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Post by Liberator on Jul 27, 2009 23:39:34 GMT
It's back in the news that clubbing baby seals is 'inhumane'. Is it? It is certainly more directly brutal than shooting them, but is it actually any more cruel, or is the real objection that they are 'baby' (aah!).
I admit that I do not like it because I would have to feel pretty 'sick' to club a helpless seal pup. But that's hardly the point: if I see it as a resource, then clubbing it to death may be more effective than shooting it, and at least faces me with the reality. If the thing and attitude is bad in itself, then the less brutal it presents itself, then the more it distracts attention from the ethics of what is going on to quibble about how and avoid questioning whether what is done is 'good' or 'bad'.
I don't know. Smashing the skulls of baby seals in does not sound good to me, but I have no rational explanation that it should be any worse than shooting or killing other juveniles like lamb. And why should killing juveniles be any worse than killing adults? I could quote a play I had to do at school with a passionate exposition of the opposite, that killing weak and useless women and children is of no consequence as long as strong men are not threatened. I hate to be so nationalist pseudo-racist but should it come as surprise that it is a German classic? (Die Räuber von Schiller)
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Post by Ben Lomond on Aug 1, 2009 17:05:33 GMT
The last time I checked, baby seals are not a food source, as baby lambs are. It is a meaningless comparison. The annual cull takes place simply at the behest of local fishermen, who claim that the seals eat their catch. Nature would control the population of seals according to the availability of their food sources. But God help any animal that has the temerity to threaten a fishermans livelihood. Club them to death. It saves the cost of a bullet!!
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Post by Liberator on Aug 1, 2009 18:18:52 GMT
Who are these 'fishermen' I wonder. There are occasions when exceptions to general prohibitions just might be acceptable on grounds of ethnic tradition but too often, it looks to me that what was originally survival necessity has turned into commercial monopoly and the image of reservation natives pursuing a traditional tribal life has yielded to a reality of rich exploiters no different from their 'colonial' counterparts.
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