Scotland Bans Shooting Seals

​worldanimalnews.com/breaking-victory-as-scotland-bans-the-shooting-of-seals-by-the-fisheries-industry/

Scotland has taken steps to better protect seals after enacting a ban on shooting seals by the fisheries industry. The ban will prevent seals from being shot and killed simply for consuming fish in their natural habitat. 

To date, approximately 1917 seals have been shot and killed by the fisheries industry since licencing to kill them began in 2011.  Licences were issued to the fisheries industry allowing them to shoot seals who interfered with their operations. Essentially, they were being shot because they eat the fish that the fisheries industry were capturing to sell to the public. It's sickening to imagine that licences are granted to kill animals for simply existing and trying to survive when it is us who have encroached on their habitat.

Too often are animals killed to help humans profit and this is yet another example of our entitlement showing. To think that we have given ourselves the right to shoot and kill animals in their natural habitat for doing things that come naturally to them all because we want to steal their food and sell it. Often times, the animals we are killing already face unprecedented perils in the wild which include food shortages, habitat loss, and poaching, and yet we still deem it necessary to contribute to their perils by shooting and killing them for interfering with our livelihoods. It's a sickening cycle of entitlement that humans have contributed to for decades.

These situations are not specific to seals as I mentioned. When you look at elephants for example, they are being killed frequently for their conflicts with humans despite the fact that they are an endangered species. There is a lack of empathy for the struggles of animals, especially if it interferes with our existence. Endangered animals being shot and killed because we have taken their land. Endangered animals being shot and killed because we have overdeveloped and left them with little to no space to find food. This cycle of entitlement has pushed so many animals further and further towards extinction and humans have failed to see the bigger picture.

In this case, this ban is a necessary step in protecting seals in UK waters. As temperatures continue to rise, there will undoubtedly be more displacement and trouble for seals in these waters and we should be looking at ways to protect them, not protect ourselves. 

Congratulations Scotland for stepping up to protect seals.

HAPPY VEG