans all Canadian seal products, except those harvested by Inuit using traditional methods. Like so many things enviro and activist, this ban is based on emotion as much or more than reason and fact.

Two years ago, when the European Parliament was debating the ban, it was told by the European commission that 98% of the seals harvested annually in the hunt were killed in keeping with the EU’s standards for humane animal slaughter. That’s roughly the same percentage as calves killed humanly in Europe’s own veal industry.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/03/04/lorne-gunter-seal-product-ban-based-on-emotion/

[Stargleamer]

1. And our repulsion over the murder of humans is based on

logic and reason?

Just because we aren't consistant in who we choose to protect, what with cows and pigs, etc. not receiving much protection at all, doesn't mean we should not protect those from harm. Despite whatever economic pressures people find themselves under in capitalist societies, we still don't want them to have to sell their organs to feed themselves. We do draw lines in the sand. And animal rights activists are generally very consistant--they're opposed to veal as well, and they try in their own ways to get us all to be consistant, with an ethic of reducing the suffering of others, human and nonhuman.