Speaking of Furbearer Management
and Conservation
The seal hunt is alive and well
It's something Canadians should celebrate. For more than 250 years,
Newfoundlanders have been making a fraction of their income by hunting and
killing harp seals, mainly for their pelts and oil, or more accurately for
the money that those products bring.
This year the harvest of seals, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the
coast of Labrador, is expected to bring about $16 million for the sealers
of
Atlantic Canada and Quebec. If that doesn't sound like a lot of money to
you, you have never faced the reality of trying to piece together a living
on the rocky shores of eastern Canada.
Life can be very, very tough on The Rock. In the 1950s, a decade or so
after
Newfoundland voted to for Confederation, I met grown men, grandfathers
some
of them, who had lived their entire lives on the barter system, exchanging
their harvest from the sea, not for cash, but for credit at the company
store.
Stop and think about that for a moment. How would it feel to be a
successful
fisherman, a father and a grandfather, working hard for an entire
lifetime,
without ever having held cash in your hand?
The first cash, the first regular income that many of these families
enjoyed, came in the form of "the baby bonus", followed by old age
pensions.
Is it any wonder that the late and legendary Joey Smallwood, first and
longest-lasting premier of Newfoundland, told me decades later that there
were women (wives, mothers and grandmothers) who went to their graves, a
portrait of Smallwood in their coffins.
Conservative estimates place this year's seal herd at 5 million animals,
about three times its size 35 years ago. How much proof does it take to
demonstrate that there is a harvestable surplus of seals in Canada's
Atlantic waters? Sealers continue to reap that harvest. And its value is
growing. Seal pelt prices have risen to about $70 in recent years.
All this despite 35 years of efforts by well-heeled, well-financed
lobbyists
to end the hunt. Actually that is a misconception. Lobbyists like Paul
Watson who heads the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, have a vested
interest in making sure the hunt continues. For as long has the hunt
exists,
with it shocking images of bright red blood on the cold white ice, Watson
and others like him will continue to line their pockets.
That's what the annual protest over the killing of seals is all
about....more donations, more cash for the "animal rights" groups and
their
often charismatic leaders.
Brian Davies, who helped found the IFAW back in 1969, retired in 1997 and
it
has just been revealed that IFAW had to cough up a promise of $2.5 million
before he would step down as chairman and chief executive. He was given
$615,000 in the first installment of a seven year deal. In return IFAW
gets
to use his name. How's that for a sweet deal? The payoffs came to light
through public accounts that IFAW, a charity, had to register in Britain.
Wonder what kind of paper trail IFAW and Davies have left in Canada and
the
United States? Where did all that money donated by 1.5 million
well-intentioned but misled IFAW supporters from around the world really
go?
And IFAW is only one of the dozens of groups soliciting donations on
behalf
of animal rights. Wouldn't it be interesting to track down where and how
all
of the millions in donations they raise each year is actually spent?
Is the seal hunt particularly cruel? I don't believe it is. It is more of
a
harvest than a hunt because the only trick is to find the seals on the
ice.
These are young seals, usually around three weeks of age. No harvest, no
slaughter of animals is a pretty thing to watch. It is particularly
stomach-churning for the millions in North America and Europe who have no
idea how meat reaches their tables. Our grandfathers knew that living
things were butchered, pigs for pork, cows for beef and chickens for
Sunday
dinner. If our grandfathers did not raise and kill their own livestock,
they
had family members who did. The cycle of birth, life, death and renewal
was
as plain as the nose on your face. Today it is masked for the millions of
Canadians who grow up in cities, who will never have to make a living from
the land. The appalling radio commercials currently being run by the IFAW
claim darkly that "some seals may be skinned alive." That's patent
nonsense.
The cash for the sealer is in the fur, the pelt. As anyone who has ever
skinned an animal will tell you, it is a very tricky job to carry out
without damaging the pelt and reducing its value. No sealer in his right
mind would set out to try and remove the skin from a writhing, wriggling
animal. Think about it for a moment. Use your common sense.
The way the world works is that few if any wild creatures have the options
of peaceful ends to their lives. Age, injury, predators and illness take
their toll. There are no retirement homes for wild things. Their reality
is
that they are very fortunate if predators wait until they are dead before
starting dinner. Most prey animals are eaten while alive.
A bullet or a club is just about as humane as it gets for wild animals.
For
my part, I'll continue to support the seal hunt, as I support wise
hunting,
fishing and trapping. Conservation is all about the wise use of natural
resources. It has nothing to do with the animal rights organizations who
continue to fatten themselves on the images of the seal harvest.
Gary Ball may be reached at
gball@trytel.net
Used
with permission
