Canada starts beating seals to death tomorrow.

From Columbus IndyMedia, this is the best review of the movie I’ve found so far.

She has a lot of great photos posted and does a much better job of recapping the day’s events. Not to mention she uses a few of my photos in her post.

From AlterNet, addresses a generation of indebted students, something I can relate to all too much: “There is social control in loading young people up with financial obligations. Burdened with debt and desperate to have and keep a job… there is certainly no time for protesting, organizing or causing the kind of social and political trouble young people cause from time to time. How many young people turn away from low-paying but vital professions because they can’t earn enough to pay back their loans? How many potential social workers, pro bono lawyers, journalists, environmentalists, teachers, artists, secondary medical professionals and community workers are we losing?”

In this instance, culling means beat to death. Up to 325,000 seal pups. They claim “it’s not cruel or offensive and it helps the local economy.” Yeah, I suppose beating a 2 week old seal over the head isn’t cruel, I’m just being too sensitive.

Some argue that “if people would stop buying fur there wouldn’t be a demand for it.” My response: just because there’s a demand for something doesn’t mean you have to cater to it.

PETA has a video of last year’s massacre, and it was the first video I had to stop watching because it was so disturbing. I mean yes, all of PETA’s videos make me sick (that’s an understatement of course.) But this one has sound, you can hear the seals crying, and hear the footsteps of the merciless “hunters” walking on the snow. Okay I really don’t consider them hunters. Cavemen is a better term. With all of the trillions of dollars invested throughout history on military and medical technology, we’re still going around beating seal pups to death with a big stick, that’s the most humane way this can be done? Makes about as much sense as the electric chair. I am so glad the world is watching closer than ever, maybe this will be the year we stop it.

I understand the argument that the only reason people are so outraged is because seals are cute. Yeah, they are. But personally it outrages me to see any animal killed for its fur. This event just happens to be drawing the long overdue limelight and I’m adding my little bit in the hopes it will finally show people what they need to see. No more of this out of sight out of mind $hit. If people saw how fur ended up in their closet, they would probably (hopefully) throw up all over themselves. Pretty fur coats don’t just magically appear on the racks at the store, they have a cruel and violent history that started way before some rich lady started parading it around. We should be ashamed of ourselves.