Products made from seals
Seal skins have been used by aboriginal people for millennia to make waterproof jackets and boots, and seal fur to make fur coats. Pelts account for over half the processed value of a seal, selling at over C$100 each as of 2006. According to Paul Christian Rieber, of GC Rieber AS, the difficult ice conditions and low quotas in 2006 resulted in less access to seal pelts, which caused the commodity price to be pushed up. One high-end fashion designer, Donatella Versace, has begun to use seal pelts, while others, such as Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren, refrain from using any kind of fur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_hunting

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Well, I don't exactly know What's going on in the world today Don't know what there is to say About the way the people are treating Each other, not like brothersLeaders take us far away from ecology With mythology and astrology (and -ology)
Has got some words to say About the way we live today , Leon Russell


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If that's your style of discussion or debate, I accuse you of incivility, and thus conclude that your posted opinions are unworthy of engagement or consideration.

I have nothing futher to add.

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www.discussionworldforum.com

Theres nothing we can do to stop europe from banning the seal products. If they feel its immoral its their choice. Its not as if they are banning a canadian product for their own gain. Its not as if they are banning canadian beef to sell their own beef, nor as if they are putting tarrifs canadian softwood lumber to make their lumber more profitable. That would be some real hypocrisy worth making a fuss about. The seal industry is incredibly minor, I don't care for my government to spend alot of energy on this tiny issue. The seal hunters hardly affect canada's image, but the actions of our government does. Extreme posturing will get us no where, and make us look foolish on the world stage.

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What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

it doesn't have to be arbitrary. the cute factor is arbitrary. but there are good non-arbitrary reasons why some animals are not acceptable to slaughter. for one there is something to be said of the level of intelligence or emotion some species posses, it varies. And generally speaking, mammals posses the greatest levels. I think there are many more things cuter than whales and dolphins but killing them is high on my scale of immorality.

There is a "yuck" factor as well with animals we socialize with. Dogs, cats, horses. I think the repulsiveness we feel towards eating them is connected to the same evolutionary root as cannibalism - a social construct that miss fires to include animals we interact with. And we have breeded these creatures for higher mental capacity, too.

And the extinction factor, which i assume everyone is on board with so it isn't worth talking much about...

Actually I think its more arbitrary about what species DON'T get our sympathies, at least in the mammal world (birds and fish are moving vegetables - they are very stupid). But cows, pigs, rats, they are the ones that are the arbitrary exceptions, the few that are eaten or tested en masse - all of which are fairly cute I might add. But it comes from their unique domestication from humans, that which was long before philosophical debates of ethics. but now we keep them in that role so we may not need to use other animals?

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What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

"tiny issue"...it's not your job on the line, it's not your family that has to go without, it's not you family that takes a hit to it's income for a legal humane sustainable harvest no different than any other...I expect you'll be sending cash donations to those who lose a portion of their income???

it's cultural and arbitrary, what you consider repugnant others consider tasty

again you speak for yourself others do not share your sense repulsiveness...I have eaten horse(yummy) should the situation arise where cat or dog is on the menu I'll try those as well and I love my dog...which of these animals have we bred to a higher mental capacity??? none are demonstratably more intelligent then they are in the wild state..

Harp seals are no where near extinct, their numbers have risen so high they form the second largest herd of mammals on the planet, 7.5 million in the northwest atlantic, another 1.5-2 million in the White Sea...

birds stupid? many birds are considered equal or more intelligent than dogs as are pigs...

Indeed... thats why i said its a social construct that miss fires. If we didn't socialize with cats and dogs there wouldn't be the yuck factor. But it exists, and to those people the thought of eating cats and dogs is not much different than cannibalism. Its not the taste thats repugnant. In other words, it doesn't matter how tasty human flesh tastes, it would still be considered wrong to many people.

I speak of trends, you are the exception to eagerly try dog meat. domesticated animals are certainly more intelligent than their "wild state", i think, i don't know what you mean by "wild state". What like, dogs vs wolves, coyotes, foxes?

Indeed, and they deplete the cod supply, further hurting the economy of fishermen. My only point was that non-arbitrary reasons to not slaughter animals exist.

i've only ever heard of "smart" birds from the south american jungle. The rest are stupid creatures. But I don't mind exceptions, I have no problem not eating a smart bird. As there are fairly dumb mammals to eat too, like sheep.

As for pigs, I eat them only because they taste so good. But there is a long long co-evolution there. As the pig is bred to be as fat as possible, so too was i bred to eat him. But i think its probably wrong to kill them, i am a hypocrit and i respect those who can actually go without meat.

It's a "tiny issue" because there is nothing the government can actually do. Their demand is gone! its a dying industry, its apparently not sustainable at all. and its a waste of government energy to focus on it. What are we going to do? Whine europe into buying our seal pelts?

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What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Granny says, "How would dem seal hunters like it...

... if some big ol' seal was to take a club...

... an' beat dem on the head with it??"

domestic animals are NOT more intelligent than non domestic versions... only behaviour has been modified, not intelligence..we haven't been able to make ourselves smarter yet you believe we have that ability to do so with animals?

parrots are the equal to dogs, crows, ravens also...the intelligence is unknown to you because you have no experience with them, are there others that you don't know about???

there was something the government could do but it choose to do nothing...how about cutting off european fishers from our continental waters, protesting euro countries that practise inhumane slaughter...

Couldn;t have said it better myself.

This is check-out aisle gossip magazine environmentalism.

Well.. maybe I could..
lol