Seals

I know it seems like a lot of what I'm writing is depressing and I don't mean it to be at all. There is just a lot of stuff going on that I didn't know about and it surprises me how disconnected I am from whats going on around me. I thought I was "informed"; apparently not. I remember reading an article about Paul McCartney and his wife spending time in Canada with seals protesting a seal hunt. Once again I'm not a tree hugger but seriously...killing seals? Why? Other than the fact that they are super cute, they are also suffering because of global warming. Because of melting ice, 1,500 baby seals died...they drowned because they were too young to swim and didn't have anywhere else to go. It's very upsetting. How can someone kill a poor defenseless seal? Yeah I've seen them hold their own on the Discovery channel but really? Who are they hurting by being there? As far as I know they aren't any sort of threat to humans or other species. If anything they are preyed upon by us as well as other animals. I just don't understand it. Once again we know what happens when the environment is tampered with so why are they allowing this? It seems like we are regressing in environmental awareness. I can remember back in elementary school talking about endangered species and why we should protect them...why is it that now we don't hear much about it unless Greenpeace or some celebrity makes it known? Shouldn't we know whats going on and who and what is being effected? Yeah I know there are more "important" issues we need to deal with like war and economy but these are animals we're talking about. It probably wouldn't be as easy to take up this cause if it was say some sort of nasty insect or something like that but if they're important which I think they are, shouldn't some sort of conservation take place to help them thrive? Do we really want our legacy to our children to be a few animals in a zoo? (Once again I'm sounding a bit preachy and I don't mean to be but this is just wrong)