The Newfoundland seal hunt should not be abolished.

"I also don't like the fact that your province is apparently using a seal hunt to help themselves. That's much like a gold-digger wife murdering her husband for his money. (No offence intended)." Where do you get these analogies? Since when do people not use animals as natural resources, or better yet, since when is it wrong? Doesn't Australia use Kangaroo as a resource? Kangaroo leather, and meat? But I digress. Natural resources are meant to be used aren't they? Whether we sell them or use them for ourselves. "And I suppose it's not the same thing because they're animals, naturally? I also believe that the seals can take care of themselves and we didn't need to intervene just to reap the benefits. Leave nature to sort itself out." Again you've misunderstood me. The purpose of the seal hunt is not an intervention to reap the benefits, the seal hunt is just about 300 years old, it was our food source since the Irish and whomever else came here, it was probably the Native's food source as well. I realize that I said: "The hunt is somewhat of an attempt at preserving the supply of fish for us and the seals" But what I meant by that was, that by furthering the hunt we not only have many jobs for people, we are also helping to preserve the fish. I didn't mean to call it an attempt at anything and apologize for saying it was, I didn't review it thoroughly enough it appears. The idea is that the massacre is cruel and a dirty way to get financial and other etc. help. Try a different investment. As for "helping" the seal population, they can help themselves. No-one would want to "save" them if there wasn't something in it for them. It's hardly a massacre. We have oil, like I said. Did you even read the argument I made in the beginning. If they could help themselves they wouldn't be running out of food would they? The purpose of the hunt was not simply to say we were trying to help while getting a profit out of it. I'm saying that besides it already being for financial gain as well as a food source, the hunt is somewhat helping to keep the population at bay so that it isn't wiped out in a few years time and doesn't take the fish with it. To end my argument I will say this: Most of what you will see is images of baby seals that aren't going to be killed, and a sealer that's hitting a seal with a bit too much enthusiasm and doing a bit of overkill, but what you won't see is the people benefitting from it. The family that doesn't have to live in poverty, the money our province gets to help with funding things as I'm sure it does. Appearances can be deceiving, especially in the hands of somebody who is ignorant of what they are presenting, innocently enough they see a good cause, but realize not what the cause of the action is in the first place. We aren't doing this for sport, blood lust, or simple greed, we are doing this because we need to, it's what's keeping people living here. Jobs. if there were no major jobs like the seal hunt there probably wouldn't be many people living here. What protestors, and boycotters don't realize is the importance the seal hunt has to us. We were offered money to stop the hunt a while back, and when we declined they said we were blood thirsty and greedy, but that money only lasts so long for the province and I highly doubt that that money would provide jobs for the people who would lose their livelihood. If there was any other way, I'm sure that would be the way we would go, but for now this is what's keeping us alive as a province, and nothing any protestor can say will change that. You may not agree with it as a livelihood, but frankly, you don't live here, you haven't got to worry about it all crumbling around you and you being forced to leave the only place you've ever known. It might sound like a horrible little sob story, but it's also the truth, and that's something you can't just skim around. But again, I digress, this is not the point at hand, the point is that the seal hunt is of great significance to us and is very much needed. The reason it looks so cruel as because of the haqa' pik used, but the reason it's used is because the high powered rifles that some hunters use is dangerous to everybody. The bullets could very well ricochet and hit a hunter or another seal. That seal could wander off, no one knowing it was even hurt, and die frightened after hours of torturous pain. The haqa' pik might look cruel, but it's probably the quickest thing, though the prime minister of Newfoundland is trying to abolish it and have only rifles used. Until we can find something better. Finally I'd like to make perfectly clear that only adults are killed, no white coats. This is a common misconception due to the frequent pictures in anti-seal hunt slide shows of cute little baby seals covered in white fur. They used to be killed for fur trade purposes but that was made illeagal long ago.