I came across this article on today's Journal Pioneer (local paper in PEI), and went to look for it online to post it here. I'll post what I can here:


Murray River sealer Ken MacLeod admits he's intrigued by a proposal by American businesswoman Cathy Kangas to pay Ottawa and sealers $16 million to give up their hunt.

There are 22 licensed sealers on P.E.I., including MacLeod, and he says from what he's heard from other sealers they are receptive to her pitch.

MacLeod said he is willing to accept Kangas at her word that this is not a "publicity stunt".

And MacLeod says he is willing to go one better. He and other Island sealers are ready to dust off a proposal rejected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans three years ago - to sterilize female grey seals by injecting a drug into them with "a walking stick-like device equipped with a trigger.

MacLeod, a member of the sealing advisory committee for the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association, says Island sealers he's talked to would be willing to take Kangas up on her offer, provided the money was decent and extended over more than one year.


It's at http://www.journalpioneer.com/, just scroll down in news (they don't have a separate url for each article).

I don't know what to think.

There's a recent interview with Kangas available for listening at Animal Voices:

http://www.animalvoices.ca/shows.htm

April 11, '06 show, part 2.

She says the Canadian gvt has turned down her offer; she plans now to take that offer directly to the sealers.

Is she crazy?

Rewarding bad behavior... yeah, that'll do a lot of good.

Is she crazy?

Rewarding bad behavior... yeah, that'll do a lot of good.

Why the surprise, kpickell? Animal Voices is well known for interviewing mentally imbalanced people who long for nothing more than to see harm done to nonhuman animals. :rolleyes:

Kangas proposes uses monies raised to offer sealers alternative occupations, e.g. in ecotourism. If you'd like to actually become informed on her idea, simply follow the link given in my previous post. It's not difficult to do.

No need to be sarcastic. I just feel that offering people money to stop behavior you disagree with will only encourage other people to take up that behavior in hopes of also being offered money. Perhaps if the government had taken up her offer and made it illegal to hunt seals it would be different, but all she's doing is paying off a few people, who will be quickly replaced by others.

No need to be sarcastic.

Flippantly stated judgmental remarks, with little or no argumentation to back them up, deserve nothing less, imo.

I just feel that offering people money to stop behavior you disagree with will only encourage other people to take up that behavior in hopes of also being offered money. Perhaps if the government had taken up her offer and made it illegal to hunt seals it would be different, but all she's doing is paying off a few people, who will be quickly replaced by others.

Since you apparently aren't going to take time to listen to the interview, here's a synopsis. Whether it's pie-in-the-sky idealism or a viable plan I don't myself know, but what Kangas has to say in her favor this: The fishermen who do the clubbing are a limited group, hence won't necessarily be automatically replaced if given other work; the argument that the sealers' livelihood would be taken away from them if the slaughter stopped would no longer be viable if another method of making money were made available; slaughtering seals is dangerous for the sealers themselves, hence an alternative form of work would be looked upon favorably; seal herds, if needed to be reduced, could be done so via drug sterilization; global markets for seal products are faltering, hence other options for sealers are likely to become necessary within the next five years; and, if other options for sealers are made available, the world-wide outcry against the seal slaughter would be more likely to impact the gvt's decision as to how to handle the situation. In other words, I take the plan Kangas is working to make viable as being needed to be seen within a larger context. Within that context, she offers a ray of hope, imo. Time will tell.

No, I'm not going to waste time listening to the interview. :)

Hope it works.