Time to ban products from europe

[uglyelk]

http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en.do?pn=regional/ontario&articleID=2880810

Sick of this eco garbage from off shore. No european products and no music or movie purchases if the celebs start jumping on the band wagon. These people will receive zero support from my wallet.

Brigitte Bardot,what a figure head for the movement, peta activist. The women has been charged 4 times for hate crimes in France. Rumour has it she also had her pets and farm animals seized at one point because she was not looking after them.

Holland is banning seal products. Fine Ottawa should send their tulips back and tell them to stick them. We should have let the Germans keep their damn country! ****es me off members of my family died bailing these folks out so they could latter try and nuke the hunt.

Their will be no dutch beer in my immediate future.

[uglyelk]

Just realised the Stella Artois I just bought is now forbiden fruit. Ohh no no more Grolsch, I'm going to miss it.

Guess I'm just going to have to live with Canadian beer. Maybe the odd Steinlager.

Hope Austria doesn't get involved, I'd hate to stop buying Glocks.

[brownbomber]

are we talking continental europe or britain too, what's belgium done?? i'm fairly positive stells is belgian.
can't say for sure but isn't it a little harsh to punish the fine folks at stella or grolsch or something they haven't anything to do with?? imagine if people stopped buying things made by molson (which is american now anyway) because of the actions of our government?? weird isn't it. send the tulips back, that'll show em

[bagwan]

Drank a few Stella when I lived in Belgium. Unless they sold it to the North, brown bomber is right. But then again, if the Dutch ban seals the Belgians prob do too. Part of EU>

[uglyelk]

Belgium and Holland have approved legislation prohibiting the sale of seal products. Germany, Italy and Austria are drafting similar legislation, prompting pressure for the European Union to adopt a ban.

Yeah giving up some of the finer brews is going to suck. But hey I'm not totally out of control here. Even though Pamela Anderson is one of the spokes persons for the anti sealing movement, I'm not planning to boycott large breasted women.:lol:

[brownbomber]

hey bag when did you live in belgium? it's a really underrated place to visit, i backpacked through europe as a youngster and it was a crazy fun place. gotta say that brugge was one of my faves as well as zeebrugge and ghent were all a good time, lots to see and do and surprisingly good party zones, incredibly friendly people i thought some of the nicest in europe.

[grandslamer]

banning seal products? big deal ive witnessed the seal hunt and as a hunter i was totally sickened with the barbaric way it is done ..from leaving orphaned pups to skinning the animail while its still alive ..ive trapped for 15 years and have seen some not very many trappers using non quick kill sets which iv reportedto fish and wild life..but this seal hunt should be stopped atlease till they harvest more humanily

[.264 Win Mag]

I totaly agree with Grandslammer. Im not against seal hunting but find a better and more humane way of doing it. I couldn't imagine clubing a whitetail doe to death or field dressing an animal that still alive.

[uglyelk]

Not every white tail comes to the end free from pain and suffering. Not every bullet hits the perfect target. Lots of venison suffers a horrific fate on the way to the plate. But even the wounded and not collected, the gut shot critters are probably better off than the white tails eaten by cougar wolf and bear. Nature starts eating many times before death has arrived.

Humane killing....it's kind of an oxymoron. There is nothing nice and polite about death. It’s just some feel good BS folks spout. Yes we killed the cow and ate it but she didn’t suffer. WTF, it’s dead and ate! Humane killing means man killed it as opposed to a multitude of other natural causes that have no emotional hang ups about taking what is required. Humane killing is synonymous with disconnected from the natural, feeling bad or evil for causing pain and suffering. News flash death is not instant and usually involves pain and unpleasant emotions.

We here these cries from the P.E.T.A. crowd all the time. The horrific deaths that cattle, pigs and poultry suffer in the slaughter houses. We hear how inhumane it all is. Yeah I've visited lots of plants. It isn’t pretty, and it's not perfect. Kind of like killing seals out on the sea ice. But all industries have their regulations and standards.

We should not ban the consumption of beef or animal husbandry if a cow is found skinned and alive on a conveyor hook moving thru a plant. We should step up training and inspection in the plant.

So not all seals are dispatched quickly or properly step up the monitoring by Canadian regulators.

Foreign nations banning our seal products places a hardship on the Innu populations and about 10,000 folks on the east coast who benefit from this industry. We would be foolish to continue to purchase products from nations who impose economic hardships on our citizens.

I get a kick out of the Hollywood types refusing to wear seal products. Ever been to California…it’s kind of balmy. I’ve worn seal skin it’s freaking heavy, it’s also warm, windproof, water proof. Man must be tough for the Baywatch bimbo to go through life without a seal skin parka.

But it’s tougher for folks to go without income, and meat. It’s tough to stay on the dole or welfare when you could go sealing. It’s tough when folks from outside take away your lively hood.

Folks on the rock have been sealing for a few centuries. Sealing and cod, life was good and went that way for a long time. Everything was in balance man cod and seal.

Then the outsiders got involved. They all but shut down sealing. The population went from around 1.5 million to about 5.5 million in a few years. Then the cod industry collapsed. Now what do seal eat. And how many fish do 4 million extra seal consume each year.

Yeah life has gotten harder for folks who make their living from the sea.

But thank god no one has to witness those cute little white seal pups with the white eyes getting killed. The horror in Toronto and Paris has abided. Who cares if it resulted in some hungry bellies up north or on the rock. Yeah the odd poverty stricken man has wrapped his lips around a rifle barrel because he could no longer provide for his family. As long as Sir Paul can sleep at night without seeing those poor seal pup eyes it’s probably worth it. Glad our European neighbors are busy saving the world. They have such a great environmental record!

What a laugh. Denmark Banned Canadian seal products. However they harvest their own in Greenland. But they don’t harvest baby white seals and never had. (Moral superiority play) Well man aren’t they special….until you think about it and realize that the only place in the world that has white harp seals is Canada. They calve here and by the time they leave they are no longer white. But Hey why not sully the completion if you can sell your products in the market void any ban will create. These are the same folks claiming Canadian property in the north. Watch these folks they are not very ethical!

Rumour has it that Green land is about to drastically increase their seal hunt as the %.5 Million seals is playing havoc with their fisheries. Go figure. Cool however that with the boycott on Canadian products they can just slip on in and take over all the market demand that might be present in Europe.

Yeah buy from Europe because they are leading the world in ethics.:rolleye2: :rolleye2: :rolleye2:

[uglyelk]

Forgotten Story: The impact of "animal-rights" campaigns on the Inuit
by Alan Herscovici (Special for the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada)

In October 1983, the European Economic Community banned the import of sealskin products. It was the climax of a long international protest campaign that made Greenpeace a household name and established doe-eyed, "whitecoat" pups as the symbol of growing concern about protecting nature.

Rarely mentioned in the stacks of sensationalized news reports that trace the twenty-year "seal wars," however, were the people who had most to lose in this debate—although they lived thousands of miles from the ice floes of Newfoundland and didn't even hunt harp-seal pups.

Seals (mainly ringed seals) had always provided food, clothing, and other essentials for Inuit living in small camps along the vast Arctic coasts. In the 1950s, however, government policies to improve health and educational facilities resulted in Canadian Inuit being resettled in larger communities, often far from traditional hunting grounds.

By good fortune, new tanning methods developed in the 1960s allowed sealskins to be used for commercial fur garments, boosting international demand and prices. NWT ringed-seal skins, worth barely $1.00 before 1961, were bringing $14.00 per pelt by 1966. This money was used to buy supplies from the south, including power boats, gasoline, and snowmobiles that allowed Inuit hunters to travel farther and bring back more food for their communities.

A first wave of anti-sealing protests (sparked by the 1964 broadcast of a film about the Atlantic "whitecoat" hunt) reduced pelt prices to about $4.00 by 1968, and U.S. markets were closed by the Marine Mammals Protection Act, in 1972. But European markets grew and prices rose steadily again through the 1970s, reaching record levels in 1976 ($24.00 per pelt). That year, seal-skin sales brought over one million dollars into the twenty-nine Inuit villages across the NWT. Even more valuable, the seal hunt produced 1.5 million kilos of meat—food that was more nutritious and far less expensive than imported supplies available from remote northern stores.

It appeared that fashion markets for sealskins would allow Arctic Inuit to successfully adapt their culture and economy to their new conditions. By selling sealskins (a by-product of local food production), Inuit could enjoy modern health care, education, and other advantages of living in larger communities, while maintaining their economic autonomy and hunting-based traditions. Service or industrial jobs remained scarce in remote northern communities, but no Inuit hunter was "unemployed" during this period.

Protests against the Atlantic "whitecoat" hunt reached new levels of intensity over the next few years, however, as Brigitte Bardot and Greenpeace arrived on the scene to bolster campaigns launched by Brian Davies' International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

At first, most Inuit ignored the publicity battles on Canada's east coast: Inuit hunted adult ringed seals, with harpoons or rifles; they didn't club harp-seal pups. The Inuit hunted for survival. They didn't feel "cut off from nature" and they needed no lessons in environmental awareness. This quarrel among competing groups of inscrutible white folks was a Qallunaat problem; Inuit assumed that it wouldn't affect them.

They were wrong. Prices for NWT sealskins crashed in 1977. A brief resurgence in 1980-82 was snuffed out for good with the 1983 European import ban.

The impact on NWT communities which relied heavily on sealskin sales was swift and harsh: Broughton Islanders saw their total cash income drop from over $92,000 to $13,500 in two years. In Pangnirtung, collective income fell from $200,000 to about $42,00 from 1981/82 to 1983/84. In the high-Arctic community of Resolute, income slipped from $55,000 to $2,400. In all, the combined annual earnings of NWT Inuit hunters from sealskin sales are now estimated at perhaps $17,000, compared with up to $1 million as recently as 1981.

Income statistics, however, barely suggest the far-reaching nutritional, social, and cultural consequences of cutting hunters off from the land. Without money from sealskin sales to pay for equipment, gas, and repairs, hunters can no longer provide sufficient meat for their communities. Increased consumption of store-bought processed and "junk" food brings serious health problems. Men who were autonomous hunters just ten years ago have been reduced to relying on welfare payments. Those who do find wage employment have less time to hunt. Complex food-sharing relationships which reinforced social integration therefore break down, as does the transmission of traditional skills and knowledge, the heart of a culture.

Hunters can no longer serve as role models or tutors for young people, many of whom now spend their days "hanging-out" at the store, without direction or hope.

As Rhoda Inuksuk, then president of Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs,

One of the disasters that has happened as a result is youth suicide...we have youth problems, drug and alcohol abuse, violence. There is very little employment and when you are hit with something like [the loss of sealskin markets] you are bound to see these problems come up as a result...
According to Holman Island hunter David Omingmak, "The life has been taken away from the people, and they don't know why."

The world moves on. With media strategies and fund-raising techniques honed during the "seal wars," animal-rights campaigners have turned their sights on new targets: trappers, medical research, animal agriculture. In the words of Stephen Best, a former IFAW campaign organizer, a new "protest industry" was born; it is now possible to pursue a career as a "professional animal-rights activist."

The world moves on. Brian Davies denies that it was hypocritical to destroy the livelihood of Inuit hunters, although he continues to eat meat and collects a six-figure salary and expenses. (The financial structure of IFAW's international affiliates is so complex that it is difficult to determine his full remuneration.) Patrick Moore, president of Greenpeace at the peak of the "seal wars," is now a commercial salmon farmer in British Columbia.

The world moves on. Brigitte Bardot recently alienated European environmentalists with her (fourth) marriage to an extreme right-wing French politician. Meanwhile, fish stocks are collapsing and some Atlantic seals receive contraceptive injections at tax-payers' expense, while health services for Canadian women are cut back.

Animal-rights activists claim to be ushering in a new era of moral concern, to be "widening the circle of compassion". They call for a "new ethic" to control the relentless advance of science and technology that threatens human culture and nature. But for the Inuit, animal-rights campaigns are just the latest in a long litany of religious, industry, and government policies imposed by outsiders—policies which ignore Inuit values and realities, and threaten the survival of one of the world's last remaining aboriginal hunting cultures.

The world moves on, and the European Union has now resolved to ban the import of wild furs in January 1995. The debate about sealing is "old news". But across the Arctic, Inuit communities continue to pay the price...

(Inuit Tapirisat of Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to the needs and aspirations of Canada's Inuit. Formed in 1971, it represents the more than 35,000 Inuit living in 55 communities within the Northwest Territories, Northern Quebec and Labrador. It is the national voice of the Inuit in Canada and addresses issues of vital importance to the preservation of the Inuit identity, culture and way of life.)



© 2000 Native Americans and the Environment - http://NCSEonline.org/nae

--------------------------
yeah for decades we have tolerated folks interfering in our harvests, they save the seal at the expense of Canadians and we sit back and do nothing. We continue to trade with them even though these nations have set out to destroy our industies and harm our people. We are not much of a nation if we don't attempt to fight for our own. I'm disgusted by what we have become!

[rugatika]

Where would Super Dave Osborne get his "Genuine Saskatchewan Seal Skin Bindings" from if the seal hunt was stopped?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuSUq6IZqFc&feature=related

[ex811]

A few years ago I was sitting in a sidewalk cafe along the canals of Utrecht, a beutifull city in central Holland. I was pleasantly enjoying a beer...Amstel or Heiniken come to mind, not that foul tasting Beligian horse ****...when an attractive young lady, probably a student from the university in the city, approached me and started telling me about the atrocities the Canadians commit onto these poor little seals, what a barbaric practise it is and that if I contibuted a couple of guiders (pre euros) I could make a difference and help stop the butchery...
That poor little girl. Being a a born/raised Dutchman, but now a proud Canadain of over half a century, I commenced a rapid fire exercise of verbal diarehra truely explaining the hunt...as uglyelk as been telling it, we must have read the same literature ugly...the need for the hunt and the ramafications of the hunt as it relates to the local peoples, the ecomomy, the fish stocks and the use of the animals(food) etc. I also mentioned those neat little practises the Europeans like to do to their animals just so they can enjoy eating them...fois grais (spelling??, engorged duck livers) come to mind.
Within minutes some of her friends came to her assistance but I would not back down, cause I knew I was right. These people did not have a full understanding/appreciation of the hunt...cull would be a better word...and to be honest, I did'nt fully understand their wimpyasspetapreachen position. After a somewhat heated but very friendly conversation we all decided to drop the topic and just drink more Dutch beer. Some of them seemed to understand and appreciate my position, some where hardcore PETA dillusonists and just left.
It was a good day...too bad I was married cause the combination of Dutch beer and tall leggy blondes = bad thoughs.

[Waxy]

Where would Super Dave Osborne get his "Genuine Saskatchewan Seal Skin Bindings" from if the seal hunt was stopped?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuSUq6IZqFc&feature=related

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I loved that show!

Waxy

[Grizzly Adams]

The problem with this boycott business is that we're the flea and they are the elephant.:D If we totally cut off cut off trade with Europe, they'd hardly notice.
Grizz

[TheClash]

gasp....a ban on all things european......where would i get good olive oil from??? and i am still saving up for my ferrari!!!

[grandslamer]

Humane killing....it's kind of an oxymoron. There is nothing nice and polite about death. It’s just some feel good BS folks spout. Yes we killed the cow and ate it but she didn’t suffer. WTF, it’s dead and ate! Humane killing means man killed it as opposed to a multitude of other natural causes that have no emotional hang ups about taking what is required. Humane killing is synonymous with disconnected from the natural, feeling bad or evil for causing pain and suffering. News flash death is not instant and usually involves pain and unpleasant emotions. :

the big difference is not one hunter here or any that ive meet have ever gone out hunting with the intent of making any animal suffer .
i understand that not all shots land properly and death isnt instant
but these sealers which ive witnessed are cruel and take great enjoyment out of the pain they are inficting .
if anyone here came across a hunter skinnig a deer that was still alive and kicking im sure they would do somthing t to stop the *****..
when it comes to slears i have seen them bet on how long the seal would live after being skined when i seen this i whish i had a way to sink the boat and every sealer on there..
you want to harvest these seals fine it doesnt bother me but why not do it more humanly christ if you can get close enough to club them then you are for sure close enough to shoot them with a 22 and do give the crap about the hole in the hide aaand the extra expence ..they dont use the hide from the head the best hide id belly and back just lije coyote ans 22 shells at wall mart are 14 bucs for 550 rounds

[u_cant_rope_the_wind]

i agree on not supporting europe
if they can ban things from us why should we support them???
also same goes wth the americans
if our Beef is no good why is our wildlife good enough for them to come and hunt and fishh they dont eat the meat and cant evan take it home
so why should they be alowed to hunt and kill off our wildlife
on top of it do it on folm and make money wthout paying no taxes on it

[Okotokian]

ALL of Europe? hmmmmm

Then I think, what do I buy from Europe anyway? Got a driveway full of Japanese vehicles probably built in North America, my wine is from North America or Australia, most of my clothing was probably made in Asia... Scope is Leupold, not Zeiss....
Wait a minute... the Beretta and the CZ... damn. Do I have to give them up?
No Shell gasoline I guess.

Other than that, can't think of anything else Euro I have.

[honda450]

Do they got BSE down yonder or is it just a Canadian thing? Never hear of it there, but wait was Ralph there?:wave:

[Okotokian]

Do they got BSE down yonder or is it just a Canadian thing? Never hear of it there, but wait was Ralph there?:wave:
never mind.