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Paul and Heather McCartney join the seal cull protest

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Paul and Heather McCartney join the seal cull protest

Monday, 06 March 2006

Paul and Heather McCartney join the seal cull protest

Sir Paul McCartney and wife Heather, along with members of the Humane Society of the United States and many international journalists, have just visited the harp seal nursery on the ice flows in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to focus global attention on the horrific fate awaiting the newborn seal pups.

Disgusted by the Canadian government's support for the cruel hunt for sealskins, Paul and Heather are calling on the newly elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the hunt forever. The McCartneys' action has been a historic development in the ongoing campaign to save the baby seals.

Whilst on the ice, Paul made a moving statement that summed up the feelings he and his wife shared, "We just believe that...for this whole place to be a sea of red and for these pups we're seeing to be dead, just for their fur, is not something that should be happening in this day and age."

The ex-Beatle and his partner have also gone on record saying, "Previous Canadian governments have allowed this heartbreaking hunt to continue despite the fact that the majority of its citizens, as well as those in Europe and America, are opposed to it. We have complete faith that Prime Minister Harper will take swift and decisive action to end the slaughter of these defenceless seal pups for good."

Paul and Heather McCartney have recently been in the news regarding another campaign to save animals when last November the couple called for a boycott of China in protest at the fur trade there and the skinning alive of cats and dogs.

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Name: Mary Alice Pollard, Cornwall's Voice for Animals/UK	Comment: The best way to reply to James Tanner's comments is with the following: The Seven Deadly Sins of Sealers The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Seal Defenders For Commentary by Captain Paul Watson please look at: http://www.seashepherd.org/editorials/editorial_060411_1p.html
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Name: Mike Thompson

Comment:
In reply to James Tanner's comment, I would like to say that those of us who deplore the seal hunt do listen to the other sides arguments.

The hunters are not the only ones with "experts" we also have "experts" that can back up our side of the argument.

There is no doubt that at times a certain cull of a population is of benefit to the species as a whole. My main objection is to the barbaric way the seal cull is carried out, in this modern era there are humane ways to acheive the required result.

It would also be beneficial to the world as a whole to carry out a cull of the human population, who after all are reponsible for most of the ills of this world, but do we consider doing this? No! and, why not? because we consider it to be barbaric and inhuman. Well it is just as barbaric and inhuman to do it to animals of any species. What makes us so special?

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Name: James Tanner	Comment: I forgot to mention that I would still prefer to see the hunt end (because it is really about fashion and we should try to set precedents on how we treat nature and life in general). But I do not believe I have the right to tell other people how to live thier lives when they are not doing any significant harm to other people or nature (the sealers are not).
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Name: James Tanner

Comment:
It seems to me that there are too many "true believers" on the animal rights side. By "true believers" I mean people who have very little or no capacity to understand the other side of an issue. Too many think they are completely right and refuse or are unable to acknowledge that the other side has any merit to their cause.

I have recently become more familiar with this debate. For the sealers the real issue is being able to live the lives the were born into. Most of them live in small isolated communities on Canada's Atlantic coast. As I said before their economic opportunities in these communities are very very limited, so they do what they are used to: harvest from nature. Like it or not this happens all over the world and there are a lot worse and more important things going on than the seal hunt.

There are also some very good reasons why the sealers would not take money from the anti sealing community. First off it would not make sense. Sure maybe you'll get a couple days (or even a year, if the $16 million would really come though, which I doubt) worth of pay, but what happens after that. Or the next year when it's not a big news story any more... Second, the anti sealing community show absolutely no respect, empathy, or understanding towards the sealers. Do you think the kind of independent minded people who live in such isolated communities will bow down so easily? Personally I find the offer disgusting myself.

I would like to make one last point. Keeping to their "true believer" ways the anti sealing community ignores facts and overwrites them with their own opinions. Unfortunately many news organizations will quote these "facts". The big one this year is that most of the pups drowned because the ice melted early, this is simply nonsense. Some did drown but no where near "most". I think the anti sealers probably think it is true even in the face of experts who say it is not... "true believers". Another "fact" that they often mention is that the seals will go extinct if the hunt continuous, this is also completely nonsense. The Canadian government continuously checks on the stays of the seal population and it is doing very well.

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Name: Maria Daines

Comment:
How is the Canadian Government going to explain turning down an offer of millions of pounds to stop this cull? This is one answer I'd love to hear.

By not accepting this offer and the alternative cruelty free tourism that could spare these wasted lives, one question remains unanswered - Does the Canadian Government simply wish to carry on killing their seal population? Maybe for no other reason than an outdated and barbaric tradition that has no part in civilised society.

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Name: Mary Alice Pollard, Cornwall's Voice for Animals/UK

Comment:
Responging to James Tanner's comments:

Many of you will be intersted in knowing that a donation of 16 million dollars was offered to those who ' need ' the income ' and the government - if they STOP THIS SLAUGHTER ... ! It was TURNED DOWN !

When I was on the ice with the seals - working with IFAW, IFAW offered the sealers double their salaries NOT to go out on the ice and kill the pups ... THEY DID NOT TAKE IFAW UP ON THAT OFFER ! So please, don't anyone try to tell me that these people do it because THEY NEED TO - !

I have been working on this campaign since the late 60's and I am up to my ears with the EXCUSES they come up with to continue slaughtering seals - babies and adults ! This year a huge majority of the pups drowned because of the melting ice - such a loss, yet the sealers went out anyway - give up the excuse that they EAT THE COD - the only damage being done to the cod population are the huge factory ships that go out and scrape up everything in the oceans ... and then overcatch is thrown back, WHAT A WASTE IS THAT ?

This is MY Canada's Shame, it is my shame.

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Name: frankie	Comment: i think people who seal skin should go to jail. i dont care if its their jobs, its DEAD wrong, and i have no idea how they sleep at night.
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Name: James Tanner

Comment:
I have found out that I was wronge. Baby seals cannot legally be killed in canada while they have white fur (whish are the seal all the news photos show), but they lose their white fur at 3-4 weeks old and after that it is legal to kill them for their fur.

An important point that almost everyone misses though is the fact that the area of Canada where the hunt occures is the poorest area in Canada where there are very limited jobs prospects. The last 15 years have been VERY rough for the east coast Canadians, with many leaving their homes to seek work in other areas of Canada. The main reason the hunt is allowed to continue is because the government does not want to take away more from people who have already lost so much. There is also the "tradition" aspect, which I agree is rediculous in modern Canada (not counting the natives).

I agree that hunting seals for their fur should be stopped in the not too far future however.

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Name: Orchid

Comment:
Apparently some of my fellow Canadians need to learn more about what happens in our country! Baby seals are infact being killed for their fur! This is a disgusting slaughter and one of the excuses our government uses is that it is a "tradition"... just because something is labelled as a tradition that doesn't make it right nor give it a valid enough reason to continue! The McCartney's offered our government some good advice and I hope Prime Minister Harper acts on it. I applaud the McCartneys. I am also a Canadian and quite proud of that, though I feel that this hunt is not only cruel but it is also an absolute embarassment upon our country and has to end immediately!

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Name: James Tanner	Comment: This article is based on a premis that is not true. It asserts that baby seals are killed for their fur. It has been ilegal to kill baby seals in Canada for decades. Heather McCartney needs to learn the facts before she openbs her mounth and so does this pulication. I am a Canadian.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 04 September 2006 )

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