We Do Not Need The Seal Ban!
Seal Hunting is a traditional activity of the Inuit.
Have you seen the posters of white-coated baby harp seals being clubbed, slaughtered? Do you agree with those slogans that brainwashes people to believe seal hunting is a bad and evil thing which should be stopped? Have you ever thought why does this cruel and inhuman activity still exist? Do you know seal hunting is a traditional, and also subsistence to the Inuit?
Inuit should not be ignored as indigenous people of northern Canada.
They are having a hard time due to the EU ban of seal products, which is unreasonable.
From ancient times to the present, Inuit people rely on seal hunting to provide for their family. It is their culture, and their way of life. Moreover, seals are not endangered species; overprotecting seals is harmful to the life of the Inuit.
In fact, they care about seals more than everyone else because seals are their most important source of life.
The impact of seal ban on the Inuit is as serious as not allowing farmers to farm. Inuit is a large and ancient member of indigenous people of northern Canada and parts of Greenland and Alaska.
From generation to generation, they all hunt seals, and all the animals in the arctic circle for a living.
Namely, in the documentary “Angry Inuk” made by Alethea Arnaquq — Baril, Inuit children start hunting with their families when they are under 6 years old.
In the film, when the hunters bring home a seal, they call all their neighbors to share seal meat with them. Certainly, they don’t waste food. They eat everything of the seal, even the internal organs. After that, they carefully treat the seal skin to prepare it for clothes making or for sell.
It is impossible grow any crops in the arctic. Hunting is their only life source. They trade seal skins with the government for money to pay for the gas, ammunition, and daily necessities that they can’t make on their own.
However, these all changed after the seal ban.
When EU markets stopped importing seal products, the price of seal skins dropped dramatically.
To illustrate, in the interview taken by Eva Holland, Alethea Arnaquq — Baril, the director of the film “Angry Inuk” complains:
“People have a really, really hard time getting the romanticized image of old-school traditional ‘Eskimos’ out of their head, so it doesn’t occur to them that we might need to pay rent and buy all the same things they need to go about their daily lives.”
All Inuit families are having difficulties to live.
Consequently, almost all Inuit children go to school hungry.
In addition, according to the data Chelsea Vowel indicated in her book “Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada”, Inuit has a significant proportion of the total Aboriginal population of Canada.
Thus, the ban of seal products is ruining a whole ethnic group and their culture.
Most important, those who support the seal ban only saw seals being clubbed, but didn’t see the intensive survival of the Inuit. In short, what they are doing to the Inuit is much crueler than Inuit hunters clubbing seals.
Furthermore, Inuit people are not wiping out seals, and they care about seals more than those who only shout slogans.
First of all, seals are never endangered animal species. Specifically, in Tristin Hopper’s article published on National Post, he stated:
“their populations are almost as large as they were when much of Canada was still New France.”
He provided precise data to prove seal’s population has not change much during hundreds of years of hunting.
Hence, the EU should not ban seal hunting just because seals look adorable.
Indeed, if that’s the case, then what if someday people think pigs and chickens are adorable? How does it sound like when all humans become vegetarians?
Clearly, the ban is unreasonable.
Inuit people do care about seals.
They care about seals as the farmers care about the cattle and sheep that they raise at home.
Additionally, in “Why Are the Inuit So Angry?” published on Point of View Magazine, Judy Wolfe argues that people who make direct contact with wild animals are those who really protects them; these animal rights groups are attacking people who hunt wildlife.
In other words, animal rights groups only care the specific animals, but the hunters are defending the whole ecosystem.
Apparently, those who support the seal ban are being opinionated.
Generally, seal hunting does not reduce seal population; hunters are the true guardians of their ecosystem.
On the whole, Inuit people are humans same as people living in the city. They have their own culture, and their own way of life.
Animal rights groups and environment groups should not affect and destroy the normal life of the Inuit.
Most important, they can protect their own environment; they have done it for hundreds of years, and they can keep their relationship with the seals by themselves.
Therefore, seals don’t need animal rights groups’ campaign; the seal ban should be overturned.
