Ethics and Morality

“Opponents of fur are sometimes misinformed.  They don’t see the other side of the story.  Sometimes I feel angry at the way it has affected us.  My husband has been a hunter.  He has provided my connection to the seal.  Our lifestyle depends on it.”
– Monica Ell, Iqaluit.

Nature's Balance

The Inuit perspective remains that each living thing has a spirit and a soul that endures even after life has left the body.  Inuit hunters are grateful for the food, clothing and other necessities seals provide.  Inuit seal hunters today use a rifle shot to the head, causing instant death, sparing the animal from unnecessary suffering.

Although Mother Nature has achieved a supreme level of harmony, it must be recognized that many of her creatures undergo early and violent deaths.  This may sound unpleasant, but it is an unchanging part of reality.  

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal coastal communities share the same values in their approach to sealing: sustainable use, respectful killing techniques and full utilization. 

The Animal Rights Movement and Protest Industry

We are a staunch supporter of animal-welfare legislation, however can not accept the fund-raising rhetoric of radical animal-rights organizations in the name of true environmentalism.  The animal-rights protest industry is part of the problem insofar as it misrepresents nature and alienates humankind from natural ecosystems. Environmentalism must be a science, not a fundamentalist religion that attacks another culture and its traditions.

‘The Inuit seal controversy is far from over. Inuit must adapt to a unique phase in their experience with southern society.  It is marked by the first deliberate attempt by Qallunaat (non Inuit; Europeans) to systematically alienate Inuit from the resources they have customarily depended on for their cultural independence.’ - Wenzel “Animal Rights, Human Rights: Ecology, Economy and Ideology in the Canadian Arctic” (1991).

Most of the population in western countries now lives in cities where people have become distant from natural life processes. Most food requires the taking of life, whether the source is animal or vegetable. Great care is taken to minimize cruelty to animals. Research continues into ways of achieving further progress, still some citizens consider the taking of animal life to be wrong.

Representatives of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association have observed the Canadian harp seal hunt in 2002 and concluded that, of the animals studied, 98% were killed in an acceptably humane manner. This study compared very favourably to the animal welfare standard required in abattoirs in North America and the European Union. 

Due to their beautiful coats and alluring black eyes, seal pups are visually endearing. This has created a fund-raising bonanza for the animal rights industry, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the U.S Humane Society. These groups have become 'experts' at tugging on emotions. People have fallen under their sway due to influencing legislators. Such emotion-based campaigns would not work with animals of less attractive physical characteristics, however this has little to do with conservation.

In recent years a breach has grown between animal rights groups and conservation groups. Conservation groups have tended to develop a clearer recognition of the realities of life in the wild. All animals in the wild are predators of other forms of life and all are prey. Species that reproduce in excessive numbers often run short of food and become prone to disease and starvation. The natural cycle between predator and prey helps keep these numbers in control. Humans have the capacity to wreak enormous damage to this cycle, which is why responsible conservation measures are essential. Responsible conservation does not preclude hunting of animals that belong to a thriving species, such as ringed seals.

‘A central tenet of that (animal rights) philosophy is that western man has set himself apart form the rest of creation by defining himself as “outside” nature.  But by disenfranchising the very people who still have a direct commitment to the land, the animal-rights philosophy facilitates the growing hegemony of the techno-industrial complex, widening rather than healing the rift between man and nature.’ – Herscovici “Second Nature: The Animal-Rights Controversy” (1985).

A commission of inquiry (“The Malouf Commission”), appointed by the Canadian government in the wake of the anti-sealing protests, concluded that the killing of wild animals can be justified on ethical grounds if four conditions are met: the existence of the species is not threatened, no unnecessary pain or cruelty is inflicted, the killing serves an important use and the killing involves a minimum of waste. The Nunavut seal hunt easily meets all these qualifications.

The anti-sealing lobby is viewed in the Arctic as a direct assault on culture, identity as well as sustainable use. Arbitrary bans such as the prohibition on sealskin imports contained in the U.S Marine Mammal Protection Act are clearly at odds with modern conservation theory and in serious disharmony with the tenets of free trade.

Nunavummiut are not Newfoundlanders and Inuit hunt ringed seals, not harp seals, but we are anxious about how the eastern Canadian harp seal hunt is repackaged for the public by the fundraising appetite of the animal rights industry.  Never has there been a cash cow like the seal for shameless fundraisers tainting the good name of real environmentalism…

… Our seal hunt, for ringed seals, may be sustainable in biological and economic terms, but still not make the grade in terms of fundamentalist animal rights morality.  We like to think there is more tolerance for the Nunavut hunt because it is aboriginal, it is rooted in the culture, the seal skin is a by-product of the food hunt, because we have fewer economic alternatives, we have a good environmental record, and so on.   But we are still next, because we are humans and we kill animals and use them as a resource, even if it is a bountiful renewable resource. – Larry Simpson, Iqaluit.

When it became clear that conservation is not an issue with the seal hunt and claims of inhumane harvesting found to be false, a number of environmental organizations withdrew from the anti-sealing protest.  When the ecological viability of the seal hunt was proven the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Canada Audubon and the Ontario Humane Society all withdrew from the anti-sealing campaign. In fact the IUCN has refused to accept major animal rights organizations such as IFAW and PETA for membership.  These orgainizations have falsely cried ‘wolf’ too many times, hurting the cause of real environmentalism in which humankind has a place.

“For Inuit, ecology, hunting and culture are synonymous.  Sealskin, in a northern world colonized by Euro-Canadians, provide a small measure of independence from mines and oil wells, bureaucracy and good intentions.” - Wenzel “Animal Rights, Human Rights: Ecology, Economy and Ideology in the Canadian Arctic” (1991).