gibb
03-17-2009, 06:34 PM
Tough Putin gets on side of seals
Posted By PETER WORTHINGTON
Leave it to Russia's Vladimir Putin to do the unexpected.
The wily former KGB officer, who resigned to head Russia's domestic intelligence and counterespionage service (the FSB) before becoming president, specializes in puzzling western critics.
After twice being elected president of Russia, he dodged the mandatory retirement law and maintained political power by appointing himself prime minister -- a role he held under the late Boris Yeltsin. He wanted Dimitry Medvedev as prez, so Russians voted on cue.
Putin defies easy categorization.
He's revived Russia's sagging economy yet allowed corruption to flourish. He crushes internal dissent, ignores human rights, threatens Ukraine, invades Georgia, and has savaged Chechnya. He's been accused of assassinating journalists and certain political defectors, but remains as popular in Russia as, well, as Barack Obama in the U. S.
Putin's most recent gambit is moving to ban the killing of baby seals, which he piously calls
a bloody industry." Russia's Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnyev promptly declared the seal hunt as one of the most inhumane types of hunting in the world."
Putin has a reputation as an animal lover, and says killing seals, should have been banned a long time ago." With Russia's history of cruelty and oppression of its own people, it raises an eyebrow to have Putin ruminating over the inhumanity of the seal hunt. Most of Europe echoes Putin's concerns for baby seals, and Canada is the target for its killing of seals.
Calling the annual harvesting" of baby seals a hunt" is grotesque distortion. It's anything but a hunt." It's slaughter, and has little economic
value.
There are an estimated 200,000 harp seals in
Russia's White Sea sealing grounds -- down by 90% from when they were first counted 80 years ago. Some 35,000 baby seals are killed each year when they are about six weeks old and their coats a dazzling white.
Rather than shrinking, Canada's seal population is thriving, with a population exceeding five million. Still, the annual hunt" is subject of controversy in and outside Canada, replete with emotion. Critics and supporters are mostly inflexible.
I'm one who thinks killing baby seals demeans those who do it. Although it looks horrid, the seals die quickly, and it can be argued that a quick death is a merciful death. Since we've overfished the cod into near extinction, we blame seals for cod depletion, ignoring that in olden days the Grand Banks teemed with cod -- and seals.
Seals are not an endangered species. In fact, their numbers are increasing. Nor, probably, is our polar bear endangered. The Canadian polar bear population has hovered at 25,000 for decades. Yet common sense and decency dictates that there should be a ban on the sport-killing of these unique and magnificent creatures -- the world's largest carnivore.
Despite criticisms of Putin, he has given momentum to the anti-seal hunt campaign. It's fair to say the annual slaughter is now in its death throes.
If killing baby seals is too grisly for Russian stomachs, what does it say about those Canadians who not only support the annual kill, but look forward to it?
Personally, I suspect the appeal of the hunt" is that it's a chance for the lads to break the monotony of winter and get together for a couple of weeks of camaraderie on the ice floes, and make a bit of money on the side.
All that may ending. The irony is that it wasn't bleeding hearts or Greenpeace that tipped the scales against killing baby seals, but a hard man with no reputation for compassion, mercy or sensitivity.
Copyright © 2009 The North Bay Nugget
Posted By PETER WORTHINGTON
Leave it to Russia's Vladimir Putin to do the unexpected.
The wily former KGB officer, who resigned to head Russia's domestic intelligence and counterespionage service (the FSB) before becoming president, specializes in puzzling western critics.
After twice being elected president of Russia, he dodged the mandatory retirement law and maintained political power by appointing himself prime minister -- a role he held under the late Boris Yeltsin. He wanted Dimitry Medvedev as prez, so Russians voted on cue.
Putin defies easy categorization.
He's revived Russia's sagging economy yet allowed corruption to flourish. He crushes internal dissent, ignores human rights, threatens Ukraine, invades Georgia, and has savaged Chechnya. He's been accused of assassinating journalists and certain political defectors, but remains as popular in Russia as, well, as Barack Obama in the U. S.
Putin's most recent gambit is moving to ban the killing of baby seals, which he piously calls
a bloody industry." Russia's Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnyev promptly declared the seal hunt as one of the most inhumane types of hunting in the world."
Putin has a reputation as an animal lover, and says killing seals, should have been banned a long time ago." With Russia's history of cruelty and oppression of its own people, it raises an eyebrow to have Putin ruminating over the inhumanity of the seal hunt. Most of Europe echoes Putin's concerns for baby seals, and Canada is the target for its killing of seals.
Calling the annual harvesting" of baby seals a hunt" is grotesque distortion. It's anything but a hunt." It's slaughter, and has little economic
value.
There are an estimated 200,000 harp seals in
Russia's White Sea sealing grounds -- down by 90% from when they were first counted 80 years ago. Some 35,000 baby seals are killed each year when they are about six weeks old and their coats a dazzling white.
Rather than shrinking, Canada's seal population is thriving, with a population exceeding five million. Still, the annual hunt" is subject of controversy in and outside Canada, replete with emotion. Critics and supporters are mostly inflexible.
I'm one who thinks killing baby seals demeans those who do it. Although it looks horrid, the seals die quickly, and it can be argued that a quick death is a merciful death. Since we've overfished the cod into near extinction, we blame seals for cod depletion, ignoring that in olden days the Grand Banks teemed with cod -- and seals.
Seals are not an endangered species. In fact, their numbers are increasing. Nor, probably, is our polar bear endangered. The Canadian polar bear population has hovered at 25,000 for decades. Yet common sense and decency dictates that there should be a ban on the sport-killing of these unique and magnificent creatures -- the world's largest carnivore.
Despite criticisms of Putin, he has given momentum to the anti-seal hunt campaign. It's fair to say the annual slaughter is now in its death throes.
If killing baby seals is too grisly for Russian stomachs, what does it say about those Canadians who not only support the annual kill, but look forward to it?
Personally, I suspect the appeal of the hunt" is that it's a chance for the lads to break the monotony of winter and get together for a couple of weeks of camaraderie on the ice floes, and make a bit of money on the side.
All that may ending. The irony is that it wasn't bleeding hearts or Greenpeace that tipped the scales against killing baby seals, but a hard man with no reputation for compassion, mercy or sensitivity.
Copyright © 2009 The North Bay Nugget