There's loads of dog farms around. Go ahead. We got our border collies from people that raise border collies.
Whales, seals, and oxen: what's the difference?
- Thread starter Machjo
- Start date
I ate dog once at a Korean restaurant, but I didn't know it was dog at the time. It was dog soup. Once I realized, I couldn't finish it.
Now I don't know if dog meat is legal in Canada, but if we're consistent and beef is allowed, then so should dog.
Nope, they didn't. We have a different set of uses for them so they are worth more alive than in our stomachs for a brief period of time.
I know. That's why you're missing something.
I'm not against eating beef, but as an agriculture graduate, I'd like to see farming methods made more sustainable. I'm not against sustainable hunts like the seal hunt. There is very little pressure from predators on the Eastern seal herds. As a result their numbers are exploding. The consequences of these circumstances are never good.
For whales, the situation is different. Japan maintains that support should be given to protect all endangered species, yet they use lethal sampling methods to conduct their research. This is thin gruel. The company conducting the research for Japan markets and processes whale meat...
I don't think my position is really compromised.
No. But from a legal standpoint, then politicians should not be presenting laws for or against sealing per se but rather, as in your example, just one basic law that places quotas on animals according to an appropriate mathematical formula for example that would apply equally to all animals. So with many seals then they would not be affected by this law, whereas whales would be. This would not be a matter of two separate laws, but rather one universally applicable peace of legislation that could just as easily apply to wild oxen.
They do use mathematical formulas to place quotas, at least they often do. But even more often I find the quotas are not conservative enough. Maximum sustainable harvests almost always will be unsustainable. Maximum economic yield is a better solution. If you maximize the catch per unit effort, you actually will kill fewer animals, and maintain the profitability of the industry, as well as the health of the animal population.
Don't have to do that. One can just make one law and then set different quotas for different critters.
That's fine. but it should be one common law applicable to all animals, with no animal singled out for the Bambi factor.
I don't think that's reasonable. Not all animals are harvested by humans. Taking time to compute mxaimum harvest/total allowable catch etc. wouldn't be worthwhile, and would actually be a waste of taxpayer resources.
For the animals that are harvested from the wild, they are regulated. But a formula for one species probably won't work for another one which is drastically different, in predator-prey relationships, fecundity, lifespan, etc.
If you mean make one law that all animals are harvested with all conditions being met, and the number one issue is ecologically sustainable, then I would agree to that. But what should be, likely won't be...politics rarely works for the best option, usually for what ever is most likely, which often is not the same thing.
Also, agriculture and wild harvests are very different systems, with different groups involved. It's probably best to not mix the two.
Here in BC we shoot Seals every chance we get even though it's against the law.
I fully support any legal effort to cull Seals as well.
I fully support any legal effort to cull Seals as well.
Should we apply your logic to say the overpopulation of humans? Personally, I would like to see an open season on poachers and trophy hunters.
I think one month a year would suffice. How about March; it would coincide with Spring cleaning.
Actually you will find that Newfoundlanders do use the entire animal, or at least they used to. The seals are killed for their pelts, but you can buy seal meat in Newfoundland and the carcass is used for dog and cat food and the remnants rendered. Seal meat and seal oil are actually considered quite healthy - better for humans actually than beef. I suspect if the health benefits of seal oil were better publicized there would be less opposition to the seal hunt. A good deal of anti-sealing propaganda comes from the myth that seals are an endangered species. In actual fact the seals that are hunted are plentiful and in no danger of extinction. Ironically the first strong opposition to the seal hunt was organized by a man calloed Brian Davis who used his anti-seal hunt funding to pay himself a lavish salary. One wonders if that was his motive for originally opposing the seal hunt.