Seal hunting

Political animals

European politicians are breathtakingly hypocritical about sealskins

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Another important point: animals don't have any rights whatsoever, or at least they should not in a rational world.

A "right" is a social contract agreed between citzens and enforced by society. In a jungle, there are no rights and no privileges. One therefore has to spend time and energy securing oneself against our neighbors, leading to an unproductive use of resources. It is therefore broadly beneficial to sign a contract with all members of society, setting out certain codes of behavior, which are now called rights, enhancing everyone's well-being. Over time such a society will prevail over others which sepnd their resources on defence rather than wealth creation.

It follows therefore that we are only contractually obliged to extend common rights such as immunity from violence, infliction of pain etc, to our fellow contractors, i.e. citizens. Animals (and foreign terrorist suspects) are not party to this contract and are therefore not eligible to recieve rights; conversely they have no duties.

Fetch me a baby seal skin Jacques.


I think Dunni misses the meaning of "intrinsic value". His (not serious, I know) concern for the cod is not for the cod themselves, but to make sure there's enough of them for us to eat. Many of the arguments in Dunni's and other comments seem to be premised on the idea that there is no moral element to the issue: i.e., that it might simply be wrong to continue to slaughter seals so we can sell luxury sealskin jackets to the privileged few. Or even if they acknowledge there is a moral element, it is too "small" a problem to "get worked up about". If we can remove one bit of needless (yes needless) suffering from the world, why not do it? And maybe it will inspire us to tackle some of the bigger problems too.

And please, don't make us to try to believe that Canada would be overrun with seals if the seal hunt stopped.


"Needless" slaughter? The unabashed ignorance towards the seal hunt continues. The cod stocks in the region were devastated by years of overfishing in the 1950s. The seal cull is supported by the Canadian government because the alternative would be allowing the cod to become extinct. Who are you to say a seal possesses some kind of intrinsic value while the cod does not? It is, after all, a living creature.

In fact, the Canadian government would actually support increasing the quota were it not for international pressure. It is unfortunate that pseudo-experts (mostly foreign citizens who watch a single PETA propaganda video and claim to know all there is to know about the seal hunt) have come to dominate discussions about the cull.

This article has two faults that have been overlooked. Firstly, it fails to mention the disgusting traditions in some European countries that the European parliament (to my knowledge) has failed to address. Bull fighting in Spain quickly comes to mind. Now there is a real "needless slaughter." Secondly, the use of the phrase "baby" seals is irresponsible. The killing of "baby" seals with white fur has been illegal since 1986.


If demand for seal fur disappeared tomorrow, the Canadian government would have to hire the same hunters to kill the same seals to keep the population under control.

This illustrates a broader policital trend. Environmental and animal rights issues, while claiming a scientific backing, are driven almost entirely by emotional appeals to a constituency who deeply wishes to be seen as compassionate. The desire to do good, help the weak, and be seen as a responsible leader in the community has traditionally been facilitated through charitable giving and good works through churches and a few more secular charities for the poor. 'Green' NGOs and political groups have supplanted churches in attracting do-gooders and charitable givers.

Their pitch is remarkably similar in tone to the churches they have supplanted, promising impending apolcalypse, demanding self-sacrifice, telling the faithful how powerful and godlike they are while exhorting them use those powers to help the weak. Their followers accept the many tales of environmental woe with more faith than scientific scepticism, and greet all who question their faith with righteous wrath and indignation.

What bothers me most is that we allow these environmental zealots to take such an active role in our political lives. When evangelical churches attempt to skew political debates, there is much talk of the necessary separation of church and state. We need to be wary of environmental zealots in just the same way. The more we allow these preachers of doom to cloud our reason and influence our politics, the more they will lead us to stupid decisions like this seal ban. The next time you see a politician spouting 'green', treat him like he's telling you to repent because the apocalypse is nigh. Don't let the environmental preachers of doom lead us to ruin.


Seals are neither endangered nor threatened. However, baby seals make for good photos to raise the environmentalist instincts of the general public. Environmental Orgs did not previously protest or lobby against the hunt so vigorously because they knew it really wasn't that bad--there are much bigger, more important issues worth working yourself up over. However, focusing on the seal hunt shot fundraising numbers through the roof and so it became one of their rallying cries.


Three cheers to The Economist for deploring abusive practices at European factory farms - but a resounding raspberry for simultaneously offering apologies for the sickening and needless slaughter of seals. The apologies are not even innovative - we are once again treated to the tired argument that seal hunting is actually good because it imparts a value to the animals and gives us an incentive to conserve them. How about this: perhaps the animals have an intrinsic value as living creatures, regardless of whether man can find profit in their slaughter.

Actually I must correct muyself - I did find one apology rather innovative: we can comfort ourselves that the seals are "professionally "clubbed".



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