AR-News: FW: DawnWatch: Canada seal hunt on New York Times front page 4/5/04

[jim robertson]

>
>The Canadian Seal Hunt is on the front page of the Monday, April 5, New 
>York
>Times. The article is headed, " New Demand Drives Canada's Baby Seal Hunt."
>Clifford Krauss opens:
>"Commercial hunting of baby seals is back and even bigger than when it
>stirred a global outcry two decades ago.
>
>"Horrified by the clubbing of infant harp seals, animal rights advocates
>swayed public opinion against the hunt. Environmentalists joined the
>campaign, fearing that the species was being depleted. World sales
>collapsed. Even Canada reacted with revulsion and began stiffening
>regulations on the kill.
>
>"Now, Canada has lifted the quota to a rate unheard of in a half century,
>buoyed by new markets in Russia and Poland, and changing environmental
>calculations. A recovering market has turned into a quiet boom.
>
>"Here on ice patches of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the hunt looks nearly as
>brutal as ever. For as far as the eye can see, dozens of burly men bearing
>clubs roam the ice in snowmobiles and spiked boots in search of silvery
>young harp seals. With one or two blows to the head, they crush the skulls,
>sometimes leaving the young animals in convulsions. The men drag the bodies
>to waiting fishing vessels or skin them on the spot, leaving a crisscross 
>of
>bloody trails on the slowly melting ice."
>
>We learn that animal rights campaigns in the 1970's and 1980's shut down
>American and European markets and forced a virtual collapse of the hunt,
>"But over the last six years, Canada's seal hunt, by far the world's 
>largest
>and commercially most valuable, has undergone a gradual revival that has
>virtually escaped world attention. That trend is making an extraordinary
>jump this year, when the federal government will allow the killing of up to
>350,000 baby harp seals, or more than one in three of all those born,
>largely for their valuable fur.
>That is an increase of more than 100,000 from recent years, and the largest
>number hunted in at least a half century."
>
>Abolitionists, who oppose welfare reforms, arguing that they stand in the
>way of the ultimate goal of animal liberation,  might be buoyed by this
>line:
>
>  "Meanwhile, tougher hunting rules, including stiffer regulations to avert
>skinning the seals alive, have muted the effort to stop the hunt and eased
>the consciences of Canadians."
>
>And there is more information suggesting that calling for an end of what
>seems to be the most egregious cruelty may not have a positive impact on 
>the
>overall suffering:
>
>"Embarrassed by all the publicity accusing Canada of inhumane treatment of
>animals, the government banned killing whitecoats -- the youngest pups up 
>to
>12 days old. Now only the seals who have shed their white coats and become
>"beaters," at about three weeks old, are killed in these waters for their
>black-spotted silvery fur. The killing of those young seals has so far
>raised fewer hackles, although critics say hunting methods have not been
>substantially changed."
>
>We learn that seal products remain banned in the United States but that
>there are new markets in Eastern Europe and China.
>
>You can read the whole article on line, and see some upsetting photos, at:
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/international/americas/05SEAL.html?ex=1082
>172016&ei=1&en=db5dfe0561d74562
>
>This front page story is a great opening for letters to the editor, not 
>just
>about the seal hunt -- already widely opposed in the United States -- but
>about similar forms of cruelty still widely accepted, in fashionable, such
>as the wearing of fur from other animals.
>
>The New York Times takes letters at: letters at nytimes.com
>
>Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when
>sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be
>published.
>
>Yours and the animals',
>Karen Dawn
>www.DawnWatch.com
>
>(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in
>the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media 
>outlets.
>You can learn more about it at www.DawnWatch.com. To subscribe to 
>DawnWatch,
>email KarenDawn at DawnWatch.com and tell me you'd like to receive alerts.  If
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