Quote Originally Posted by buttercup132
Sophist and others who agree with her, you say that the hunters have families they are brothers and fathers. So are the seals. Animals grieve too. The hunters deserve to have everything done to them as they have done to the seals. That's my thought anyways.

And just for the record my post before I never said they deserved to die.

Actually, the harp seal pups can't be culled until after a certain molt, which isn't finished until the pups are more than a month old.

All the mothers memorize their pups scent in the first day or two, and then really only have contact with them when they need to nurse. It has been established that during the maternal care period, pups spend about 5% of their time with their mother, and then only to feed. If a pup loses its mother, it is allowed to starve by the other mothers, who will only give milk by the scent.

The mothers abandon their pups completely by the time they are two weeks old (usually by 12 days old). The females breed two weeks after giving birth, and then take off and never have anything to do with their pups again. By the time of culling, the mothers are pretty much all expecting again and long gone.

There is no paternal involvement.

Where is the 'broken family' element coming in? They migrate together to whelp and breed, and that is as much of a connection as the seals ever have with each other.

Can an animal with no apparent familial bonding, who abandons its offspring for good and has no further contact, really be asserted to experience grief over the death? There is really no evidence to support that the families would even have an awareness of the death.

These mothers molt, then leave the whelping area where the pups remain for at least a year until their next pup is ready to be born.


Don't get me wrong, I do believe animals are capable of grief. I just don't think that is likely to be the case in this scenario. Just because animals can think and feel does not mean they all think and feel exactly the same way humans do.


And lastly, if you are arguing that the seals are fathers and brothers who love each other, and are being killed and left grieving, and then say in the same breath that the hunters deserve the same... how is that not saying the hunters and/or their families deserve to die?