Infact.....
Love nature? Feel for your fellow natural cohabitants? Defender of killings of innocent animals? May be this article will move you and make you do something about this!
This is an article I copied from MSN written by Roanne Swindon, about how Namibia is directly and indirectly causing death of several numbers of seals, an endangered specie called The Cape Fur Seal.
It tells us just how far some companies and governments would go to sacrifice the lives of other natural inhabitants in the bid of making money, by exploiting these animals as well as their labourers on the lower rank involved in these ventures. GO ahead and read and get more of the article..... May be you can save many seals one day!!!!!! Hilda-Vivac
2011/07/08
Namibia is a haven for landscape lovers, but certainly not a haven for the Cape Fur Seal…
Gallo Images
However, the southern African country might not be known for an annual tradition that has animal activists all over the world boiling in their eco-boots.
Every year around the month of July, the beaches of Namibia are soaked in the blood of innocents: 85 000 terrified Cape Fur Seal pups are rounded up at only seven months of age, separated from their mothers before they can even look after themselves and beaten to death. Their deaths are inhumane, with many of them having to be pummelled more than once before they are dead.
AP
Over and above the 85 000 murdered baby seals, about 6 000 bull seals are killed by a bullet at point blank range. Their deaths are the result of someone somewhere at some point in time saying their penises might be an effective aphrodisiac.
The Cape Fur Seal is listed under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as an endangered species and are dependent on conservation for survival because the species' natural mortality rate is about 30% within the first few weeks of birth. These animals are also at threat from loss of habitat, pollution and commercial fishing and starvation, and pup birthing rates decrease with every year that passes.
The actual population of seals has declined from more than 2 million to fewer than 700 000. One of the reasons for the decline is that 90% of their preferred habitats of small offshore islands have been wiped out. They have also suffered from mass die-offs: a recent occurrence took place in 2006 when about 350 000 of them died of starvation.
Seals of Nam Facebook Page
The culling of the Namibian Cape Fur Seal colony is the largest slaughter of wildlife in Africa, and is considered to be more deadly than the Canadian seal hunt. So, why is it being allowed, you ask?
One of the supposed reasons is that the seals are eating too many fish. Twenty-five years ago, the seal colony was more than 1.5 million, fish were plentiful and only 30 000 seals were killed. But since independence, the Namibian government increased its annual fishing harvest from 300 000 tons to 600 000 tons. The colony now stands at 700 000, there are hardly any fish and yet 91 000 seals are slaughtered.
Another justification for the slaughter is that it provides much-needed employment, and is also a source of revenue for the government. Both these statements are fallacies. As only 81 people are employed during the four months of clubbing, one wonders what they do for the rest of the year? And as a seal pelt sells for US$7, with government taking only US$2 of that, it doesn't take much to work out that US$15 000 is made from the culling a month. More revenue and employment can be generated by the tourism industry and from using seal guano as fertiliser.
AP
Seal pelts on display
Another nail in the club is the fact that six pelts make a fur coat, which sells for US$30 000, but a foreign Turkish businessman by the name of Hatem Yavuz and his Australian company, who have the exclusive contract with the Namibian government to purchase the pelts, make the profit from the coats, sucking money out of Namibia while the clubbers live in shanty towns and struggle to feed their families.
Yavuz has described himself as an animal lover, insisting that the nail on the butt of the clubs lessens the pain for the seals even though video evidence shows baby seals still struggling to stay alive as the clubbers make their way through the masses, smacking those still moving.
AP
Has the Namibian SPCA done anything about this situation? No; they publicly condone the cull despite their ability to arrest and detain anyone caught beating an animal to death. It appears that authorities have circumvented their own Animal Protection Act by not classifying seals as animals, as animal activist organisation Seals of Nam discovered when approaching them.
Earlier this year, local activists and celebrities joined hands to raise awareness around the Namibian seal cull, launching an initiative called "Seals of Nam" in March. Celebrities such as Danny K, Louise Carver, Cito and Mr South Africa Denver Burns stood with Fur Free South Africa and Beauty Without Cruelty to call for the massacre to be stopped, and to call for a boycott against Namibia and its products.
Namibia struck back, however, banning the media in the country from filming or reporting on the cull. Although many think that the boycott had failed, it succeeded in getting the Namibian government to react, but they reacted by contravening their human rights of freedom of speech and the press.
Gallo Images
The economic boycott will affect the people of Namibia, but this is hopefully a means to an end; as The Seals of Nam campaign director Pat Dickens says, "If change comes from within, the slaughter will be ended a lot sooner than from external pressure of foreigners".
Meanwhile, as the screams of baby seals haunt the Namibian coast for 139 days from July 1, animal lovers can only wait and hope that that something is done to protect the Cape Fur Seal colony and stand up against inhumanity.
If you would like to take action, visit The Seals of Nam here or on Facebook or visit The South African Seal Saving Initiative.
