Sealing
a rightful occupation Harp
seal populations have doubled in size and harvesting
is humane, argues Jim Winter
IT'S
NOW four decades since animal rights groups started their
anti-sealing campaigns in Canada that have raised for them
hundreds of million of dollars.
During this time Canadian sealers have taken their yearly
quotas while more than doubling the population of the harp
seal herd to over five million animals.
So is sealing a conservation issue? Obviously no. Harp seals
are not and never have been on any respected international
list of either endangered or threatened species.
During the same time the vast majority of studies - other
than those sponsored by animal rights groups - have determined
that both the hakapick and the rifle are humane killing
tools.
The killing - while not pretty - is simply an outdoor abattoir
and it is as efficient and as humane as any abattoir in
the western world. So, is sealing a humane killing issue?
No.
Also over the same period, many species of seals and other
marine mammals have multiplied dramatically in countries
where there is no hunting.
Their
increased numbers are now impacting seriously on both fishermen
and beach-going families.
Yet, when anyone proposes a cull or hunt - as UK and US
fishermen have done, along with families on the US west
coast - there is an outcry from the animal rights movement.
This is followed by illinformed and outrageous stories in
the mainstream press by journalists who accept the word
of animal rights proponents rather than checking the facts.
The animal rights movement is an urban-based phenomenon
whose ultimate goal is the ending of man's use of animals.
They are seeking to do this by targeting rural people who
need to kill to provide food and clothing for society and
income to feed their families.
Seals are merely a means towards achieving a larger goal.
It's seals today. But what about tomorrow: will it be sheep,
lambs, cows, calves, fish, pigs, crab and/or prawns?
The animal rights movement has hijacked or coopted the phrases
'animal welfare' and 'animal conservation.' The same is
true of the mainstream media, whose non-critical, non-analytical,
knee-jerk coverage has turned them into little more than
the movement's PR arm.
This has enabled the movement to disguise its goals because
they know that most reasonable people will accept these
two concepts, while only about 4% of western society accepts
the philosophy of animal rights.
This is the cultural imposition of the views of the few
on the lives of the many. And it is working.
Canadian sealers are rural people earning a living from
the sea: there is only one seal hunt in Canada carried out
by Inuit, Innu and Caucasian for the same reasons in the
same way.
Like all rural peoples - whether fishermen or farmers -
they do not have salaries. They sustain themselves through
a series of work activities.
It is the sum total of this varied income that allows them
to continue living in the villages and towns that have been
their homes for generations.
This is no different than rural people throughout the UK,
Europe and the USA. It also applies to sealers from Greenland
in the north to Namibia in the south; the USA in the west
to Norway in the east.
Canadian sealers are strictly licensed. The government monitors
fishermen's actions daily to ensure humane killing practices
and adherence to quotas, manages the hunt as well as sets
quotas under rigorous scientific guidelines.
It is, arguably, the world's best managed wildlife slaughter
(another word coopted to be a negative by the animal rights
movement).
Range of products
Sealers use as much of the animal as possible to produce
a range of products.
They range from food and clothing to medicines, artisan
art and souvenirs.
The animals sealers kill have the skin, fat, flippers (meat)
and some carcasses prepared and stored on the boat.
Remaining parts of the carcass are left on the ice, which
melts to return the remains to the sea where it becomes
food for fish and crustaceans.
This avoids the land-based abattoir problem of disposing
of offal produced by animal slaughter.
What could be more 'green'?
What could be more ecofriendly?
Sealing communities desire to see even greater use of the
meat but, outside these communities, there is no cultural
habit of eating seal.
This is true even though seal is a high protein, lean and
healthy meat. It also lends itself to 'meal' production
- the same as fish meal. This has tremendous potential as
a protein supplement in food aid programs.
Bambi
syndrome prevails
Given all of the above, it begs the question: Why attack
sealing?
The sad reality is that we live in an urban world where
Bambi syndrome has permeated city dwellers' consciousness.
Urban people do not make the connection between the food
they eat and the killing that produces that food. They are
not used to seeing the killing that leads to the neatly
packaged and plastic wrapped food they eat, or to the jackets,
pants, hats, shoes, belts, purses and briefcases they wear
or carry. Therefore they can, understandably, become upset
when exposed to the production side of these products.
Animal rights fanatics understand this and use Bambi syndrome
as a tactic to further the goal of ending man's use of animals.
Sealing is the perfect vehicle for them because it is bloody,
takes place in the open air in a beautiful environment -
and the animals are wrongly seen to be cute and cuddly!
The same attack approach applies - currently to a lesser
degree - to fur trappers, fur farmers, cattle ranchers,
sheep and pig producers; those who raise lambs for food
and clothing; also those who catch fish and crustaceans.
Medical and pharmaceutical researchers are affected, too.
The animal rights movement raises its money from urban people,
on the backs of fishermen and farmers, by selling the idea
that killing animals for human use is "wrong."
They manage that idea through their attacks on sealing:
an easy sell because it looks ugly. But since when has ugly
meant bad and pretty meant good?
The movement also recognises that it can flog this message
in the mainstream press with relative ease, as most mainstream
media is urbanbased and profit driven.
Holding demonstrations against something, having celebrity
spokespersons, bloody pictures, and presenting their message
as conservation, welfare, green or eco-sensitive sells newspapers,
magazines and TV shows.
By co-opting the words 'conservation, welfare and green,
' they are also able to appeal to urban-based politicians
and, onwards, to parliaments. They are led to believe that
their constituents genuinely accept the animal rights agenda.
In reality very few constituents fall into the animal rights
camp.
Confusing the issue
The vast majority of western people accept the need for
animal conservation, humane killing principles, scientific
resource management and a green approach to the sustainable
use of natural resources - seals, cows, deer, pigs, birds,
kangaroo, sheep, calves and so on - for human use.
By confusing the issue, the animal rights movement can pursue
its goal by drawing in both politicians and urban people
under the guise of "doing good."
The animal rights movement also recognises that rural people
are not a single group but, rather, are widely dispersed
groups with diverse interests.
The same is true of the manufacturers of food, clothing
and medicinal products.
They are then open to a 'divide and conquer' approach where
they can be successfully pitted against each other.
Fishermen, farmers and manufacturers in the UK, Europe,
parts of Canada and the US unconsciously accept attacks
on their fellows in Canada, Greenland and Norway because
they do not appear to harm them.
For years the Inuit fell for the same tactic, but the experience
of the EU bans on certain seal products led the Inuit Circumpolar
Conference to write to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor,
rejecting the Bundestag's offer to exempt Inuit from impending
German bans on more seal products because: "It will
hurt us."
Many
in the international fur trade have also recognised the
same point. They are extremely concerned and are articulating
that concern.
Retail fish operations - and even general merchandisers
throughout western society carrying seal products ranging
from omega-3 seal oil to clothing - have been attacked by
the animal rights movement though boycotts.
Many, but not all, fail to understand that today this tactic
is employed by the animal rights movement by focusing on
seal-based products produced by fishermen but, tomorrow,
it will lead to the same tactic being employed on those
who sell any animal-based products.
Seals are simply the tactic. . . not the goal.
Jim Winter is a journalist and an
Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists best
documentary writer award winner. He is also the founding
president of the Canadian Sealers' Association.
