They are just embarrassing themselves now. Canadian MPs are acting like children -just to make a point after not getting their own way in Europe.
If seal wasn't on the menu before, we can assume that it tastes nasty.

Ah, well then, let's hope they eat hearty! In fact, I say, seal meat all around for the MP's of Canada, and dolphin, too!

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/05/04/tech-090504-seal-meat-mercury.html

Arrgh, a greengrocer's apostrophe! I'm ashamed.

What does Europe know about Canadian seal hunting? About the isolated communities that rely on the income? Why should Canadians have to endure the pompous posturing of Sir Paul McCartney and other rich idjits as they lecture fishermen on food ethics? Shutting down your industrial pork farms, Denmark? Stopping overfishing cod and lobster stocks, Spain? Putting a leash on one of the worst animal-rights culprit in the world, Tesco, Britain? No? Then sod off.

as they can actually go up and club the animal and it makes no attempt to evade or flee, then its not really a hunt is it?

more of a slaughter really. its all quite embarrassing.

and as for them beating their chests in rebuttal to the EU, we can now really see them for the twits they are.

Right on Catchfire, the issue is poorly understood by Europe yet the media and animal rights groups feel justified (and shockingly, unhypocritical) in hounding these isolated communities which depend on the seal hunt. Another interesting aspect of the seal hunt is its necessity (along with fishing regulation) in replenishing Altantic cod stocks, however cod continue to be significantly less photogenic than baby seals.

I suppose that's different from the way Danish pigs are kept in pens so small they cannot turn around, or the way chickens have become part of an industrialized food line foreclosing any hope of what could be called a bearable life--all so the Full English Breakfast (TM) can remain accessible to everyone.

The hakapik or seal club, fyi, is a traditional Inuit tool deemed the most humane way to kill a seal--which remains active, happy and social up until the moment of its death--which is more than can be said for every single animal in the corporate food industry. Anyone who has eaten a chicken wing and still decries the Canadian seal hunt is either a blatant hypocrite or an ignorant fool.

If you're eating a food source sustainably and using it's by products intelligently it is totally irrelevant whether the harvesting method is perceived to be cruel to those outside it's consumption.
But if you're eliminating the food source because it interferes with your own grotesque overfishing techniques then it is the wrong mammal being clubbed.

If they're so proud of this why didn't they include it in the Olympics?

"Your own grotesque overfishing techniques"

Ah nocod, the grotesque overfishing was done equally by Europeans (before and after Canada became a nation in 1867) and Canadians, so my point is that the seal hunt, naturally as seals are predators of cod, helps the cod replenishment efforts. The fishing industry is heavily regulated, mucho the detriment of smaller Atlantic communities, so I don't really think they could be currently described as grotesque. Furthermore, the seal is not being eliminated, the population is not an issue, people only find an issue with the manner in which they are killed.

Those claiming that it's humane are simply ignorant. Whether or not the hakapik can be used humanely is not the issue. The fact is that is isn't, as observed by successive reviews of the procedure. The seals are frequently left conscious after the first blow, and are often still conscious while they are skinned and bled alive. And a majority of seals are shot nowadays, often from boats, and accuracy and speed of death cannot be assured (and the opposite is observed). It does not stay 'active, happy and social' up to its death - often it is in immense pain, covered in blood and trying to escape before its death.

Similarly, any claims about economic necessity are nonsense. It is simply not the case that the 'indiginous communities' are simple doing what they've always been doing, and they rely on it for small, cultural survival. Most of the hunt is done by large corporations, most of which have very diverse fishing quotas, and certainly aren't dependent upon the seal hunt. This is actually the maion reason why the Canadian government stands up for the hunt - it is under pressure from very powerful and wealthy corporate lobby groups.

The reason that animal rights activists can feel justified in protesting this issue (although they certainly don't do so at the expense of pushing for more humane farming practices) is because this hunt is so completely barbaric, and its 'produce' so unnessary. At least a person could make an arguable case for eating meat; not so with fur.

Akimbo, there has been shown to be no link between 'culling' [brutalising] seals and cod stocks. It's an unfounded claim.

Well as a Canadian i can assure that out government is an an embarrassment, they have spent more tax dollars marketing and protecting the seal hunt than it actually brings in (in real $$) .
Thats ok wait till the G20 when our stealth fundamentalist christian Prime minister, trys to tie foreign aid to a fundamentalist agenda (ie no family planning )
or perhaps google Stockwell Day ( a senior minister ) and creationism. Make no mistake ... We have a goverment that wants to be more bush ( league) then bush. It is enough to make Gordon Brown look like a senior statesman....

Have Pity on us we (city folk) didn't even elect these guys. We apologize but it is a little out of control)

So let me get this straight: It's ok to eat meat so long as it's killed gently.

The British prefer their meat factory-farmed, stun-gunned and shrink-wrapped, don't you know, with a side order of inexplicable sanctimony.

It's nice to see some balanced and informed perspectives (thank you catchfire and akimbo). Europeans in general appear to be overwhelmed with misinformation and propaganda fed to them by opportunistic animal rights groups. British media in particular seem only too happy to demonize rural and poor Canadians while not casting Euro animal industries in nearly as evil a light.

When Europeans stop killing bulls for entertainment, chasing down wild boars for sport, farming and killing many millions of animals for fur, and eating countless varieties and preparations of meat we Canadians may consider abandoning our seal hunt. Until the hypocrisy, resolute ignorance and double standards end the seal hunt will certainly continue.

Canadian MPs put seal meat on parliament's menu in rebuff to EU; and millions to boycott Canadian products.

Oakus; if the problem is with 'misinformation', then why does the independent Burdon report clearly show the animal rights activists to be correct? As i said above, this has nothing to do with poor and rural groups, it is large commercial entities who profit.

And maybe Europe does treat its animals badly. But it's just petty to use that as an excuse. Why not do the right thing, rather than trying to be the biggest bully in the playground?

I think this is vile, but then again I think that slaughterhouses and factory farming are vile too - and the animals in the slaughterhouses are frequently still alive when they start skinning them. People who jump up and down about Canadian seal culls and about halal and kosher slaughter methods should find out about factory farming or check out their local abattoir and talk with staff there some time - and many of those animals have never even lived in the wild, going straight from miserable coop to slaughterhouse. Vegetarianism sounds better and better.

Vegan1 - You don't know the first thing about the seal hunt. Carried on by large corporations? Give me a break. Successive studies have shown the hakapik is used incorrectly? Prove it. The WWF and Canadian veterinarian association have repeatedly confirmed that the seal hunt is carried out humanely.

You're obviously biased and intent on remaining uninformed. Mind the animal industries going on in your own backyard before spouting b.s. about someone else' livelihood, diet, custom, culture, etc. Your dictating what is right and wrong for other people rings true to Britain's world-raping, domineering and self-righteous history .

Politicians would eat their own children to score points. It's probably tofu anyway; I doubt they have the stomach to eat something so artfully smashed to bits with a piece of wood that doubles as a toilet plunger.

"According to federal estimates, seals eat only about 40 pounds of Atlantic cod per seal per year. But with an estimated seal population of 4.8 million - double that of 20 years ago - the total is about 80,000 tons per year." Mark Clayton

Its not unfounded, there are arguments on both sides. It does seem bizarre that this issue is so massive while the French go producing foie gras without attack from the media.

Vegan1- You're kidding right? The IFAW independent?!? The IFAW is yet another of many organizations who post pictures of cute cuddly seals online, alongside of pictures of scenes reminiscent of European slaughterhouses, to appeal to the bleeding hearts of people like you (ignorant, naive, incredibly removed from the natural world and primary resource-taking, etc.) to raise funds.

Why should Canadians abandon the seal hunt any more than Europeans should abandon their animal industries? Get off your f-ing high horse, and go "save the world" in your own backyard.

I know nothing about it? I have a book in front of me about it by a world expert. Your credentials? A defensive Canadian attitude seems to be all you can muster. If all you can do is try to dismiss other people's comments as 'ignorant and unfounded', then why don't you do a bit of 'proving it' yourself, and show us the depths of your extensive knowledge? I know plenty about the UK's animal industry; and yes, it's terrible. That affords you no excuse. At least Europe has made a step in the right direction.

According to the official kill count in 2005, it was estimated that aborginal people's took less than 1% of the total harp seal kill. The actual money from the seal hunt also only contribute 5% of the total income of the commercial sealers - it's hardly an integral part of their livelihood.

As for proving that the hakapik isn't humane, one might cite the Jordan report and the Simpson report, which showed that 36% and 53% of seals weren't clubbed so as to induce unconsciousness (meaning that they were conscious and feeling pain whilst skinnedd and bled). One might also cite the Burdon report (which i mentioned earlier), which shows that even the existing procedural requirements aren't carried out: 79% of sealers aren't even performing the 'blinking reflex' test to check for consciousness.

@akimbo
It was a generic 'you'. I didn't mean to make you think I was singling out Canadians. Grotesque overfishing was indeed practised by the Europeans and still is.
Excusing the seal hunt for your quoted reasons, sure, it's one slim interpretation, but sonar, satellite, ground trawling, off land pollution, indiscriminate closed netting, lack of marine reserves, unpoliced off limit zones have pushed many species to the brink and are much bigger threats than an animal that has been in balance with it's food sources for uncounted millenia.

Akimbo, the Canadian government have themselves dropped the claim about cod stocks. To quote it is "not an attempt to assist in the recovery of groundfish stocks". To continue

"Seals eat cod, but seals also eat other fish that prey on cod. There are several factors contributing to the lack of recovery of Atlantic cod stocks such as fishing effort, the poor physical condition of the fish, poor growth, unfavourable ocean conditions and low stock productivity at current levels. It is widely accepted in the scientific community that there are many uncertainties in the estimates of the amount of fish consumed by seals. Seals and cod exist in a complex ecosystem, which makes it difficult to find simple solutions to problems such as the recovery of cod stocks."

Oakus, IFAW didn't carry out the review. They simply submitted some of the primary material. Frankly, it doesn't matter how biased they are; if they were able to get the footage, then the suffering happens.

I think both the Canadians and Europeans should abandon their animal industries, at least in their current form. It gives you no excuse to point at other people's conduct to justify yours.

We should protect the seals because just look at their eyes they're so cute and nobody ever fell in love with a chicken.

That's pretty much the argument against eating seal, and it's rubbish. Back to work everyone.

I think people feel a certain amount of guilt over the way we treat the natural world, and this manifests itself in outrage against things like the seal hunt because it requires absolutely no lifestyle changes except for the select few who work in the industry (and they can be bullied).

Of course we can't do something at all useful like reducing pollution or protecting habitats since that will actually require people to change the way they live.

Thank you, Clunie, for pointing out what most people don't stop to consider: the way seals die on the ice is not that different from how steers and lambs, etc., are killed in slaughterhouses. Just three big differences:
1. the brief seal hunt is in the open for rich animal lovers to witness (remember the horror of the McCarneys on the ice posing for their celebrity photo just before their divorce?) and millions of animals die all year round behind the closed doors of abattoirs.
2. The seal hunt is primarily for pelts, not for food, which is probably why most people are against it, except they get stuck at the bloody image and explode into tears or flames before they get to the one cogent reason to oppose the hunt (or to call for the widespread eating of seal meat).
3. There are many tiny Inuit communities in the north of Canada that depend on the seal -- skin, meat and bones -- and have done for centuries, and there are many more non-Inuit outports that depend on the income from the seal hunt. There is no other livelihood in those places.
Meanwhile the seals are threatened en masse by the loss of sea ice during the breeding season thanks to climate change. No ice, no place to breed, no seal hunt, no seals, end of issue.

Re: Rednic's comments

Well as another Canadian I can assure you that Rednic's comments are an an embarrassment. The seal hunt has been around a lot longer than the current minority government. The hunt generally receives non-partisan support. And why not - the hunt is limited and humane. Anyone who doubts this should work a shift in an abattoir.

Any non-vegan condemning the hunt is a hypocrite.

Apologies. McCartneys, not McCarneys. Though now I think of it, perhaps they were being carneys.

Having moved to Canada with my family,i find it treats humans a lot better than in the UK.Maybe the Labour MEP should be more concerned with the ongoing slaughter of British teenage boys in Afghanistan on behalf of El Gordos Nu Labour,but then again !!!

Europeans are a just a tad arrogant, sometimes. As a Canadian who has travelled extensively in Europe I can prepare a big long list of domestic problems that the EU should first adress at home, before venturing off half-way around the planet "inventing-problems-to-solve" in other countries. Canada's native people have been hunting and eating seals for centuries long before any of Europe's many internal bloody wars. We are a civilised nation, you know.

why don't we blame the non-human animals for the lack of fish? for the lack of game? for climate problems? In fact, for everything!

Why should humans take any responsibility for any of their actions when we have so many other species to blame?

We are the only species on this planet that continues to increase its population (except for rats/crows/pigeons/starlings/cats/dogs/cockroaches) at the expense of the rest of the animal kingdom.

Even the bees are under stress.

Next time you eat an apple,
consider who pollinated it.

As far as seals go, they were fishing the GeorgesBank long before the name even existed.

There should be an end to the hunting of ALL cute animals. We should ONLY eat the ugly ones.

as they can actually go up and club the animal and it makes no attempt to evade or flee, then its not really a hunt is it?

more of a slaughter really. its all quite embarrassing.

Yeah, the hunting that takes place inside a cow abattoir gives the prey a much better sporting chance of escape. You should see those nippy bovine fellas go!

vegan1 claims that "Most of the hunt is done by large corporations"

Have you absolutely flipped? What large corporations are involved -- let's have some names. Or did you just make that up.

@ginger " The seal hunt is primarily for pelts, not for food, which is probably why most people are against it, "

Perhaps; its also a hunt of attractive animals that look a bit like persian cats (in the face anyway) and the blood on snow looks horrific. Doesn't make for an attractive spectacle. I imagine this is a fair part of why i attracts so much negative attention. Having eaten seal and whale when in Alaska in a native settlement I can't say it as very tasty. The MPs may be disappointed.

I'm Canadian and I wish the federal government had the brains and humanity to think about what they're doing here instead of making these grand but painfully inane and wrong-headed gestures. Any hunt that involves shooting and bashing in the brains of animals trying to survive in a harsh environment should be stopped. In fact, it should have been stopped decades ago. There is very little economic benefit from the seal hunt, and as far as that goes plenty of other far more worthwhile industries have vanished in the recent past and workers have been retrained. This hunt is a disgrace not just to Canada, but to the world, as is trophy hunting for polar bears in the Canadian north and in B.C. for grizzly bears, not to mention trophy hunting for wolves with high-powered rifles from helicopters. O Canada--.

The solution is obvious. Teach the seals to use condoms (Sir Paul and Brigitte Bardot could make a video to show them), and the Inuit to grow their own vegetables (I don't know if BB is a vegetarian or vegan, but if not it should be sufficient incentive for Paul and Heather to bury the hatchet for long enough to produce another how-to for that purpose). Snow peas come to mind.

So if I've understood this correctly, eating seal is bad because they're cuter than chickens and cows?

Vegan1 thanks for your eloquence and access to the facts.
The defenses of seal hunting seem to be of the order 'other animals are also abused, so its ok to abuse and torture seals'.

Surely each case should be addressed on its merits? Its clearly wrong to skin alive conscious seals, and leave them to die in agony.

Its clearly wrong for pigs to be tortured in pens in which they cannot turn around, its clearly wrong for battery chickens to have as little room, and in addition live in an atmosphere so poisoned by the ammonia from their own excrement that it 'cooks' the protein in their eyes, like eggwhite, and they go blind.

Logically, vegetarian/ veganism is the only ethical answer.

I think the Canadian MPs should next,as part of their abuse feast, be served up baby Mountain Gorilla cooked over tarsands.

yum yum

Additionally, namibia faces the same criticism, where gangs of men club seal which are then skinned (for their skins), often alive. The numbers of Namibian seals are plumetting as they are starving to death because of over fishing, in addition to the pelt hunting.

protests about this cruelty and abuse have been met with the response from the Namibian government of 'an alternative has not been offerred'.

And they are large companies doing the hunting by the way.

Well done EU for opting out.

"So if I've understood this correctly, eating seal is bad because they're cuter than chickens and cows"
THAT SAYS IT ALL ! so much hypocrisy on the part of the meat eating animal lovers .

"the issue is poorly understood by Europe"

Speaking as a Brit pretty well all issues outside of Europe are poorly understood by the armchair, been-nowhere, self-important know-nothings of the Gauardian stink-tanks.
On the other hand Canadians can dish it out (usually against Yanks on whom they depend for most things) but have trouble taking it and they're always horrified that anybody would not think that they're wonderful. The slightest criticism and and they go into fits.
The seal meat industry is not really any different from any other meat industry which is all sort of un-nice. I say to Canadian spongers everywhere -- kill, eat and be merry.

Here in Vancouver the local people believe themselves to live in the best place on earth. Arrogant and misguided they may be, but the seal hunt wouldn't be tolerated in British Columbia.

Reading the comments, I have to wonder why Canadians don't react very well when they are criticised? I think it's the ice hockey mentality, sort out your differences by hitting each other with right hands until one of you falls over, while breathing through your mouth.

So, Canada, cast off this image and be the country you think you are - show the rest of the world the way, be a shining example to the rest of us and ban the seal hunt, thus challenging other countries to also get rid of their own barbaric practices.

But you won't because it's part of your national identity, like ice hockey, driving trucks through red lights at high speed, and producing maple syrup.

Now I definitely I won't be visiting....

I agree that, as a rule, we should only eat the ugly animals This is why I am against the seal hunt It is also why I refuse to eat dog - I could never chow down on something I play catch with in my spare time Chickens, unlike seals, are stupid, ugly, annoying and deserve to be killed and eaten They are horrible creatures and should be grateful for the time and effort we humans take in cooking them Cows have lovely eyes and look nice on a field, plus you can get milk and cheese from them - so why kill the goose that lays the golden egg? Pigs are really very clever (despite a propensity for eating shit - but then, I know many humans who do so too, at least figuratively speaking) and I once made a real effort not to eat them But a little bit of pig is essential to so many of my favourite French dishes and, frankly, I'd rather slaughter the pig than forego the French So I continue to dine off the swine And finally, there are lambs Now, I don't care what anyone says, but those little fuckers were just meant to be eaten Alive, they're creepy and not to be trusted, but roasted or grilled, they make a wonderful meal

And finally there's fish - which, personally, I count as a vegetable

That's what cows are for.

Aren't the Canadians worried about being seen as backward redknecks by the rest of the world? Isn't that what Sarah Palin is for?