12 Responses to “Much Ado About Baby Seals”

1. Jared
   June 1st, 2009 at 3:18 pm

   

   Well, I don’t really have a problem with her having eaten seal heart. After all, I love me my shark fin soup, and we all know fins are harvested in not so humane ways. The problem I have is purely with seal hunting on the east coast (by non Inuits I might add) and how the seals are killed. It’s cruel, it’s disgusting, and it’s mainly done for their coats, not food. I agree that the Governor General didn’t do anything wrong, but I still believe we need to draw attention to the inhumane activities that are happening to these animals for their coats. That’s what really have people outraged.

   Give me a giant hammer or spike vs a bunch of defenseless people who have to crawl to move. We’ll see how fun it is when i go bashing them all in the heads and harvest their skins for clothing. Just sayin!

2. Stephen
   June 1st, 2009 at 4:28 pm

   

   You bring up a great point Jared: what does this have to do with the seal hunt? Well not much, and I think that’s where this issue got our of hand in the first place. The media wanted to frame this against the backdrop of the seal hunt in Eastern Canada which has so much hype and star power behind it. While I don’t disagree there are probably incidents of inhumanity in the hunt and I think those people should be punished, just like hunting any other animal in the wild or raising any other animal in a farm I am sure there are incidents where animals suffer before they are slaughtered for human consumption. The only difference here is that these animals are cute and many 8 year olds probably have little baby seal dolls named Suki and Yuki sitting on their beds that they kiss before they roll over to sleep. I mean, look at that photo of the seal. It’s precious!

   What I’m trying to get at is the Inuit and northern people’s, as well as those on the East Coast have been sealing for generations, just as humans have been fishing and hunting and raising animals for slaughter the world over. In many cases, these people have an almost spiritual and ceremonial connection to these animals and their traditional uses. I have no problem with that. I do, however, have a problem with the outcomes of commercialization of hunting and fishing and what that has done not only to animal populations, but ‘streamlining’ hunting practices to focus on efficiency for the lowest cost which leads to the inhumane sealing practices like you mentioned above that taint everyone with the same brush.

   The media jumps on it because it’s an easy sell and baby seals are incredibly photogenic, celebrities jump on the bandwagon and start charities and fundraisers, and suddenly we Canadians all look like barbaric imbeciles for ever allowing a baby seal to be slaughtered. I’m just saying, there is more to this issue than the by-line that we usually hear when Brigitte Bardot jets off to Labrador for an hour to pose on an ice shelf to bring attention to a cause that’s so ‘close to her heart’.

3. Dave
   June 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pm

   

   I have always thought this was an interesting subject. I think it’s interesting what people find humane and what they do not. To my knowledge, lots of animals have their throat slit to kill them. I am pretty certain this would be a painful death and yet we choose to not think about it when eating our steak or bacon. I think the point of clubbing the seals is that it’s a blow to the head that likely kills them on impact. I think I would prefer this method of death over a painful cut and bleeding to death. Just kill me instantly. I’m sure all the leather most people wear came from a cow that had its neck slit.
   I think the issue around Canadians killing seals and the Olympics is rather interesting. I don’t recall any protests to Japanese whaling around the time of Nagano. They are a country killing whales for supposed “research” and then they turn around and sell the meat.
   I think the shark fin soup is actually much more inhumane than the seal clubbing. They catch the sharks, cut off the fins and throw the shark back in the water alive with no means to move so it suffocates. That sounds worse than a blow to the head. And, such a waste since the shark meat is also edible. I have not heard of declining seal stocks, but the shark populations are becoming near endangerment.

4. Native Arctic Counsel
   June 1st, 2009 at 9:18 pm

   

   SEAL MEAT CONTAINS MERCURY.

   INGESTING MERCURY CAUSES BRAIN TISSUE DAMAGE.

   ANYONE WHO JUST CHEERED MICHAELLE JEAN OR HER ACT JUST ASSISTED IN FURTHER POISONING HUMAN LIVES.

   Seals contain levels of toxaphene, polychlorinated bipehnyls, methyl mercuric compounds, lead, and brominated chemical compounds.

   This is NOT the oxcart Dark Ages of 1,000 years ago which concocted the myth perpetrated of some magical inuit diet that cures everything in the world. FYI, this is the 21st century. The industrial heavy metal contaminants flow from industrial centers and now accumulate in the Arctic regions where they stay. And thus, unlike some dream world of yesteryear, the Inuit are now some of the most contaminated humans on the surface of the earth. And this has come from the very act that some people who lack basic knowledge on this matter have been cheering as some kind of prop up for tradition. Eating seal meat, blubber, etc has resulted in the contamination of the inuit people! Inuit leaders have been tryint to STOP people from eating it! And what the Governor General Michaelle just ruined just about every ounce of work the Inuit have been trying to do to save their people, cheering and applauding an act of eating raw seal meat which is going to entice tons of others to now follow suit, causing a ripple effect in which many human lives are now going to be poisoned and suffer!

   “A report on Arctic pollution was released in early October by the Norway-based Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), reported the Associated Press (AP).”

   “Lars-Otto Reiersen, one of the compilers of the report, told the AP “We were really surprised by the mercury problem. The amount of mercury transported into the area seems to be much higher than anyone believed before.” Indigenous peoples, especially the Inuit in Greenland and Canada, are particularly vulnerable because they eat whale blubber and seal meat containing high concentrations of toxins.”

   “The report, entitled Arctic Pollution 2, says that mercury and other toxins in the food chain are threatening humans and wildlife in the Northern Hemisphere.”

   Eating seal meat contaminated with mercury causes stunted brain growth! It causes liver and organ damage. It causes infections, children born with birth defects that they will have to suffer with their entire life. Cognitive abnormalities, neurological problems, learning disorders!

   “Research has documented human exposure to PCBs & methyl mercury & the Inuit are among the most heavily exposed people in the world.” (NatlHlthInst)

   And anyone on here who chimed in supporting this act by Michaelle Jean has just helped to foster the further continuance of a practice that the Inuit leaders themselves have been trying to reduce! And you have cheered an act that will sentence infants to deal with a legacy of the effects of this the rest of their lives.

   “Geir Wing Gabrielsen, who has been conducting research in this area for 20 years, said that levels of Brominated flame retardants are three times higher in Canadian seals than they were 10 years ago.”

   - The BBC confirms that brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are being found in animals from the Arctic. People in these areas are being warned by health officials NOT to eat them because of the high concentrations of Brominated flame retardants (BFRs).”

   “Eating a single one can increase your body burden of these organic pollutants by 10%. We’re advising children and women of child-bearing age not to eat any.” A source told the BBC “They’ve been shown to affect behaviour, particularly brain development, and that sort of effect on learning seems to get worse.””

   And while all of those cheering this Governor General Michaelle Jean were going around thinking this was just over some kind of ‘cute’ seal issue or thinking this was such a great act to ‘stand up for the natives’, the actual fact of the matter, is that she conducted a media act, to showcase herself, inviting all the media, to showboat her conducting this as some kind of support for the natives, on national live tv, to push the agenda of the Canadian government seal hunt, and has now served to popularize this, such that hundreds more people will now be enticed to ingest this material, and end up poisoning the very people that she touted herself as standing up for.

   THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY EAT SEAL MEAT:

   Hudson Bay native’s mercury concentrations were correlated consumption of beluga and seal meat and liver (R2: 0,30)

   “The bodies of Arctic people, particularly Greenland’s Inuit, contain the highest human concentrations of industrial chemicals and pesticides found anywhere on Earth – levels so extreme that the breast milk and tissues of some Greenlanders could be classified as hazardous waste.”

   Studies of infants in Greenland and Arctic Canada who have been exposed in the womb and through breast milk suggest that the chemicals are harming children. Babies suffer greater rates of infections because their immune systems seem to be impaired, and their brain development is altered, slightly reducing their intelligence and memory skills.

   And to truly put on the finishing touch, the Governor General Michaelle Jean after her “feast” then went and gave a speech, where she brought up the statistics where the academic performance and graduation rates of the Inuit were some of the lowest in the nation, and she wondered why that was. Then promised that she’d go see about getting some funds to build them a new school or something, and then summarily proceeded to accept an invitation to go out on a seal hunt to go bring back more seal meat.

   Do some Inuit root for eating it? You bet they do, just like a cigarette-smoker will insist on maintaining their 2-pack a day habit “over their dead body”. Not thinking of the consequences this has on their children, their families who have to suffer through their sickness and sorrow, and watch as they waste away, and even pass on their deadly afflictions to their children.

   Some of the most vulnerable in this whole situation are pregnant mothers, and these are extremely susceptible to organo-pollutants, causing great damage to their foetuses, which are then born deformed, or with such terrible neurological defects and stunted intellectual capacity. And the worst thing, is that these mothers get the idea, that they should be eating these ‘traditional’ foods while they are pregnant, which has had the effect of making thngs worse! And now Michaelle Jean comes along to reinforce the idea that this was such a proud and great thing to do, and was some kind of stand celebrating pride or something.

   IN ACTUALITY, WHAT MICHAELLE JEAN DID WILL RESULT THE SUFFERING OF UNTOLD NUMBERS OF NATIVES, CHILDREN, AND EVEN CANADIAN CITIZENS WHO GET THE IDEA THIS IS NOW COOL AND ARE ENTICED TO TRY IT.

   AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF WHAT SHE HAS DONE WILL BE FELT FOR GENERATIONS!

   Anyone here or anywhere who wrote that they did not support this act of her glorifying the devouring of this seal heart meat in this tv stunt, congratulations. Pat yourselves on the back.

   Anyone on here, or that you see anywhere, who cheered her, or thought this was such a great thing for her to do and for the inuit, … know that there will be an infant out there, borne with the effects of this, and having to live with it the rest of its life. And next time, before you cheer something, or pooh pooh it as all just something to do with something being cute, and cheering TV events portraying the gorging of onesself on the aortas of slain animals disrespecting a beings life, realize that there is more going on than you know. That infant, out there, that will suffer the effects of this, you Picture its face, and remember it well.

5. Dave
   June 1st, 2009 at 9:40 pm

   

   I really don’t know if she will have influenced any Inuit people. I would imagine they would be eating the seal meat either way and really she was just being gracious and respectful. I don’t think people are going to rush out and hunt seals themselves or start asking for it at the super market because of what she did.

6. Stephen
   June 1st, 2009 at 11:24 pm

   

   Thanks Native Arctic Counsel on bringing us up to speed on some of the other issues this topic raises. I wasn’t aware of the mercury levels of seals and its effects on the Inuit community today. It speaks to larger environmental problems that the globe faces that require true leadership and courage to fully address.

   I don’t, however, agree with your assessment of the effect that Ms Jean’s actions will have on generations of Inuit, that they will proceed to seek out seal meat now that one dignitary has ingested it. Maybe the Nunavut Health Ministry can use this opportunity while the issue is fresh in everyone’s minds as a catalyst to start a dialogue around the risks of seal meat.

   People have a choice, and once they are informed with the facts, it’s up to them to decide what is right for them. To say that Ms Jean alone is now responsible for generations of mercury poisoning because she was polite at the dinner table is a bit of a stretch.

7. Stephen
   June 1st, 2009 at 11:26 pm

   

   If blame is deserved, it should fall to those countries/companies that had a major role in the poisoning of our oceans.

8. Native Arctic Counsel
   June 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 am

   

   LOOK.
   Everyone who just posted about going around blaming *other* people and *other* countries for this. Take note of this:

   “Canada Ranks Third Amongst Worlds Worst Polluters”-CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
   “Canada’s Coastal Cities – worst sewage polluters”-Paradigm Environmental
   “Canada is the world’s third largest polluter per capita”-StatsCan (Statistics Canada)
   “Canadians among worst polluters on earth”-CNN
   “Canada Among the Worst of Polluters”-Environment Canada
   “A new study by a leading environmental group ranks Canada among the worst polluting nations in the industrialized world,”-ASSOCIATED PRESS
   “Independent Study puts Canada dead last among the 30 countries in nuclear waste”-Simon Fraser University
   “Canada Helps Wreck Climate Deal”-CalgaryLife
   “Canada 3rd from last out of 17 industrialized nations.-Conference Board of Canada ranked Canada

   ” Inco Limited Named Worst Mining Polluter in Canada”

   Inco Limited holds the top spot on the list of the biggest polluters

   “The amount of pollution from Inco’s mining facilities is more than double that of the second highest mining polluter in Canada,” said Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director, Environmental Defence Canada. “Inco produces nearly three times as much nickel as its competitor Falconbridge, but over 13 times more pollution. Clearly, Inco is anything but a responsible corporate citizen.”

   Canadians are breathing in toxic chemicals every day due to the high levels of pollution being emitted from mining facilities across the country, which include lead, arsenic, nickel, cadmium, and mercury. These pollutants have been declared legally toxic in Canada. Lead is associated with kidney and blood problems, as well as neurological disorders. Arsenic and nickel (and its compounds) cause cancer, and are believed not to have a safe threshold for human exposure. Cadmium is considered a probable carcinogen when inhaled and is associated with the development of kidney disease. Long-term exposure to mercury can cause permanent damage to the brain, kidneys, and developing fetuses.

   NEWS: “Newfoundland comes under Boil Water orders and toxic contamination warnings as residents’ water found to be unfit to drink”

   Almost 80,000 people are living under boil-water advisories — 44,000 more than last year

   PETER WALSH
   The Telegram

   Ok. Have you read that?

   Now:

   Here is what you need to realise:

   90% OF ALL THE SEALERS THAT CONDUCT THE COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL SEAL HUNT COME FROM NEWFOUNDLAND!

   Ok? That’s where tons of sewage and pollution is coming FROM!

   THIS IS SOURCE OF HUGE AMOUNTS OF TOXINS!
   Not “all over”. Not “wherever”. Not “some other countries”…

   Another bit of info:

   “Inco Limited (“Inco”) and the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador announced today that they have entered into definitive agreements covering the development of the Voisey’s Bay nickel- copper-cobalt project.”

   “DFO approves plan to dump thousands of tonnes of Nickel mining waste into a trout pond in southeastern Newfoundland.”

   -ok? do you understand yet?

   DFO, stands for the “Department of Fisheries & Oceans” of Canada.

   DFO is who *APPROVED* the dumping of 400-thousand tonnes of heavy metal mine tailing waste into dozens and dozens of lakes and into the waters all over Canada.

   That’s right. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans AUTHORIZED the dumping of the toxic waste!

   The very agency in Canada, charged with protecting the fisheries and oceans, poisons the fisheries and oceans!

   Do you know what the DFO also does?

   The DFO is the govt agency that RUNS THE SEAL HUNT!

   Do you understand now?

   THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SEAL HUNT ARE AMONG THE CULPRITS POISONING THE AREA, WHICH POISONS THE FISH, WHICH POISONS THE SEALS! WHICH POISON THE INUIT!

   And Michaelle Jean just glorified eating more seal meat, enticing inuit to eat more of it, and now ALL OF THE PRO-SEAL-HUNTING PEOPLE ARE NOW SCREAMING GO SEAL HUNT! YES! MORE! MORE! And using this popularity stunt by Michaelle Jean to JUSTIFY the championing of the Commercial SEAL HUNT!

   This is a disastrous wreck. What she did has now fueled restaurants putting seal meat all over the menu, gotten seal clubbers to rise up using her and the inuit as their war cry to beat more seals, and fight to ship seal meat, seal oil, marketed as “health products” into Europe & Asia. She has caused a disaster.

   Go do this. Open this video and watch it:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTSAb6DINPU

   The man yapping in there touting how great and safe it is to dump thousands of tonnes of toxic chemicals into the water supply all over canada is Loyola Hearn. That is the Minister of Fisheries of the DFO! That is the official charged with protecting the fish, poisoning the fish. That is the top official in the DFO, the same agency that touts and runs the entire commercial seal hunt.

   So what we have here, is Michaelle Jean, touting contaminated seal meat, cheering more Inuit to eat it, enticing Canadian citizens to eat it as ‘sushi’, then all the commercial sealers cheering it and using her Inuit stunt to justify their commercial hunt, encouraging everyone in Canada to back it, support them, and continue that hunt, which is run by the DFO, which is the very agency comprised of pro-sealers, which is killing the fish, poisoning the water, killing the seals, and poisoning the seal meat that Michaelle Jean just ate on Live tv in her media stunt and which is now poisoning the Inuit.

   And now perhaps you Understand the ripple-effect of this now.

   Stopping the commercial sealers, stopping the DFO, stopping the seal beating, stopping them pushing seal meat into the mouths of canadians, europeans, asian children, firing the Pro-Seal hunt Fisheries ministers, formerly Loyola Hearn, now Gail Shea, stopping the seal hunt and stopping the DFO stops them approving the toxic dumping, and then using the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars fed to support the losses of the commercial seal hunt, and GIVING that money instead to provide healtheir food, provisions, supplies, grocery store shelf stock, plane flights, transport, schools, etc to the INUIT and reducing not augmenting the consumption of tainted contaminated meat, is what would save untold lives!

   And this is what animal defenders are doing. Humane Society, IFAW, SeaShepherd, peta, and everyone on the side of helping STOP the seal hunt is doing, they are all benefitting the seals, the fish, benefitting the majority of good Canadians, stopping the eating of contaminated meat, and benefitting the Inuit people.

   Michaelle Jean’s stunt caused the opposite, encouraged eating toxic seal meat, championed the hunt, put a feather in the cap of the DFO, gave sealers another excuse to justify their hunt, will lead to the deaths of more seals, and fish, is encouraging regular Canadian citizens to eat the tainted meat now with her “it’s like sushi!!”-Not! comment, and has given the DFO backing continue dumping more toxic waste into the water all over Canada! What Michaelle Jean did is a disastrous shame, with immeasurable fallout, and a domino effect of irreparable consequences.

9. Rich
   June 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am

   

   http://www.olympicshame2010.com/

   Ouch. PETA is stepping up the game… they’re using the Olympics to bring attention to the seal hunt… not the Inuit necessarily, but the big East Coast hunt.

   The video is disturbingly graphic. I am not a vegetarian, but I do try and avoid lamb and veal. I am a sucker for cute baby animals.

10. Redd
    June 9th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    

    PETA plays dirty when it comes to their campaigns…that white seal they use is not even the same seal that is being hunted. It has been illegal in Canada to hunt the white seal for years now. They use the white seal because it’s cute. The seals that are hunted are in now way endangered. Why would they import chicken & beef when they have this natural resource readily available for them. The seal hunt is carefully regulated and monitored. If it is so appalling to kill animals then why does the rest of the world eat beef, pork and chicken?

11. Yaya
    June 9th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    

    Mmmm white seals are baby harp seals… And to my knowledge there is not any restriction on the age you can kill a seal. For me its not about the seals being eaten (I am sure they taste great) its how they are killed that is barbaric and I think thats PETA’s issue as well.

12. Jesse B
    June 10th, 2009 at 10:47 am

    

    This whole thing is so embarrassing for level-headed Canadians of the 21st Century. Michelle Jean and other misguided populist politicians need to understand that supporting the commercial seal hunt is a loosing battle on all fronts. Traditionally the governor general is supposed to represent the Crown, that is Canadian sovereignty, which in our democracy today translates to all citizens – not just ones who support seal hunting. The seal heart fiasco is nothing but a political stunt performed by someone who should be above that kind of posturing following the European union’s ban on commercial seal products. Economically it doesn’t make sense to continue to promote and subsidize such a small and disgusting industry when it threatens our global trade and tourism sectors. I think the spokeswoman for the EU environment commission summed it up best when declining a statement by saying “No comment; it’s too bizarre to acknowledge”.