Sir Paul to the Rescue
In the interest of full disclosure, I think Paul McCartney is a pretentious bag of wind. My opinion is based on all the TV interviews I’ve ever seen with the man, which is probably fewer than 10. He comes off as a pedantic, self-obsessed millionaire – a guy who thinks he owes the world a good spanking.
Mine is not an expert opinion, so you can tell me if I’m wrong. You can tell me he’s a noble guy, and a great musician to boot. You can even tell me he uses his celebrity status to better the world, and I won’t argue. However, you can’t tell me that Paul McCartney has any credibility, especially in the Arctic. How can anyone take this guy seriously?
Sir Paul is a known animal rights activist. To demonstrate his love of animals Sir Paul has become a vegan, a spokesperson for the American Humane Society and the British-based group Respect for Animals; he has even personally boycotted China. He will never play a concert in China because the Chinese kill cats and dogs for fur. He did not, however, have any trouble playing at the 2005 Super Bowl. Apparently, the American fur industry is ok by Sir Paul. He wades hip-deep in his own hypocrisy.
Yesterday, Sir Paul brought his finger-wagging road show to the Canadian Arctic, ostensibly to protest the Canadian seal hunt. He called the hunt “heart breaking” and an “unjustified, outdated and truly horrific practice.” Sir Paul said he doesn’t want “local people to suffer…but this is something that leaves a stain on the character of the Canadian people…and I don’t think the vast amount of Canadians think that’s right.”
There you have it: vast amounts of Canadians. Paul McCartney says you oppose the seal hunt. I for one am relieved to have such a noble (literally) and credible spokesperson to act pejoratively on my behalf.
Again, in the interest of full disclosure, here are some facts from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans:
- Canada’s seal population is healthy and abundant. The harp seal herd — the most important seal herd for this industry — is estimated at around five million animals, nearly the highest level ever recorded, and almost triple what it was in the 1970s.
- The hunting methods presently used were studied by the Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing in Canada and they found that the clubbing of seals, when properly performed, is at least as humane as, and often more humane than, the killing methods used in commercial slaughterhouses, which are accepted by the majority of the public.
- Methods used to kill seals in Canada were found to be generally more humane than the shooting of animals for sport. The Commission also found that no methods of killing which have come to their notice, other than clubbing or shooting, achieve acceptable standards of humaneness.
- In September 2002, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) issued a Special Report on Animal Welfare and the Harp Seal Hunt in Atlantic Canada. The conclusion of the CVMA study is that virtually all seals taken during the hunt (98 per cent) are killed in an acceptably humane manner.
Here is some more of the DFO’s myth busting on the issue (they don’t have an ageing rock star spokesperson, so you can choose to ignore them altogether if you like).
There are various objections to the seal hunt, and I won’t tell you that they are wrong. Truly, seal pups are killed, despite the law prohibiting the act. Seals are clubbed on to death and skinned for their fur. As well, the economic necessity of the seal hunt in some remote communities might be cause for bias in government regulation. These are all indisputable facts.
But is this issue really about seals? I would argue that seal pups look nicer on posters than several other animals – to the same degree Paul McCartney is more visually appealing than Loyola Hearn. So, I am not convinced that protests to the seal hunt are anything more than carefully orchestrated media junkets for animal rights groups. The seal pup is their best prop.
Ottawa Sun Columnist Michael Harris:
The seal hunt is as legal as any other abattoir operation. The difference is that this slaughterhouse is outdoors, where you can see — and be seen […] as a spectator sport, mass killing of anything — fish, fowl, or four footed — is never an agreeable sight. But if the seal hunt ought to be stopped, so too should the operations that supply our barbecues and ovens, that send animals to scalding tanks, and killing floors and dangle them by one leg from chains on their wide-eyed way to the knife. So too should farm operations that force-feed geese to bloat their livers for foie gras. And let’s not forget all those defenceless calves that die in the name of our right to veal cutlets.
Canada’s seal hunt is the largest in the world, and so it has drawn the attention of the world’s largest rock star. But is this the most effective use of Sir Paul’s celebrity? I think he has more time on his hands than he has good sense in his head.
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This article was written be alevo.
March 3rd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
St. John’s — Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams will appear on television Friday to debate the seal hunt with former Beatle Paul McCartney.
Mr. Williams has been invited as a guest on CNN’s Larry King Live, to debate the issue with Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills McCartney.
Elizabeth Matthews, a spokeswoman for the Premier, said Mr. Williams will tape his appearance from St. John’s Friday afternoon.
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:22 pm
I don’t think Michael Harris’ point makes a great deal of sense. Farm operations that force-feed grease to ducks and geese to enlarge their livers ought to be stopped. The same goes for all the other cruel and inhumane ways of treating and killing animals (although I would debate the “defenceless calves” thing – just because a cow is young doesn’t mean it isn’t enormous, but that’s a different story). Two wrongs don’t make a right.
A friend of mine once said that ideally he’d like to hunt all of his food instead of buying it at the grocery store. I disagreed with him: I feel that it is more wrong to kill a wild animal than a domesticated one that is bred for that purpose, when you have the option of eating the latter.
I do think that it is worthwhile, if you are a meat eater, to go and kill your meal at least once in your life, to see if you can really face the death in your diet. But to kill a wild animal, a creature that has roamed free across the earth, survived harsh winters, escaped death by predators, and is an integral part of the fabric of the earth, seems wrong to me, when there are plentiful domesticated animals that are raised just for that purpose.
The seal hunt seems entirely unnecessary: there is nothing about the fur that couldn’t be duplicated by a synthetic fabric. And do they even use the meat?
This issue reminds me of the Japanese whaling issue, where they take hundreds of whales each year ostensibly for “scientific research”; the meat subsequently ends up on Japanese dinner plates and as whale burgers.
March 3rd, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Ade – I’ll agree with you on the Harris point, it’s hard to compare food stocks with animals hunted for pelts. But i’m not sure I’m with you entirely on the rest of the issue.
It reminds me (vaguely) of the useless morality that led the BC government to withold several hundred bear hunting permits throughout the Nineties – activists had convinced them that the bear hunt was unnecessary. Ten years later, there are bears roaming all over West and North Vancouver, into backyards and onto playgrounds to eat garbage. Similalry, in Ottawa the annual deer hunt was scaled back and now there are fucking deer running all over the highways.
I can readily anticipate the responses to the above scenarios, so let me pre-empt any whiney hypocritical bullshit anyone wants to write about human encroachment into wild habitat. Don’t bother – you probably live in a city, own a car, and eat meat. Save it.
The truth about the seal hunt is this: it isn’t economically necessary, and it is debatable as to whether or not its abolishment would affect cod stocks, local economies, or the future health of the seal population. People hunt the seals because it is an easy income subsidy – pointe finale.
My problem isn’t with the hunters, it’s with the critics. These half-hearted idealists – Paul McCartney included – are always whining about the humane treatment of animals. Please. Look around you. Go save some roadkill.
The seal-savers are so patently transparent it makes me want club one of them.
March 4th, 2006 at 12:31 am
Fur coats aren’t a necessity. Of course, neither is steak. No problem with the hunt from this quarter, and you’re spot on in your celebrity critique. Good stuff.
March 4th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Wow.
March 6th, 2006 at 4:59 am
US Govt funding boycott of Canadian products
The Humane Society of the United States is campaigning against the Canadian Seal Hunt this year. Their principal tactic this year is to urge Americans to stop purchasing Canadian fishing produce, forcing the
Canadian government into a change of policy. That is, attempting to destroy the local economy of another country. Perhaps we could call that “International Economic Terrorism.”
Now, if they are engaged in such activities, it might look bad if they were to be funded by a politician or perhaps a
US federal government agency. A list of their funding sources is to be found on:
http://www.activistcash.com/organization_financials.cfm/oid/136
Apparently, among their funding bodies is USAID, a US federal government agency, providing $500,000 in 2005.
Oops. http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidorg.html
The USAID website states their mission in part “…[USAID] supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances US foreign policy objectives…”
Well, that explains it then – engaging in International Economic Terrorism must be an official US government foreign policy objective.
March 6th, 2006 at 8:59 am
Apparently, Paul’s wife, Heather Mills-McCartney, touched a seal pup during their photo-op. This is illegal according to Canadian law. Naughty, naughty.
March 6th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Re. the comparison to bears on the loose in BC and deer ruining the driving in Ottawa: I don’t really know much about the area where these seals live, but are they a public nuisance or a safety problem?
I think a lot of the opposition to criticism of the seal hunt is rooted in nationalistic sentiment. If it were Americans hunting these seals, I imagine many more Canadians would have a problem with it. But we sense we are vulnerable on this issue, so we get defensive.
Of course it’s true that a lot of that vulnerability has to do with the cuteness of baby seals, and that an international campaign to stop the killing of sharks would face more obstacles to success, though not from me. But I suscribe to the general philosophy that people can live in relative harmony with the earth’s other creatures, without having to periodically go out to engage in a mass slaughter of them, regardless of their visual appearance or demeanour.
Criticize that as the sappy and naive sentiment of a hypocritical meat-eating city dweller all you want. I’m fine with imagining that my relationship with animals is friendly, and I sincerely hope that the salami on the sandwich I plan on eating in the next 15 minutes was treated humanely when it was still a pig. And I will continue to support the groups that work to ensure that domesticated animals are treated properly, and that wild animals are not needlessly killed.
March 6th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I didn’t evoke the bear-deer-seal hunt comparison on any specific grounds (*note the “vaguely” inclusion), except to say that the impetus for curbing the various hunts was perhaps ill-informed; or at the very least the hunts were cut-short at the behest of a similar strain of logic.
Is the seal hunt really a “mass slaughter?” That seems to be pretty loaded language.
How do you reconcile your plea for humanity with the fact that farmed animals do end up dead to feed you?
“I’m fine with imagining that my relationship with animals is friendly…”
Keep on imagining.
March 6th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
My relationship with animals is very unfriendly. I EAT them. That’s pretty much by-the-book unfriendliness. But I’m okay with that – it doesn’t make me a bad person, just a product of evolution. We’ve been eating animals for a long time, and for good reason: they’re delicious.
I wonder what baby harp seal tastes like.
March 6th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
“My relationship with animals is very unfriendly. I EAT them. That’s pretty much by-the-book unfriendliness.”
No, it’s not. I eat plants but I bear them no ill will. Does eating meat make you feel aggressive? Angry? Unfriendly?
Humans are not a “product of evolution” any more than a person is the “product” of their parents, put another way, one’s biological past need not determine one’s conscious future.
Alevo asks, “How do you reconcile your plea for humanity with the fact that farmed animals do end up dead to feed you?”
I see a difference between raising domesticated animals and (hopefully) treating them in a humane manner until they are killed to give me sustenance, and killing wild animals so that rich people can look good in fur.
To anticipate the response to that comment, one could argue that the death of the seals allows people to make money which provides them with sustenance, which is important regardless of the superficiality of the end product: fur coats and silly hats one might feel inclined to wear on a chilly Ottawa evening (*cough*). As you put it, “People hunt the seals because it is an easy income subsidy – pointe finale”.
I just think there are better ways of making a living, and that we ought to work to provide those opportunities to people in these communities, instead of making this a black and white issue: those poor baby seals versus those poor fishing folk.
There used to be a lot more seals than there are now (according to Wikipedia, historical populations were greater than 30 million compared to today’s 5 million or so, but I’m not sure I trust that article), so when claims are made that the population is doing great, a perspective that is wider than the last 40 years is important. I don’t trust the Canadian agencies that are saying everything is hunky-dory either, look at the destruction of the cod fishery (which is now another excuse to have the seal hunt) for an all-too-familiar example of our ability to screw up the environment.
The morals of killing animals for food or fur aside, Canada has a poor record of managing natural resources, especially in the face of local political pressure. That has had unpleasant consequences in the past, and I don’t see any compelling reasons why we think it’s going to turn out much better this time around.
As far as “mass slaughter” goes, I was using slaughter in the sense of slaughterhouse, not genocide (or any other nonsense, ala McCartney’s “slavery”). According to the CBC, about 300,000 seals are killed in the hunt, so I think the term mass is accurate.
March 6th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
“Unfriendly” doesn’t mean I bear animals ill will. It just means we’re not friends. Nothing about our relationship is friendly in any way. I’m not friends with plants either (especially not spinach, but not because I eat it).
Also, my meat eating IS due to evolution. Think of it this way. Walking on two legs is a product of evolution. I could choose to spend my life crawling around on all fours, but I’d rather take the easy way out and walk. Same with eating meat. I can do it, I enjoy it, and it’s easier for me than eating just vegetables and fruit.
Not everything about us is a product of evolution, but my carnivorous aspect certainly is.
March 7th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Okay: first of all, since Paul started whinging to have the credits on some Beatles songs switched from “Lennon/McCartney” to “McCartney/Lennon”, I’ve kind of thought he was an insecure asshole. That’s based even less on evidence than Alevo’s contention that Paul’s “a pretentious bag of wind”, but there it is.
Second, I think Ade gets it right when he writes, “I see a difference between raising domesticated animals and (hopefully) treating them in a humane manner until they are killed to give me sustenance, and killing wild animals so that rich people can look good in fur.”
Third, domesticated animals raised for human consumption are not treated humanely for the most part. Factory farms are horrific, appalling places where animals are crammed cheek to jowl in tiny cages and force-fed a fatty, toxic diet of grains, ground-up animal parts, antibiotics, and growth hormones. They reach full size in record time (six weeks for chickens) and are killed for food before their own organs start to fail prematurely.
In fact, I think most industrial meat production to be even more inhumane than the seal hunt, which I also oppose. At least the seals get to run around (slither around? gallumph around? what do they actually do?) on their own for awhile before they get the hammer to the head.
Full hypocrite disclosure: I was a vegetarian for ten years and started eating meat again last year. However, I have tried to limit myself to meat from animals raised in traditional, organic farms (the meat market in Dundas is good for this), and I’m currently going back to being a vegetarian. I just felt a lot better and was healthier when I didn’t eat meat.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
All of you are werong except Ade. Thy kill seal pups for fur and thats it. They just do it for fun!
Tim you are a disgusting person! “I wonder what baby harp seal tastes like.”
Killing for food is way different than killing for fun or fur.
Alevo: Seals aren’t dangerous nor annoying. They live very far away from any highway or backyard. They probably haven’t been a threat to anyones unless they feel their lives or their young ones are in danger.
I think that anyone who considers hunting seals “fun” or their “life is a pig! How would you like to be clubbed to death (which makes it more painful) for fur or “fun”.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Seal hunting is good for everything, deal with it. Without this hunt many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians wouldn’t have enough money to continue their lives in this region, it’s bad enough 100,000 people have already left for jobs. Do you people want to make another 100,000 leave? Most people wouldn’t be able to tell me what a seal eats only that it looks cute and shouldn’t be killed. They are predators, wolves of the sea to some. without the hunt they would eat all the fish and starve. so next time you think about speaking out against the seal fishery say to your self, Are they not like wolves or coyotes, just cuter. I heard a good point on the radio a while back. There is no protest on the Norwegian seal fishery, or the blatant destruction of a species of pig in Europe. My advice to anti-seal hunt people. GO DO SOMETHING MORE VALUABLE WITH YOUR LIVES