Seal hunt a gruesome slaughter in pursuit of fashion
(apr. 16, 2008)
victoria times colonist

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a way of speaking that can be quite charming at times. Sometimes it's just plain rude.

Our top soldier, who's a Newfie -- and who's apparently ready to retire now that his Afghan mission is over -- has talked of taking on "murderers and scumbags" in that sad country.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, who also hails from the Rock, has called those trying to interfere in the East Coast seal hunt "money-sucking manipulators."

If there's anything that gets a Newfoundlander's back up and mouth moving. It's someone protesting against that damned annual slaughter of seals that makes so many other Canadians ashamed.

I was tempted to buy a seal-skin sporran once, but I can't say I've ever thought a seal pelt would be nice to wear and walk about in. I gather, though, that there are Scandinavians and Russians who fancy them.

I know, too, that there is medicinal value in seal oil for those suffering from things like inflammation of the bowel. And I know that seal meat is supposed to be tasty.

But it's really a mass slaughter for fashion.

The fact is, as long as bucks can be made harvesting seals, there will be people who'll endure hardship and even risk their lives to harvest them.

I can understand that those who've managed to keep food on the table by clubbing or shooting these animals on the ice floes would want to keep doing so, if that's the only way they can stay where they have grown up and have chosen to raise their families.

I've been to parts of Newfoundland and seen its rough beauty. Its people are some of the nicest I've met.

But I wish they'd lay off the seals.

Sitting on a beach and whittling and looking out over an ocean that doesn't teem with cod anymore doesn't sound like much of a life, but someone should find those sealers something else to do.

I feel the same way about those who kill whales, especially the Japanese. I feel the same way about those at this end of Canada who kill grizzly bears for "sport."

Sure, call me a hypocrite, for I eat fish and flesh and even certain organs, though I want someone else to do the dirty work for me. And maybe I wouldn't mind the seal hunt if I didn't have to read about it every year and see the gruesome slaughter on TV.

But perhaps that's why I think Paul Watson is performing a useful function. He's the pointy end of the anti-seal hunt protest and he's as resolute as Hillier in taking on people he considers murderers and scumbags.

Whether he was violating some Canadian or international law when his ship was boarded and seized by our gallant coast guard is not clear yet, but sometimes people are forced to step beyond legal boundaries that they feel unjustified for causes that they regard as matters of conscience or human dignity.

It's people like Hearn who insist that Canadians support, with the taxes they pay to keep the coast guard shepherding the sealers, if by no other kind of subsidy, a practice that many feel is barbaric. It's using seafarers in public service to buy votes and the political advantage is sought by those of all political stripes.

Hearn makes no bones about wanting to stop those aboard the Farley Mowat from filming the killing and skinning. He does not want people around the world to be upset by thinking they can see that the seals are still alive and believing they can hear them screaming as their pelts are torn from them.

Gerry Byrne, a Liberal MP from Newfoundland, wants all observers driven from the floes. And any European country that bans seal or fish products from Canada in protest, he says, should face Canadian trade retaliation. We should cut them off from our exports of wheat, auto parts and airplanes "to protect the integrity of this industry," he says.

Integrity? That's an odd word to use.

Farley Mowat, whose name Watson's ship bears, has the measure of these types. The Canadian public has been "bitched, buggered and bamboozled by the authorities" over the seal hunt, Mowat says.

He's right, and that kind of talk's worthy of a Newfie.