I wish to hell the McCartneys would mind their own business.

[Daynathepayna]

Poor old ex-beatle Paul McCartney needs to find some reason for his existance since he has long become rather irrelevant as an entertainer in the music world. Rather than resign to becoming a dusty aging relic in some pop music museum he has taken up with the washed up french actress Bridgitte Bardo to try to stop the Canadian seal hunt.

I wish they would go and do some volunteer work in a nursing homes in their own countries. How about saving hungry children or doing something worthwhile and leave Canadian industries alone?

http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News...c=n032449A.xml

McCartneys make renewed appeal to end East Coast seal slaughter
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at 17:20 on March 24, 2006, EST.
By CHRIS MORRIS

CHARLOTTETOWN (CP) - Canada's East Coast seal hunt begins at dawn Saturday against a backdrop of emotional celebrities, angry protesters and hunters determined to maintain their way of life.

Animal rights groups, led by the Humane Society of the United States, continued their anti-hunt campaigns Friday by warning that global boycotts against Canadian seafood are taking hold and costing the nation both money and respect.

"People all around the world are boycotting Canadian seafood until the seal hunt is ended for good," music legend Paul McCartney said in a video message from London that was released in Charlottetown.

"Already that seafood boycott has cost Canada many times more than what the seal hunt brings in."

The former Beatle and his wife, Heather, appealed to the federal government to end the hunt by implementing a licence buy-back program for hunters.

Both industry and government officials have strongly denied that the boycott has had any impact on the Canadian seafood industry.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper quickly dismissed the McCartney's comments.

"Unfortunately, we're to some degree the victim of a bit of an international propaganda campaign," Harper said during a visit to Moncton, N.B.

"We believe the country is acting responsibly and we'll make sure all rules are enforced."

Fed up sealers on the Iles de la Madeleine are trying to get their own boycott going, this one against hunt protesters.

Jean-Claude LaPierre, a veteran sealer on the Quebec islands, said hunters will be asking Atlantic businesses such as helicopter and airplane charters, restaurants and hotels to consider closing their doors to hunt protesters, beginning next year.

"We really want to protect our hunt and we believe other people in this region want to help us," LaPierre said in an interview.

"We're all Canadians. This way we can stand up for our rights."

Although LaPierre said the boycott of hunt protesters would begin in earnest next year, he said the major fuel supplier at the only airport on Iles de la Madeleine has already agreed not to refuel helicopters carrying hunt protesters.

However, that may not be a factor in this year's protest.

Members of the Humane Society of the United States, the organization that brought the McCartneys to the Gulf of St. Lawrence seal nursery earlier this month, left by boat from North Sydney, N.S., on Friday to be in place on the gulf ice when the hunt opens.

There is little or no ice in the southern gulf this year, so it appears the bulk of the hunt will be conducted more to the north, closer to Newfoundland and Labrador where most of the hunters are from.

At least 325,000 seals, most of them between two weeks and three months old, will be harvested in this year's hunt, 91,000 of them in the gulf hunt.

The much larger hunt off northern Newfoundland and Labrador, in which 234,000 seals can be taken, will begin around April 10.

Roger Simon, an official with the federal Fisheries Department, said at a briefing for hunt observers that the government isn't overly concerned about what appears to be increasing momentum for the protest.

He said there only seems to be more because of high-profile appeals by the McCartneys and by former French actress Brigitte Bardot.

"It's the McCartney effect," Simon said.

Federal officials defended the hunt as humane and sustainable.

They said the harp seal herd is in good shape, at close to six million animals, and insisted there are no conservation concerns surrounding the hunt.

Simon also defended the method used to kill young seals in the gulf - generally crushing their skulls with a club that has a sharp spike on the end of it. The hunt off Newfoundland primarily uses rifles.

Hunt protesters said they have seen many animals suffer because they are not killed quickly.

Simon insisted the slaughtering techniques are humane and efficient, but admitted they are not always properly used by hunters rushing to meet quotas.

"There is no such thing as 100 per cent compliance," he said, adding the department has stepped up hunter training and fisheries supervision to get rid of inhumane practices.

The McCartneys said they had to come before the hunt began because it would have broken their hearts to see such beautiful animals clubbed and skinned.

Heather McCartney said she is shocked the Canadian government has turned a blind eye to all the protests, boycotts and appeals to end the hunt.

"We actually pleaded to the Canadian government to stop the seal hunt, but they have refused," she said.

"We're devastated to learn that 325,000 of these harp seals, almost all of them defenceless babies, will be clubbed and shot to death."

[Curt581]

You have to wonder about people who decide if it's right or wrong to hunt any paticular animal, depending on it's Cuteness Factor

[Ducky]

I was going to say that you wouldn't see this kind of uproar if they were going after elephant seals. Ugly bastards with evil tempers and they're about the size of a car.