The first day of this year’s seal hunt is today. I’d like to wish happy hunting to the much-maligned maritimers who earn their living via this pursuit. I hope that they can take the ugly attacks from the Humane Society of the United States in stride, and keep their chins up while they provide for their families.

The Humane Society’s primary goal is to raise funds, and the seal hunt is one of their best fund raising issues ever. Perhaps only the “Save the Whales” campaign has made more money. To say that the Humane Society has the well-being of animals as their core concern is like saying that McDonald’s has making hamburgers as its’ primary objective. McDonald’s seeks profit, and hamburgers are nothing more than a means to achieve profit. Engendering pity for the poor seals is a great way to make people, who don’t want to think about serious issues, open their cheque books.

This year the Canadian government has reduced the number of seals that can be taken, because climate change has resulted in the ice melting much earlier than usual. Therefore, most newborn seal pups, who need the ice sheets until they learn to swim, drowned. Activist groups have pleaded with the government to cancel the hunt altogether due to the fact that few pups survived this year. Perhaps these people would serve the cause of the seals better by asking the government to ban SUVs or take some other meaningful action to address the root causes of climate change. Of course, when profit is the goal, it always wise to take the low hanging fruit first. For this reason, it is strategically advantageous for The Humane Society to beat up on some working class family men rather than to take on Shell or Exxon.

There are about 6 million seals in Canada, which is almost as many children as there are in Iraq. I guess seal pups and Iraqis have one important thing in common. They both get to suffer because of our enormous appetite for fossil fuel.

Here is a link to a video depicting the plight of Iraqi children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/v...=true

If you are one of those who think that the most heart-wrenching thing going on in this world is the hunting of seals, then perhaps you should check out this video. However, if you are neither one of the American activists circling the seal hunters in gas guzzling helicopters nor someone who is in the habit of distracting yourself with cosmetic social issues, then I would avoid watching it.