A lady I know is a vegetarian... sort of. She doesn't eat "cute" animals like lambs, pigs and cows but will eat chickens and fish. That's her choice and I respect that. I'm an omnivore. If its healthy for me and delicious, I'll eat it.
I used to hunt and trap. Ruffed grouse and barren land caribou are the best wild meats. I don't hunt or trap anymore, but I still fish. Instead of hunting and trapping, I take photographs.
I have participated in ringed seal hunts in Churchill Manitoba. Whether I participated in these hunts would not have affected whether or not the hunts would have taken place or how many seals were taken. I considered myself an observer. The purpose of the hunt was to feed sled dogs, so no meat was wasted. Skinned hides went to a woman in town who turned them into clothing. Yes some guts were left on the ice, but that was quickly cleaned up by foxes and seagulls. These seals were not killed for sport and we only took what we needed from an abundant source and within the limits of the law.
The easiest time to hunt seals in Churchill is in the spring, when seals haul up on the ice to bask in the sun. Seals are dispatched at a distance with a single shot to the head using a high powered rifle and scope. Wounding seals go down the hole and are unretrievable. The person I was with was an excellent marksman and wounded very few seals.
My observation was that hunting seals in this manner was as humane as any other form of harvesting wild animals.... or what goes on in slaughterhouses.
Regulating the harvesting of wild animals should be based on science, not how cute they are. Seals in Canada are not threatened with extinction, but many other species are.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020109074801.htm
Its too bad that so many people busy themselves trying to solve a problem which doesn't exist, while so many other species which are less cute than seals disappear into oblivion without comment or drawing attention of interest groups.
Does this species deserve more attention than harp seals?
http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.php?doc_type=fact&lang=&id=101
The main causes of species extinction are habitat loss, introduced species, over exploitation, disease, pollution and limited distrubution. None of Canada's seal species are threatened with extinction. Some seal species may have benefited from man's elimination of predator species. Properly regulated, human hunting activity can actually help restore balance.
If you are really interested in the science behind conservation and doing something about the real threats to our biodiversity, then I suggest you take a moment and find out what species are at risk near where you live and volunteer to help these creatures:
http://raysweb.net/specialplaces/pages/canada-es.html
through local habitat restoration projects.
http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/volunteer
http://www.bgci.org/canada/plants_conservation/
http://ducks.ca/helpduc/volunteer/work.html
The biggest threat for most species at risk isn't hunting but development.
