Canadian Governor General Eats Raw Seal Heart In Support Of Hunters

RANKIN INLET, Nunavut — Canada's governor general ate a slaughtered seal's raw heart in a show of support to the country's seal hunters, a display that a European Union spokeswoman on Tuesday called "too bizarre to acknowledge."

Governor General Michaelle Jean, the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as Canada's head of state, gutted the seal and swallowed a slice of the mammal's organ late Monday after an EU vote earlier this month to impose a ban on seal products on grounds that the seal hunt is cruel.

Asked Tuesday whether her actions were a message to Europe, Jean replied, "Take from that what you will."

Hundreds of Inuit at a community festival gathered Monday as Jean knelt above a pair of seal carcasses and used a traditional ulu blade to slice the meat off the skin. After cutting through the flesh, Jean turned to the woman beside her and asked: "Could I try the heart?"

She swallowed a piece whole and deemed it tasty, saying: "It's like sushi. ... And it's very rich in protein."

Jean, whose post is largely ceremonial, defended the hunt as an eons-old traditional hunting practice that is not inhumane.

A spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas offered no official reaction.

"No comment; it's too bizarre to acknowledge," Barbara Helfferich said.

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Animal rights groups believe Canada's annual seal hunt is cruel, poorly monitored and provides little economic benefit. Sealers and Canadian authorities say it is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated communities.

Barbara Slee, an anti-seal hunt campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels said she was disgusted by Jean's actions.

"The fact that the governor-general in public is slashing and eating a seal, I don't think that really helps the cause, and I'm convinced that this will not change the mind of European citizens and politicians" because the deal is largely finished, Slee said.

EU governments are to sign the ban into law on June 25th after the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to impose the measure.

The new EU rule offers narrow exemptions so Inuit communities from Canada, Greenland and elsewhere can continue traditional hunts, but bars them from large-scale trading of their pelts and other seal goods in Europe.

Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International Canada, said Jean's actions were misleading and offensive because of the exemptions.

"Inuit people are protected in the legislation. To suggest otherwise is deceptive on the part of the Canadian government," Aldworth said.

But, Newfoundland sealer Jack Troake chuckled after hearing of Jean's actions.

"That's great stuff," he said. "You've got some of these environmentalists that are going to jump on her, but I think she's strong enough. She can take that, I think."

___

Associated Press Writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Constant Brand in Brussels contributed to this report.

Comments

[WunderY]

Mollymac, such ignorance.

The Pribilof Island story is one of survival with the largest Aleut community having 768 people at St. Paul and 184 in St. George, but once had up to 15,000. After 1786, they were often forced onto the islands to harvest seals. Such is the history of the fur trade and native communities. The Russians called the area, "the Place that God forgot". Another group of North American native communities that has forever been negatively impacted by contact with "civilization". They became a cog in the Russian, American, European fur trade for 200 years and communities were destroyed by wars resisting colonizers, disease and slave conditions that continued after the Alaska purchase in 1867.

The Aleuts lost their traditions of maritime navigation and sea-hunting skills when forced to reside on the Pribilof Islands. The Aleuts were once full Russian citizens, then wards of the U.S. government with servitude after the Alaska purchase, forcibly evacuated from the islands in 1942 and interned in fish canneries in southeast Alaska until the end of WWII. U.S treasury agents managed the islands since WWII until the passage of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement.

They faced constant legal challenges by animal rights groups in engaging in subsistence seal fishing for their own communities and were constantly monitored by Federal officials and animal rights groups.

Aleuts won the right to a seal fishery without harassment, self-governance. Sobriety programs exist with alcohol and drug free communities, Suicides decreased.

[ashabot]

...thus proving himself to be an ignorant, dull-witted man.

[tfred]

Boycott Canadian Maple sugar and show the canucks a thing or two. I think all canadians show have to wear bloody seal skins on their heads to show their support for bashing in their little furry heads.

[Melchedekan]

There are many cultures deep in the forests of the world where tribes have been having cannibalistic rituals for centuries. Just because they have been headhunting and killing and eating other tribe members for centuries does not make it morally or socially acceptable in the modern world. END THE SEAL HUNT!

[Vickster]

Are you suggesting that killing a person is the same as killing a seal?

[WunderY]

Such ignorance. So what you are saying is kill the Inuit.

[mollymac]

Oh please. take it to the pro-animal slaughter blog and leave HP.

[ELReinhard]

sickening

[LeCanadien]

Why would anyone be opposed to the Governor General participating in a cultural event where the Inuit people are eating a dish familiar to them?

[spooky8]

The European Parliament voted 550 to 49 to ban the trade of seal products within the EU. Need i say more?

[Outwestern]

The Inuit were eating seals when the Europeans were still trying to convince Christopher Columbus he would fall off the edge of the world if he sailed toward the horizon. The event was part of Inuit culture, and had nothing to do with the Newfoundland seal hunt. Why should the Inuit give up their way of life because Europeans can't distinguish the difference?
Maybe fox hunting and bull fighting should also be banned in the EU.

[newiceage]

Gotta love those Canadian and Alaskan women,

Not afraid to put a little meat in their mouths.

You dainty American prudes should try and learn a thing or two.

[mollymac]

bye.

[spooky8]

AM I BACK IN HAITI? IS THIS A VOO DOO RITUAL?

[WunderY]

What's the big deal and why judge it? We should know where our food comes from. Hot dogs, sausages and any meat product don't originate from the supermarket cooler. Somebody had to kill an animal and process it. Anyone who condemns the eating of seal and is a meat eater is a hypocrite in my opinion. If only all animal slaughter houses had glass walls then we would see that the killing of a seal is no more "inhumane" than killing any other animal for food.

[sherwoodforest]

There has been a decline in the seal population- who has been managing that? The seal hunt is a poor solution to the failing fishing industry in Canada- and that is what is really happening and what we should be discussing.
The Inuit can keep hunting- the EU says no to commercial hunts, so this whole "protest" was ceremonial, just like the governor.
Canada uses the off season seal hunt to avoid facing the realization that the fish are going fast.
Some people know how to behave responsibly and others do not- welcome to the human race.

[WunderY]

There is no evidence of a decline in the seal population and that is misinformation. The cod have been overfished by everyone, including European fishing vessels to this day, and are a source of food for seals. Everyone knows that the cod stocks are in serious decline and that international fishing vessels continue to fish out of bounds and that the seal population is healthy and there is a cod fishing moratorium in Canada.

Your arguments are not responsible.

The issue of the seal hunt is a "moral" issue of what is right and what is wrong.

[cucumber]

please get her hideous mug off the front green page. at least the seals are cute.

[Maplebird]

Darlings, there is a HUGE difference between supporting the Inuit seal hunt and the commercial seal hunt. If any of you had paid any attention to Madame Jean's comments, you would have noted that she made NO mention of supporting the commercial hunt. And to GeorgeP922, please don't compare Madame Jean to Sarah Palin - you have no idea what you are talking about.

And as for the difference between the commercial hunt and the traditional Inuit hunt - the traditional hunt takes only what the community needs. It makes use of every part of the animal and leaves no waste. It is for subsistence purposes and represents something that more of us gluttonous North Americans really should start paying attention to.

We weep about the rights of seals while millions of children live in poverty. We wail about environmental issues while consuming our bottled water, our fizzy drinks, our fast food. We trample on the rights and dignity of other nations invisibly through our big corporations (don't tell me you've never had a Coke or bought clothing made in sweatshops). We consume more oil, more water, more electricity, more EVERYTHING than just about anyone anywhere in the world, causing unbelievable harm to one another and to our planet.

In short, we have no right to judge either Madame Jean or the Inuit so harshly - at least not until we have cleaned up our own acts (let he who is without sin cast the first stone...).

[sherwoodforest]

My ancestors have a long history of burning coal- it's our tradition so we can not change.
Give me a break.

Just because someone cares about the treatment of animals does not preclude concern about human children- this is what is called a straw man argument, because it does not deal with the facts at hand- the seal hunt in this case and whether it is necessary and whether it is cruel. And whether this person is creepy or not- of course we can judge her. I think she belongs to a voodoo cult.
And I am cleaning up my act, so can the Inuit.

[WunderY]

And how should the Inuit clean up their act? By growing vegetables in tundra and arctic weather? Maybe rice, potatoes and some grapes for wine. By having all of their food flown in from down south or buy in bulk from their local Costco or switching to cows and chickens. Seal is the staple of their diet. Without it, they die.

[Vickster]

Excuse me? So here is a black woman of Haitian descent who's not only a Canadian citizen, but who also acts as a proxy for the British crown (Queen Elizabeth), and you accuse her of belonging to a "voodoo cult". No offense, Sherwood, but that sounds like racism to me.

[y2kattorney]

All things that are Life
are brothers in the soil and in the sky.
I believe it with my blood if not my eyes.
I don't know why we can't be brothers here
I know we should be.
The answers don't seem easy.
I'm wonderin' if they could be.......

[cinemaven]

Beautifully stated Maplebird.

The Inuit use every part of the seal and kill only what they can eat. Kudos to Madame Jean... she has proven to be such an able representative and we are fortunate to have her. It's unfortunate that her support of the Inuit hunt has been turned into an erroneous endorsement for the commercial hunt.... although the "Newfs" I know eat even the flippers of the seal killed in the commercial hunt.

[LHoney]

Hope she chokes!

[mollymac]

yeah, me too.

[Ryoki]

I hear she is going to visit a condom factory next week. That should make for another good photo op.

[totalliberal]

Coming from the Europe, the land of fox-hunts, private game-parks and bull-fights, their scorn is almost laughable.

(Then of course we have Veal, Fois Grass and Steeplechase to add to their love of brutalizing animals.)

[mollymac]

One step at a time. We have to stop seeing this as a food issue. The whitebacks (baby seals) are not for food,the bashers want the fur! Yep, for vain stupid people to wear on their backs. I find the ignorance of seeing this as a food issue and foisting it on us as demeaning. We know what time it is.