May 06, 2007

PETA to observe seal hunt

PETA accepts Inuit invitation to seal hunt

Wary Iqaluit mayor invites animal rights group to see seal harvestAt council's behest, Sheutiapik responded with a letter saying Inuit support the Newfoundland hunt and added an invitation for PETA representatives to come to Iqaluit, join a group of Inuit seal hunters and see how the animals are both harvested and used in Nunavut.

"We're happy to be able to meet with the Inuit and hear what they have to say," said PETA spokesman Matt Rice from Virginia.

Rice said PETA draws a distinction between commercial seal hunts, such as those off Newfoundland, and aboriginal subsistence hunts. But that distinction ends as soon as the hunter sells the skin instead of making a pair of kamiks out of it.

"Any Inuit who are participating in the sale on the international market have abandoned their traditional practice," he said.

1 comment:

Oz said...

So our traditions of trading furs, buckskins, birchbark and other natural resources to other tribes and other cultures isn't acceptable to Peta? I understand that they see a difference between commercial seal hunting and traditional seal hunting, and I respect that. But to say that any Inuit who sells the fur is going against their traditions is ridiculous, bartering and trade is ingrained into all aboriginal cultures from the Americas, north and south of the arctic circle.