Le Canada est furieux !!

[Animal 0]

Canada reacts angrily to UK's support for full boycott of animal
products on eve of cull

Juliette Jowit in Newfoundland
Sunday February 11, 2007
The Observer

Canada has attacked Britain's 'moral' decision to support a Europe-
wide boycott of all seal products, as hunters prepare for the annual
cull of around 300,000 baby seals.

At present Europe bans only products made from seals under 12 days
old, known as 'whitecoats', but the UK is putting pressure on the
rest of the EU to join Belgium and Italy, as well as the United
States and Mexico, in introducing a blanket rejection of the
industry, which is worth £22m to Canada. The Canadian government is
frustrated that the British position is based on 'public morality
concerns' rather than scientific evidence.

The Canadian High Commissioner in London, James Wright, has written
to Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, and David Miliband, the
Environment Secretary, complaining that the Whitehall decision is
'unfounded and unhelpful' and urging them to approach the issue in
'an objective and constructive manner'.

The UK move, however, reflects growing international outrage over the
annual seal cull, which gets under way in late March, mostly around
the Atlantic coast off Newfoundland and Labrador and the Gulf of St
Lawrence.

In the 1970s seal populations in the north Atlantic crashed. This was
blamed by conservationists on over-hunting, and a European ban on
importing 'whitecoat' products all but shut down the industry. Seal
populations recovered; there are now an estimated 5.8 million seals,
and a quota is in place for the cull. Last year 350,000 were
slaughtered. This year the figure is expected to be slightly lower.

But protesters say that many more seals are 'struck and lost', and so
do not count towards quotas. Humane Society International, a pressure
group, has argued the Canadian model is 'unsafe', and compared the
seal culls to previous management failures that led to the depletion
of cod and salmon.

Canadian fisheries officers admit current quotas will reduce numbers
but say they are committed to keeping the population above 4.1
million - the estimated 'safe' level. The European Parliament said in
December it found 'no evidence' that the hunt threatened the wild
seals' survival, and the World Wildlife Fund confirmed last week it
does not consider the seals to be endangered. Ninety per cent of seal
furs -the main reason for the hunt - are sold in Russia and China.

The images of sealers using 'hakapiks' to club young seals, of blood-
smeared ice and bloody carcasses, continues, however, to provoke
international reaction. Sealers are particularly angry that
protesters use pictures of whitecoats for publicity, even though
hunting them was banned years ago. Protesters point out whitecoats
are hunted immediately after they become more than 12 days old and
that the seals killed are almost all under three months; they have
been weaned and are independent of their mothers, but cannot swim.For these reasons, the question of whether the hunt is 'humane' is
the most emotional issue for activists and sealers, who confront each
other, sometimes aggressively, on the ice each spring.

A report in 2001 for the International Fund for Animal Welfare
estimated it was 'likely' four out of 10 seals were skinned alive.
However a paper in the Canadian Veterinary Journal the following year
claimed 98 per cent of seals were killed in an 'acceptably humane
manner', and a Royal Commission of the Canadian government said
killing methods compared favourably with other hunting.

With so much conflicting evidence, European MPs have ordered another
review before deciding on a ban.

The sealer's story

'My name is Jean-Claude Lapierre, president of the Sealers
Association on the Madeleine Islands.

'My first hunt, my father didn't want me to go because he thought I
was too young. I cried so much my mum made pressure on dad and he
said OK. I didn't sleep that night, I was so excited.

'The next morning we arrived on the big ice. There was lots of seals.
The first thing that impressed on me was the crying of the baby
seals. My father killed a whitecoat and he said: "Jean, you have to
go kill that big one, the mother."

'I was so nervous but I had to go, I took my hakapik, I hit him for
maybe 10, 15 minutes. I was so nervous; really, really nervous. I
turned my face to dad and the rest of the crew, and they were
laughing at me. After that I killed some whitecoats and I felt kind
of guilty... I didn't understand really what was going on. That was
how I found out I was a man and I joined the crew at 12 years old.

'I'm 66 now. I've been every year since. It's always difficult to
kill animals. That hurts inside - if you think what you're doing.'

SALOPARD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Qu'est-ce qu'il essaie de nous prouver?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2010512,00.html

[hop 0]

Citation :

SALOPARD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Qu'est-ce qu'il essaie de nous prouver?

Ben, qu'il est un homme. Que le métier d'homme...c'est dur parfois !


Une foutaise de ce genre, je suppose