Just when environmentalists and animal rights advocates were beginning to see a light at the end of the deep, dark and disgraceful tunnel known as the Canadian seal hunt, Canada's very own Sarah Palin, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, announced last month that restrictions on exporting seal meat to China had been lifted. With the recent European Union ban on seal products in place, Shea and her cronies in Ottawa see China as a potential ally in what appears as yet another desperate attempt to save the economically defunct and morally bankrupt industry.
It is common knowledge that the bloodbath that has claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives over recent decades is both inhumane and cruel and any party that can defend the bludgeoning and skinning alive of defenseless and sentient beings as justifiable in any way, shape or form should perhaps consider pursuing that conversation with a clinical psychiatrist. Yet while it is difficult to defend the pitiful acts by a small population of New Foundland and Labrador sealers, based on the simple logic known as free will and moral responsibility, the truth of the matter is that they too have had the wool pulled over their eyes by Parliament's legacy of deception and Shea's apparent ego-based mission to keep the seal hunt alive at all costs.
Perhaps a wake up call should have occurred in 2008 when four sealers where killed when their small boat, being towed by the Canadian Coastguard, capsized leaving behind families and a grieving community in the wake of the national disaster. Unfortunately, what presented a real opportunity for the Canadian government to restore any trace of integrity by finally owning up to its mismanagement of the Atlantic fisheries instead turned the tragedy into yet another diluted patriotic justification to rally behind a despicable and out dated industry. News flash: seals are not responsible for the over consumption of fish stocks. Human incompetence and overfishing are in fact the only culprits here and it is the seals who pay the ultimate price.
It is due time that the Canadian government agencies in charge of fisheries and oceans management seek viable and sustainable solutions for its nations impoverished populations instead of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to further develop unwanted seal products in the global marketplace. The United States, Mexico and the EU have all passed legislation banning the trade of seal products, yet the Canadian government continues to pump large amounts of subsidies into selling products that people simply no longer want. Instead, Shea hopes that this new kinship with China will help offset the significant financial blow caused by the EU's ethical and rationale decision to ban seal products last spring. According to Shea, the fate of the seals hunt lies in the hands of the industry to, "ensure that we actually start selling some of these products into the marketplace." Perhaps Ms. Shea would be best serving her fellow country men by instead investigating a more innovative solution such as human evolution.
According to a recent post by Cheryl Jacobson of In Defense of Animals:
"Over the last 15 years, Canada has spent unspeakable sums of money trying to develop markets, including China, for edible seal products to no avail. Seal meat is an acquired taste that few people outside of sealing communities find it palatable. Demand for the meat is so low that sealers often abandon the carcasses on the ice to rot."
International headlines were also made back in 2009 when in a thoroughly inappropriate gesture turned national embarrassment, Governor General Michaelle Jean, decided to show her support of the sealing industry by slicing out the heart of dead baby seal and eating it raw at an Inuit gathering in Nunuvut. Many critics found her actions to be more symbolic of 21st century barbarism than acceptable dignitary behavior by the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Canada's head of state. It was also very misleading. The maritime seal hunt that takes place every year is not a native hunt, although the Canadian government deliberately continues to confuse people to believe otherwise.
In reality, Canada's commercial seal hunt and the Inuit seal hunt are two unrelated operations that take place in seperate areas of the great north and involve two different species of seals. The commercial seal hunt is not a traditonal "substinence" or "full utilization hunt" and most of the meat is left on the ice with reports of 80% of the blubber being discarded. Seals can legally be killed as soon as they begin molting their white natal fur, which occurs at less than two weeks of age, and almost all the seals killed in the commercial hunt are just three months old or younger. Thus, the primary target of Canada's commercial seal hunt is for the fur of young harp pups which is sent overseas to be proceesed for its shameful use in the fashion industry. The commercial hunt has absolutely nothing to do with the preservation of aboriginal cultures and traditions and the Canadian government's outright deception of this fact is deplorable. It is also degrading to all Canadians, particularly the Inuit, who the government continue to scapegoat based on their own political and economic agenda.
According to director of Humane Society International Canada, Rebecca Aldworth, "Inuit people are protected in the legislation. To suggest otherwise is deceptive on the part of the Canadian government." The new EU law offers certain exemptions to Inuit communities from Canada, Greenland and elsewhere that allows for limited traditional hunts, but bars them from large-scale trading of their pelts and other seal goods in Europe.
The commercial seal hunt provides off-season monetary incentive for a handful of big-business fishing companies based on greed and calculated misinformation. Furthermore, only about 6,000 people derive some form of income from commercial seal hunting which generates roughly $10-million in annual exports -- not exactly a real cash cow. With the price of seal pelts dropping each year, it is evident that further investment in this collapsing industry is a waste of both tax paying dollars and innocent, defenseless lives.
Furthermore, while China certainly does not have a stellar rapport amongst animal rights activist for a plethora of valid reasons far too lengthy to mention here, The Canadian government's general assumption that Chinese consumers will condone the cruel slaughter of seal pups is yet another highly ethnocentric insult which some opponents believe the Chinese will not take lightly.
In a blatant display of cultural ignorance, a seal industry executive was quoted last year in the Toronto Globe and Mail, as stating, "The Chinese eat anything. And they simply don't understand why you would put one animal over another." Wow. It sounds like someone may need a refresher course in Anthropology 101.
According to IFAW's Asia Regional Director Grace Gabriel,
"This is slap on the face for China, Chinese culture and Chinese people. China is not a dumping ground for Canadian seal products and Chinese consumers should not shoulder the ethical responsibility of paying for the cruel slaughter of seals in Canada."
Just whether or not the Chinese public will take the bait and serve as the fall guy for this dying industry plagued by shame and deceit is yet to be seen. With the annual commercial seal hunt set to begin next month, is it not our duty as compassionate and concerned global citizens to let Canada know that enough is enough already: STOP THE SLAUGHTER!
For more information on the Canadian seal hunt and to learn how you may take action today to stop this horrific and senseless slaughter please visit the following websites:
www.harpseals.org
www.seashepherd.org
www.idausa.org
www.ifaw.org
www.humanesociety.org
www.peta.org
To contact Fisheries and Oceans Canada directly to voice your opinions and concerns:
House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Telephone: 613.992.9223, Fax: 613.992.1974
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY: THE SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY
Follow Deborah Bassett on Twitter: www.twitter.com/debstact
Nick Wright: Seals Before Trade Deals: Slaughter Risks $12 Billion Trade Deal
Sheryl Fink: Seal Hunt Has Repercussions for Canadians and the Economy
2/Please point out where on DFO's site they claim the Harp seal is responsible for Cod decline. They suggest overpopulation of Harp is hindering fish stock rebound.
3/ Are you a Veterinarian? This report by Veterinarians has concluded that the seal hunt as practised ( three strike rule has been implemented and palpitation) is humane. http://canadianveterinarians.net/ShowText.aspx?ResourceID=378 These are Vets and under no contract nor obligation to anyone but their own profession and those in their care.
4/ Subsidies. The sealers have had none since the mid 90's.
5/ If the Inuit are the scapegoats you say, explain why they have launched their own, independent of Government, legal action regarding the EU ban? Perhaps because they rely somewhat on income derived from it as well? What the Northern peoples are really ticked at is the discrimination the EU is practising in the Ban. Here's a quote from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
""Inuit have been hunting seals and sustaining themselves for food, clothing, and trade for many generations," said Mary Simon, the group's president. "It is bitterly ironic that the EU, which seems entirely at home with promoting massive levels of agri-business and the raising and slaughtering of animals in highly industrialized conditions, seeks to preach some kind of selective elevated morality to Inuit."
Doesn't sound to me that they are on a Government bandwagon with that.
It's time to end it... NOW!
If you did some surfing on the internet, you'll find out that in legitimate polls more than 70% of Canadians are OPPOSED to the "hunt." More than 60% also don't want their tax dollars wasted on it.
Many Canadians were indeed embarrassed and/or disgusted by the GG's seal-eating stunt. As is the case with any other politician that does it.
You are grossly misinformed.
Seal are driving west coast salmon towards extinction, yet their populations aren't managed. I went deep water salmon fishing last year with a group of people, and no one caught any salmon. We tried to reel in about five, but seals kept snagging them off our lines. This seal population is well documented, and seal overpopulation has been examined as a possible cause for the decline of west coast salmon in recent years.
Quit hiding behind "Canadians support the seal hunt". It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. The market is what matters and the market has spoken. Unfortunately, the seal hunters and their government benefactors don't like it.
And actually Richard, if you stopped swallowing the government's propaganda, you would know the real cause of decreased fish stocks, especially the cod. It's not seals, it's not any other wild animal. Ever heard of the "population cycle"? It doesn't involve human interference and has worked just fine for millions of years. Now we're "controlling" the "overpopulation" of several species, and the ecosystems in those areas are being negatively affected. What a brilliant idea! (Note the sarcasm.)
Basically, what it boils down to is this: even if there wasn't a single customer for Canadian seal meat, the Canadian government would pay the seal hunters to kill them anyway and dump them in a hole somewhere. They are - simply put - determined to prop up the seal meat industry at all costs.
Canada: why don't you play by the rules for a change? You were defeated. Accept the rules of the free market and stop propping up a brutal and barbaric industry - one the great bulk of the world has decided it does not want to do business with.
For shame Canada. You are a disgrace.
Speaking as a Canadian entirely unconnected to the seal industry or to the federal government, there is no "national embarrassment" of any sort. We took great pride in then-GG Jean's actions.
We're no savages, so stop vilifying us and the industry you people clearly have selective knowledge about.
Huh? Doesn't make any sense at all. What audit? What distant limit? What hiding? Please provide a link.
1) The vast, vast majority of Canadians support the seal hunt and disagree vehemently with this column -- which makes broad, unfair, and inaccurate generalizations about Canadian opinions.
2) The "national embarrassment" she speaks of -- the Governor General's seal-eating the Arctic -- was, in fact, wildly popular and was probably the most popular thing she ever did, let alone "embarrassing." At the end of her term, people asked whether it might be extended BECAUSE of that gesture and when pundits tallied up her plusses minuses in offices, it was invariably and unanimously ticked off in the "Plus" column. So very few people found this embarrassing at all.
3) I suppose anybody complaining about the seal hunt will abstain from eating all forms of meat -- even the forms belonging to cute animals like veal and lamb. Especially as those poor other beasts are subjected to life on farm pens and in slaughterhouses, unlike seals who spend their lives roaming free. Of course, these other animals don't happen to bleed to death on open sheets of white ice so I can see how they arouse less sympathy from the professional protest crowd. But if you're being consistent...
So, to sum up, Canadians are overwhelmingly proud of this tradition, they see it as no less moral (and perhaps more so) than other hunts, and the sweeping generalizations here are completely out of tune with the attitudes and opinions in the country they claim to
As a former Canadian and graduate from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Concordia University in Montreal, Class of 2000, I'd like to offer you some clarification on your sweeping generalizations stated above. Having worked in the field of marine conservation for a number of years, my personal research on the subject indicates that the vast majority of Canadians consistently oppose the annual commercial seal hunt. In fact national consensus polls indicate that 85% of Canadians believe seals less than one year of age should be protected from any hunting. This is public knowledge and not some biased opinion based on my own love of cute and cuddly seal pups which you point out- "bleed to death on open sheets of white ice"- so thank you for the horrific imagery to further add to my case that this is indeed a cruel and barbaric slaughter. For the record I personally do not eat veal or lamb or ANY any form of meat for that matter if you are so concerned with "consistency".
Furthermore, Governor Genral, Michealle Jean was openly and abundantly criticized for her barbaric display which was a tasteless (pun intended) tactic used to directly confuse the Canadian public and international arena with the Inuit hunt that takes place in the Arctic and the commercial seal hunt that take place on the Atlantic coast. It is truly surprising that she was not removed from public office for her disgusting and deceitful actions.
Deborah Bassett
Thank you -- and you deserve full marks for moral consistency. You're against killing veal or lamb, or any other kind of meat for food. Which, as far as I'm considered, is the only logical position to take if you're against slaughtering seals for food. But I suspect support for the cause would suffer somewhat if there were an asterisk placed on articles like these: "*If you oppose the seal hunt, you may be accused of hypocrisy unless you stop eating all other meat."
-I agree that most Canadians oppose killing seal pups. But that's not the issue here. In fact, your reference to it is nothing short of a rhetorical sleight of hand. That practice is banned in Canada. It's irrelevant to this conversation. We're talking about the broader hunt -- and the broader hunt is generally supported in Canada, with reasons that should be understood and supported by anyone who eats any kind of meat.
--Speaking of the ADULT seal slaughtered by the GovGen, you may very well have wished she would leave office after that gesture. But you're among the few. Almost two years later, on Parliament Hill last week, she was the guest of honour at an event where federal politicians feasted on seal meat.
And we all know how politicians love jumping in front of parades -- ie popular causes. If your opinion were in any way representative of this country's, that tribute ceremony would not have taken place at Parliament last week.
She was at an Inuit festival and someone asked her to join in, so she did. If the media and groups with agendas decided to read a very specific political gesture into her actions, why does that make her "deceitful?"