Whose Life Is It Anyway?

With springtime approaching, the seal colonies will start producing pups, which means that seal hunting will start soon, if it hasn't already. We have all seen the horrific scenes of cute furry baby seals being clubbed to death in front of their mothers. Hoping to counter the protests and boycotts that are sure to come from other countries, Canada has decided to send a delegation of Inuit and New Founlanders to The Hague to defend its position.

Via Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/)

DOUG SAUNDERS - London— Aaju Peter and her teenage son Aggu made the journey yesterday from Nunavut to the Netherlands to make a point for the Canadian government, one rarely heard by Dutch protesters: The seal hunt is a good thing.

"I want to let these people know that we hunt the seals for food to eat and for coats to wear," Ms. Peter said yesterday shortly after arriving in the Netherlands. "Here in Europe, they believe a lot of myths about the seal hunt. I want to tell them that this is my way of life, my tradition, my right."

The Canadian government flew these Inuit, along with a Newfoundlander, to The Hague so they can face hundreds of activists protesting against the seal hunt today and provide their own, distinctly Canadian view to the crowd.

The stakes are high: This week's protests mark a turning point in European policy, which could end the importation of Canadian seal products and potentially harm fisheries and other Maritime exporters.

The European Union is debating a proposal to outlaw the import of seal products from Canada in all its 27 countries. Belgium has passed its own ban, and at least three other countries are following suit.

The British government has supported the proposed Europe-wide ban with a parliamentary endorsement of the animal-rights position. While global animal-rights protests have often greeted the start of the Canadian seal hunt in March, this year the issue has become especially sensitive for Canada.

If you look at it from an objective point of view, the anti-hunt protesters are not very rational. Humans should either stop killing animals altogether or they should regulate and legislate their killing to avoid cruelty and extinction. There is no moral or logical justification for sparing only the cute or beautiful (to our human eyes) animals. And I'm not even going to start on the cultural biases: foie gras = good and civilized, dog kebab = cruel and savage.

So whose life is more important anyway? Brown Inuit hunters or white European animal activists? One thing for sure, it's not the animals' life.

Repas inuit - Catherine Reisser, Laurence Quentin

And speaking of porn, here's a clip of a bird humping a cat (via World O' Crap - http://world-o-crap.com/blog/).

Whose ear is it anyway?