I got this email today from Rebecca Aldworth - Executive Director with Humane Society International/Canada, titled - "I just saw a baby seal get killed - please help!" - and it's all about how the mean, terrible seal hunters have gone out to start killing 400,000 seal "puppies" that they're allowed to kill because the Canadian government says it's okay to do it, so dog-gone it, they're going to do it.But HSUS is going to document every one of those puppies that they kill - and they want you the public to give them $1 for every seal in danger of being hunted down this year.
The problem is - today in the Halifax, Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald - there is a news story titled - "Few Sealers Expected to Hunt" - and it says "I’d say about 25 to 30 big boats will go out and they’ll probably bring in 50,000 to 60,000 out of the 335,000 quota," Pinhorn said Wednesday from Conception Bay South, N.L."
hhmmmm. Someone's lying. And I think it's the person who's trying to get money from an unsuspecting public who are looking at photos of little white seals with huge black eyes with long eyelashes.
When will this horror stop?
When will the HSUS stop making millions of dollars off of the back of the sealing industry? When will the public begin to realize that organizations like the HSUS need the sealing industry - and makes millions and millions more dollars off of the sealing industry - than any seal hunter - has EVER made?
It's a disgusting dichotomy - and someone needs to speak up about it. And I don't imagine that it will be someone like Rebecca Aldworth.
If you'd like to read more about this topic - I have a category about the seal industry as it relates to this on this blog - you can find it - here.
Joan, my big "beef" if you'll pardon the pun, is with factory farming.
ReplyDeleteThe animals lead confined, unnatural lives which end in lengthy crammed transportation to the place of their deaths where they can hear the terror around them of other dying animals.
Now if all those folk who bitch about the seal hunt stopped eating factory farmed food I might listen to them.
Seal pups are cute and fuzzy.
I wonder if they were slimy and butt ugly would anyone care about the seal hunt.
One of my favourite expressions is "we choose our own hypocricies".
Sigh ...
Sybil
Sybil, I would like to know if you have ever visited a 'factory farm' or just quoting chapter and verse what you have been force fed by animal rights activists? Animals have 3 main concerns, water when they are thirsty, food when they are hungry and a place to rest in comfort. All three of these are met in a modern production facility, most of whom are owned by family farmers. Just because it is one or several large buildings, it's still a family farm. If you have been to the midwest this miserable winter, you would have seen animals in climate controlled buildings, it was us, the farmers and ranchers who were out in the cold making sure of their comfort. If we don't treat our animals right, they are not going to make money for us to pay our bills, contribute to the economy in our rural towns and keep our school and churches. There are some abuses that should not be tolerated and are often flaunted by HSUS and their ilk as the normal everyday care of animals. There are also horrible child abuses taken place but you would not dare to lump all parents or day care centers together. This is a very wise comment, "When there is plenty of food, there are lots of problems. When there is a shortage of food, there is only one problem." Think about that before you bash those of us who are providing the safest and most abundant food for your table. Every farmer feeds 144 people.
ReplyDeleteJulie - I don't think that Sybil was talking about family farms when she was talking about factory farming.
ReplyDeleteShe was talking about the types of farms that use downer cows, thet types of farms that inhumanely kills cows and pigs as regular practices and doesn't have any regard for their animals.
Here in Nova Scotia we have mostly family farms and pretty much no factory farms - we are very lucky here - but we realize that in other areas of North America - there are huge farms with 1000's of animals - and people who live near those farms should be doing something to end the suffering on those farms in their States and provinces before they send out email after email about the injustices of the seal hunt - which in a lot of people's opinions - including mine, and maybe Sybil's too, is what we like to call - an abattoir without walls.
We realize that cows and pigs have to be killed in order for use to eat them - and we appreciate - or at least I personally appreciate the fact that someone's got to do it. I eat meat, my animals eat meat, and I'm certainly not going to go out and kill a cow - so I'm glad that you guys do it for me.
And I'm also glad that there are farmer's out there giving cows good lives before they are sent for slaughter - and that's the type of beeef I want to eat.
I don't want to eat the type of beef that is from a downer cow. That's the problem with factory farming. I want your beef, not their beef.
We also dislike HSUS and PETA - we realize that they are only out to misinform and are very disingenuous on a ton of different topics - but you also have to admit that factory farming does exist - bad farming practice is out there - animal suffering does exist - and that's what needs to stop.
That's all Sybil was saying I think. If we could buy all our meat from farmers like you - then I think the world would be a much better place. The cows would probably think so anyway.
Joan, it is a common misconception that any livestock facility that has several buildings, and houses thousands of animals, is a factory farm. Often they are not but that is what people are led to believe. There are three generations working a farm and livestock facility in our local area. It takes a lot to support 5 families and I think you also would lump them in with 'factory farms'.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that downer cows or any animal that can't walk into a harvesting facility is not then allowed into the food chain? We can't even take a heifer who broke her leg in a chute accident to our local locker and have her processed for our own food.
Farmers make up less than 2% of the population in the US, yet we are expected to feed and fuel the world and we are doing it. No longer is 40 acres and a mule going to feed a growing world and more than 98% of the population wouldn't do it.
My beef, so to speak, is those who are sitting in a cushy office in a high rise building, trying to tell us how to raise our animals when they haven't a clue at what goes on out here.
I think it's great then that you're out there letting people know that there's more than one type of beef farm, and there' more than what meet's the eye. It's the same way with the sealing industry.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably the same way with every misunderstood culture - maybe you could be a spokesperson for you chosen way of life - even if you don't want to be.
I'm sure you will understand me when I say that there is a lot of emotion involved whenever there are animals, the end of their life - and how it's perceived by people - everyone's got their own ideas about it - but it's people in your industry who do actually have the control over it.
All we see are the videos of cows mooing pathetically in the feed lots, not able to get up - left there for days - and we equate those animals with the animals around us. I've personally written about the subject a lot on this blog - you as a person who deals with it would have to distance yourself from it a bit.
My Dad grew up on a farm, and he talks about it - and he still gets teary eyed when he talks about his childhood pony and how a guy came to the farm when it time for that pony to die and the guy came and they dug a hole and took the pony to the hole and shot him so that so that he'd fall right into the hole. 65 years later - it still tears him up.
Working on a family farm isn't easy, but someone's got to do it. And I personally am very thankful that 2% of the population is willing to do it. I don't know what to say other than that.
This is my point in all this, a person who is not involved can't distinguish a family farm from a factory farm. For too long we, as farmers, have not stood up and told our side. The videos you see on TV are often the same ones played over and over again, with people thinking this is happening all over. Case in point, at the height of the BSE outbreak in the UK, you saw the same holstein cow stumbling around and falling in news cast after news cast. Times are changing, we now have to tell our side, we have to be 'ag-vocates' as one farmer in South Dakota has named himself. As he said, if you want the inside scoop on farming and ranching, ask a farmer, don't ask google.
ReplyDeleteYou are very right, Julie - the same as with the seal hunters. The only voice you hear from is from HSUS and PETA.
ReplyDeleteAnd with factory farming - one problem is that you only hear from The "Centre for Consumer Freedom" - which is just as bad as PETA and HSUS in it's inaccuracies and lies - so farmers still need to speak out with their own voices - I would love to find websites where I can read from their own viewpoints - you should start your own blog. I checked out your profile and you don't have one. You should start one! If you do - let me know, I will for sure read all your posts.
Well, thank you for those kind words, I have been considering it. As for the Center for Consumer Freedom, they have been terrific for 'outing' HSUS and PETA. And that is where humanewatch.org got it's start and where I found this article. Did you notice whenever HSUS has another expose and airs the damning video that it was filmed months ago? That is what really tells you about them, if they really cared about the abuse, they would not go months before reporting it. They don't care about the animals, they only care about the press they get.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely day here in NW Iowa and we have baby calves being born so it's off to the barn. Nice to have this conversation with you.