There has been outrage across Canada after a video was shown on YouTube depicting some disgusting morons shooting ducks illegally, with rifles, from vehicles, shooting them over and over, jumping around laughing, having the time of their lives, leaving their kills to rot. As of today Aug. 10, I haven't been able to find that video; maybe it's been removed. In any case, three men have been arrested and will make a court appearance shortly, thanks to peope who recognized and reported them.

A number of animal rights groups have commented. One has said that it's no worse than the seal hunt. Other cruelties have been cited, such as the method of slaughtering cattle, the fattening of geese for their liver (foie gras), the slaughter of lambs which are every bit as cute as baby seals, etc., etc.

A few years ago I saw, on an Ontario farm, a frisky calf gamboling among the cattle, running around without a care, kicking its hind feet in the air, happy to be alive. I remember thinking, frolic while you may, little one, it will not always be this way. You may be cut up for veal soon, or you may grow up to have calves of your own, then be a milk producer tethered in a barn, and ultimately slaghtered. It's been called the ultimate slavery.

I eat meat with the full realization that it is a piece of a dead animal. We only eat things that were once alive, be it animal, fish, bird, vegetable, mushroom, nut or seed. Some American tribes would pay homage to an animal about to be killed and eaten, thanking it for the sacrifice. At least their shaman did. We should do likewise.

I am not a hunter, but I see nothing wrong with hunting for food - it's in the natural order of things. Hunting for sport is another matter, although the better of these "sportsmen" don't normally leave a wounded animal suffer, often tracking it for the kill, not like the yahoos mentioned above who are really the scum of the earth.

It is sad to see animals squeezed into dirty pens, injected with antibiotics to keep them healthy despite the filth, if that is what can be called healthy. If their fate is to be slaughtered, at least we should try to give them as good a life as possible, give them room, let them graze in the sunshine.
Perhaps that would be considered uneconomical in our distorted sense of values.

As to the seal hunt, it is no more cruel than other forms of hunting and the Europeans are being hypocritical and naive, although I have reservations about the hakapik. Seal hunting is essential to the Innu and to those on the east coast who eke out a marginal living.

Let us not be holier than thou.