Ocean Sentry
(From brantfordexpositor.ca) – The Inuit have legally, according to Canadian law, hunted and killed an endangered species, a bowhead whale, something they have not been able to do in past years. Strangely, Canada heralds this feat as an amazing accomplishment. According to authorities, it took only 30 minutes of brutality to extinguish the life of this amazing mammal whose numbers are probably in the range of only about 8,500 individuals.
Only 30 minutes to kill the mammal. If it took that long to kill a cow, a pig or a chicken, there would be a public outcry. The argument that it feeds many is not acceptable in a country so privileged as ours. The argument that it is a part of the culture is not acceptable.
These mammals can live at least 100 years, possibly up to 200 years — live, that is, unless Canada or one of the other very few remaining nations left, that does not consider cruelty to animals an unnecessary evil, brutally kills them.
Canada was built on cruelty to animals via the brutal fur trade industry that the Hudsons Bay Company rose from and still, even now, this country refuses to flinch about the cruel deaths that we subject our animal life to.
If more of the population made themselves aware and cared enough regarding the injustices that we, the Canadian people, inflict upon the other species, this country could become sharper in the eyes of those countries who look upon the other world as something to appreciate and care for. Pain is not a sense that man alone feels. The excruciating brutality that we conquer our wildlife with for pure pleasure is certainly not a Canadian trait to be proud of. When the pleasure is masked with words of necessity, it makes it even harder to swallow.
Whale hunting, as with the seal hunt, is definitely not done out of necessity. The importation of dog and cat furs that are used in Canadian goods should be a wake-up call to just how much we have turned our heads to. Canada is not in good company when the issues of compassion towards other species are taken into consideration.
(By Bill LaSalle Brantford)
