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September 2008 
The Killing Fields of Canada
Posted on Mar 27th, 2008
by 
pRiMaLeVe
pRiMaLeVe
WELCOME TO THE WORLD
The annual Canadian Harp Seal hunt is underway as of dawn today. It's by far the largest mammal hunt in the world and the only commercial hunt in which the target is the infant of it's species. For 6 to 8 weeks each spring, the ice floes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the eastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador turn bloody, as some 300,000 harp seal pups, virtually all between the ages of 2 and 12 weeks old, are beaten to death - their skulls crushed with a heavy club called a hakapik - or shot. They are then skinned on the ice or in nearby hunting vessels after being dragged to the ships with boat hooks. The skinined carcasses are usually left on the ice or tossed in the ocean.
Thousands of other wounded pups (estimates range from 15,000 to 150,000 per year) manage to escape the hunters but die later of their injuries or drown after falling off the ice (pups younger than 5 weeks cannot swim). The seals are hunted chiefly for their pelts, which are exported to NORWAY, FINLAND, HONG KONG, TURKEY, RUSSIA and other countries, where they are used to make expensive designer-label coats and accessories.
AMONG THE MAJOR VENDORS OF THESE PRODUCTS ARE THE ITALIAN FASHION WEAR COMPANIES, GUCCI, PRADA AND VERSACE.
For more information on the hunt and surrounding issues + how you can help stop it for good: protectseals.org (blog doesn't support a link so type in browser)
The Life of a Baby Harp Seal
Thoughts...
People disapprove of causing animals pain, but they think killing animals is OK. We're not remotely consistent about this. If killing animals was morally neutral we wouldn't disapprove of someone killing their pets, but we do.
We talk about not inflicting unnecessary suffering on animals to legislate against practises we don't like, fox hunting or setting cats alight for fun, but we assume that if we *profit* from some activity it is necessary even if we don't need to do it. We don't need to kill animals for meat. All that is unnecessary suffering. We only do it on the assumption animals are there for us, material for not just our needs but our wishes, because of a superstitous belief that huwo/man life is radically different from animal life. That's a factual mistake. Animals manifestly have lives of their own, lives of value to them and killing them requires more justification. Even creatures we don't easily or naturally think of, the more we find out about them the more we see them as fellow/sister creatures. Darwin's last book was on worms. He thought earthworms were complex, intelligent creatures. He wasn't being absurd. Earthworms seem to be (are) sentient creatures with strategies for dealing with problems.
The field where there are difficult problems is in the field of medical expirementation. Of course, as members of the (")first(") world we've gained enormously from trying things out on creatures. That doesn't mean it's OK. We shouldn't expect disease-free lives. It's a mirage. It's part of a fantasy of immortality. Struggling to get it at the expense of other creatures is silly. As soon as we solve problems others come up.
Some (read ALL) tests are not necessary, some tests are dubious.
And even if huwo/man beings are saved it's still probably wrong. These tests would be done much more effectively on a huwo/man. Would you do that? There are plenty of huwo/man creatures that we could forcibly experiment on.
But in a civilized society it's wrong to treat others as means. It wouldn't make a difference to us if they were not very clever or if they were not able to speak or whatever characteristic it is you use to say that animal life has less value than huwo/man. These are huwo/man creatures who are less reasonable than a beagle.
We have to accept that living in this fascinating cosmos means having a limited stay. Demanding more is a mistake.
By Stephen Clark
( ( ( I am "standing and bearing witness" with those on the front lines in response to their call for the duration of the hunt via this blog, comments and other initiatives. Please join me and the global momentum to end this epic brutality, it's only just begun and is slated to continue for 2 weeks. ) ) )
Access: PublicTagged with: Newfoundland, Labrador, Gulf of St. Lawrence, animal, Norway, Finland, Hong Kong, Turkey, Russia, Gucci, Prada, Versace, cruelty, courage, to, feel, heal, healing, healed, Nature, deep, ecology, water, sea, ocean, balance, restore, blue, benevolance, benevolant, outcomes, grace, bliss, Mother, Earth, sacral, sacred, second, nonduality, spirituality, creative, chakra, flow, philosophy, ethics, awareness, freedom, understanding, cosmology, harmony, peace, respect, RESPECT, brothers, sisters, elders, anscestors, intend, focus, see, know, miracle, miracles, protectseals.org, protect, right, rights, international, waters, owned, by, none, life, self, determination, equanimity, prayer, voice, of, reason, meets, speaks, 'for', baby, harp, seals, fur, sham, canada, canadian, shame, stephen, clark, professor, article, serve, well come, activate, universal, come, unity, community, COME UNITY
In high school I was asked to debate the pros and cons of the seal hunt. I wasn't into debating or the contention so I 'resolved' this by shrinking my presence and appearing unprepared instead of just screaming bloody murder like I should have.
Is it really rocket science to get it that harp seal parents feel every bit as amazed and thrilled and caring and loving toward their newborn infants as people do? How does this awareness possibly resolve itself with the bludgeoning going on. Can you IMAGINE if it was your kid being disadvantageously bludgeoned to death with a pick by a 'civilized' grown man in front of you? …I guess each of us has something that seems the most obvious thing in the world that relatively few others appear to embody. Explaining is the easy part, doing it without mirroring anger well that's another question that.
Today is a tough day, as a water sign I let the tears slip and flow as they come beginning with tuning into the protectseals.org site this morning. The hunt started at dawn, and the counter is flipping steadily each second indicating the rising number of baby seals being killed as I type this. This evil count down is scheduled to continue for 2 more weeks.
It's really hard not to judge the soul-less nature of a man (hunter) who has it in him to brutalize a baby of any species. This is no sacred act. It is sickity SICK. When I hear that the government deems that a quota of killing 275,000 harp seals is acceptable, I ask by who's standards. These seals are international citizens like me, migrating through vast ocean waters: What right do Canadian hunters and their government allies have to spring up and start clubbing these wonderful, peaceful creatures just because they have the ill fortune of having their young near this country's coastline? It's no more than a basic issue of entitlement.
The hunters are acting in an exclusive, closed environment and it is incredible the lengths the government is going to to justify (read lie) defend this kruelty klub. Domination over Nature is over and we are only just beginning to to get a taste of the effects of this bygone era. The Earth is dying as part of her Rebirth and so are we. Persisting and trying to go back will only cause the pain we feel to be more acute… The only way I can possibly process such labourios atrocities (pick your story) is to know without a doubt that every cell in my being is a prayer and to put everything I am behind the *knowing* that this tragedy will end in my lifetime, which is not remotely close to soon enough.
The only way out is to feel the pain and DO. Alchemizing trauma is the norm for change agents, we should be used to it by now but we never quite are the only redemption now being that we are global in scope and on the ground in droves. Another name we sometimes go by is NGO's. …Witnesses and activists on the frontlines need our support, strength and prayers for they are perservering in a very hostile, environment that speaks violence and perceives listening and dialogue as a threat in stead of a doorway to expansion. My heart is fortified knowing some of my biggest heros on the planet are facing off the hunt, like Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd who is uncompromisingly dedicated to his 'clients' of the seas.
My thoughts and prayers are first with the harp seals and their families today, also present with all of the rainbow warriors planet wide… I have such profound grattitude for everyone's brevity and endurance. It truly is a privilege to be alive and there's nothing left but to make the MOST of it for the Good of All. ~*
“Please Stand With Us and Bear Witness”
Call from the Killing Fields:
Rebecca Aldworth has been documenting the seal hunt for 10 years, following is an excerpt from her blog leading up to this morning's events.
…I lay down a few feet from them and closed my eyes. They repeated the gesture. After doing this a few times, the seals were fast asleep. And so was I!
When I woke, the pups were huddled together just inches away from me. My two new friends woke as well, staring at me curiously. One slid across the ice to me, taking a moment to smell my face before he move on.
One of the most tragic things is the advantage held by the sealers. Not only are these pups just days of age and utterly defenseless, but they are absolutely trusting of people. The sealers betray that trust in the worst possible way.
I looked over across the ice, and saw one very young seal crawl up to Nigel's camera, staring at him in fascination as he took her photo. It never ceases to amaze me how charismatic these newborn seals are - and how utterly peaceful the ice floes can be …
I've been thinking, who are the women these baby killers go home to? Do they look their kids in the eyes and somehow justify their actions by splitting themselves into the delusion that human children are different / better / elite animals? …No man who was out senselessly pick axing infants of any species would be setting foot anywhere near my doorstep that's for certain…Or be getting anywhere near my children, who happen to be the fur kind ~ like seals;
Although this is a very challenging time to be here innately kinnected with animals, I give it up for men like my partner who *never* grinned and bared it when morally uncompassed friends miscreated stinted 'rites of passage' for their unsupervised selves that involved torturing small animals and inscects. Apparently this is very common for boys, I don't even talk to someone in our circle - not that I go out of my way, because there's something evil he did to a cat when he was young and it must be extra so bcz I don't even consider the person who relayed this to be particularly empathetic.
We know what's not right in our bodies at any age. I remember absolutely flipping a kid in our garage who started to tear off a centipede's legs for no good reason: - Believe me, he turned tail and we never played again. I don't care what people think when I speak for animals and the insane amount of cruelty they endure and still are. I've heard it said that animals are the next frontier of our compassion, please let it be TRUE. And while more and more people are saying they are feeling the connection to animals, I'm the sort who will make sure I pour cold with boiling water down the sink when I do, so no crawly creatures get unnecessarily singed. It's a SLOWING DOWN THING, to really realize and know we do not own this planet and are perpetually guests here.
As a woman connected profoundly with this Earth it's hard every single day to bear this awareness for the flagrant disregard I witness of my sex (i.e. the Divine Sacred Feminine Nature… perhaps the most unbelievable is the actual culturally sanctioned WIFE DISPOSING/BURNING/MURDER commonly going on in India to this day, etc. etc. etc. etc.). And so I deal with my pain body, something we all have and are plugged into until the foretold 'Age of Peace' is on sure footing. And so I'm likewise into healing, transmuting, alchemizing in order to stay and make what I have to “say” possible in some way.
Something my 11 year old niece wrote me today - a poem expressing the core of my 'deepest darkest' as a woman on this planet jolted me into the realization I have to stay strong and make a serious go if I'm this far. I'm actually quite hard on myself, and am quick to acknowledge that there's no sense in meeting depreciation with depreciation - of Self.
So much to DO…. Ending this hunt takes focus from many, but I know it will come to a close for good.
AHO!
The Fulcrum of (my) 'Incomprehension':
Once there is a certain degree of Presence, of still and alert attention in human beings' perceptions, they can sense the divine life essence, the one indwelling consciousness or spirit in every creature, every life-form, recognize it as one with their own essence and so love it as themselves. Until this happens, however, most humans see only the outer forms, unaware of the inner essence, just as they are unaware of their own essence and identify only with their own physical and psychological form.
~ Eckhart Tolle
(Reflecting on identification with the unconscious pain body and what stirs one to exterminate - vs. celebrate - what is essentially pure, benevolant SPIRIT… The Forgetting.)
Ten Deer
I missed the bus the other day and had to wait a while for the right ride. When he did show up, we enjoyed shared quiet and I the reasonable speed he was driving, which was below the limit with what I'd call real 'road sense'. Awareness of the ongoing Seal hunt present in my be.ing, I asked him what the sticker with the Haida art in his front window was about that said “Stop the Hunt”. He told me that grizzly and black bears are being trophy hunted on Haida Gwaii.
I sat for a while incredulated on top of incredulated (Haida Gwaii that was ineptly re/named “the Queen Charlotte Islands” by European explorers is fairly remote on B.C.'s West Coast relatively tiny and very sacred), then offered, “I don't understand trophy hunting”. …What else is there to say?
This ride was a sweet man, a kind elder whose heart is as gentle as mine. As we spoke it came up or he seemed to allude he was from Newfoundland, saying he was recently 'back'. He said he couldn't bear to watch news of the seal hunt it made him so angry. He said he believes it will be over in my lifetime, not his. I don't think he had any clue how old I am, as people often see me as appearing younger and I don't bother to clarify any more, accepting the flattery.
My ride angel of the day observed how it was hard to be in the valley we were driving along and watch how built up it had become in some areas over the years. He said how he used to see herds of 10 deer everywhere in this valley and the next where he now lives. And how now he only sees one or a couple at a time now, always with fear in their eyes - a wariness from their territories being invaded and taken over, constant displacement, their relatives being disproportionately hunted…their gentle species/nature driven out.
It's been a week since that ride. I got out of the car in town hoping I would see this man again, like a wise grandfather he knew exactly what I was feeling and was able to be with it - knowing, letting it serve as catalyst for his kindness, his words, his strength, and ultimately beyond any hu/woman affinity, his compassion and empathy for the baby seals. He seemed relieved when I assailed the often stated reason for the seal massacre that they deplete cod populations, impressed with my fast response that it's human overfishing that have caused the imbalances. Like I got the right answer or had helped to finally resolve something, maybe a question at home on the eastcoast from days gone by.
To my 'disbelief' the seal hunt has gone on for 2 weeks…I repeat, 300,000 seals gone, the sealers more zealous and in blatant brutal abuse of the already loose regulations on the hunt than ever. Not only do they take the babes excessively violently and without prayer, respect or connection to their sacred divine Nature, injuring and leaving so many for dead along the way - but the sealers had to chase the seals north. The water must be so bloody, the hada (life force) so low, the smell of death strong in the air…the grieving in the hearts of the seal families and huwo/man witnesses heavy.
Today looking out of my kitchen window, I counted a herd of ten deer. As I told my ride angel with a few tears that slipped beyond the rims of my sunglasses but not his view, “Damn Right” (the hunt will end in my lifetime).
Ugggghhhhh …Another year, Another Seal hunt? This is the 37th year of this epically brutal, wholly unconsious and unnecessary slaughter, despite massive outcry for it to stop by Canadian and International citizens. Every day, my thoughts are with and profoundly grateful for the courageous frontline animal welfare goodworx witnesses enduring the horror show are doing. I picture grown men pick axing 100's of 1,000's of beautiful, precious INFANT harp seals to death and leaving so many fatally maimed and suffering in the process - rendering the seals' mothers and families emotionally scarred beyond repair… A sea of blood my blood, their blood, screams of pain and agony, envisioning the piles of wasted corpes after the fur was ripped from the bodies (it's documented, many are still alive when skinned) left to rot on the ice…FOR WHAT, so some ignorant fashion killers across the planet to not find it in their sorry selves, to be more creative than to cause ruthless suffering?!
Biodiversity equals Life, enough of acting like uninspired adolescents in relation to the most balanced, evolved field of everything we simply and mostly ignorantly call “Nature”. We are being called to something infinitely more adult in recognizing that given the rate we're killing off species of all other kinds forever i.e. taking for granted and irreplaceable, harp seals are assuredly of way more value to the quality of our lives alive and vital than dead! Not that they don't exist in and for our own right, which is for the most part none of our business…
I repeat, harp seals are migratory and do not belong to Canada! Just because they have the grave misfortune of bearing their young in “Canadian waters”, is no reason to let this massacre continue. Please step, speak up and add your protective voice for the baby seal pups! Spiritually, we ALL feel this senseless wound of event in its being the largest marine animal slaughter on the planet, what represents the death of innocence/intuition in the end. I cannot believe I supposedly live in a 'civilized' country, what an embarassment to say the least! Apparently the number of those of us who've spoken hasn't gotten LOUD enough! We are One Planet now…
I AM ASKING THAT IF YOU ARE READING THIS WITH A COMPASSIONATE AND FEELING HEART, WHICH IS THE ONLY UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE WHERE WE ARE ONE AND AUTOMATICALLY RESPECTFUL OF OTHER BEINGS WE SHARE THIS EARTH WITH, that you Act Now, sign the Active petition to stop the hunt and/or make a donation Today. EVERY ONE COUNTS, AND WITH YOUR HELP THIS HUNT WILL SOON END.
http://www.hsus.org/protectseals.html
(Pathetic tho it's even happening, I'm at least glad to see a lot more sites devoted to protecting Seals)
With Love and Grattitude on behalf of those of voices unheard,
Jade