Here is a story about Greenlandic seal hunting
Pling!!!
The other day a red-hot email dropped into my inbox.
My mailbox is still smoking,
because the email was written by a really cross lady.
She did not want to be an email friend of Sikamut
any more. She had seen a video about Greenlandic seal hunting and now wrote:
“The video about the hunter David does not tell HOW the seals are killed.
You see a man hunting in a boat“
and she continued:
“can we be sure that seals are not also caught in a bestial way and hit repeatedly on the head, so that they lie in their own pool of blood and die slowly and in pain??????????????????
We have unfortunately seen that on television many times, and I will not support that production!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Aha…
the cross lady is a decent and honourable person with a good heart,
But………
There is one big, fat lie that she still believes in.
The lie about seal hunting that Brigitte Bardot set in motion back in the 1970s
Some people still believe that seals are caught by furious, club-swinging Inuit,
and that is just so far off the mark!
That is why you should meet Adam from Aasiaat
It is Adam who taught me to paddle a kayak,
and he is simply brilliant at Greenland rolls.
Besides being a kayak instructor and arranging kayak trips,
Adam is also a really skilled hunter who knows a thing or two about Greenlandic seal hunting.
He spends a lot of time at sea and in the mountains and knows many of the good places.
That is why he also comes home with reindeer, muskoxen, fish and seals.
Adam is NOT a club-swinging Inuit, the way some people would like us to believe the Greenlandic hunters are.
NOPE!
He is a skilled hunter who has learned the art of using a hunting rifle and a boat hook.
A couple of important tools for a seal hunter, because seals are fast animals that take a lot of practice to catch.
Adam has given me permission to show you one of his pictures from a day when he had caught a seal.
Here you see him on his way home with his catch.
It is a fine catch Adam proudly came home with that day.
There is meat enough for a few good dinners,
and what is left over, the sledge dogs are happy to sink their teeth into.
Note:
Adam’s hunting picture does not look significantly different from the ones Danish hunters take when they have taken game.
It is a seal caught with respect and in a humane way by a proud and skilled hunter.
So if you run into types like that cross lady with the big heart, who made my inbox quiver,
then please say hello from Adam and me and tell them that there are no club-swinging, cross Inuit hunters in Greenland
– only proud seal hunters,
and they are so pleased when we choose to wear sealskin.
