responding to Canadian officials about the seal hunt

[Guest guest]

Tue, 17 May 2005 01:18:23 -0700

" yitze ling " <yitzeling

Merritt Clifton <anmlpepl

 

Dear Yitze Ling:

 

For 27 years I have followed the Canadian seal hunt

controversy, beginning as a rural affairs reporter in Quebec.

 

 

>I would appreciate if you can help me with the reply to the letter

>from the Canadian High Commissioner to Malaysia since there is no

>one who is an authority on this.

 

First, a general tip about corresponding with Canadian

officials about the seal hunt: do NOT be diplomatic. Be bluntly and

harshly offensive. Do not be sarcastic, do not be clever, and

above all, do not be nice. Do not give them any opportunity to

think they are getting away with trying to put a clean face on a

dirty and bloody business.

 

Put the " Newfy boxing gloves " to them, to the head.

 

( " Newfy boxing gloves " are boots.)

 

Canadians like to be liked. Make plain that they will not be

liked so long as the persist in defending the seal hunt.

 

Subtlety will be entirely lost on your readers.

 

The Canadian Department of Fisheries & Oceans is a branch of

government stacked deep with appointees from the Atlantic Canadian

provinces: Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince

Edward Island.

 

These people are sealers and the sons and daughters of

sealers. They are also the same people whose centuries of

exploitation and bad policy decisions have resulted in the collapse

of the Grand Banks cod fishery, the near loss of Atlantic salmon,

and the destruction by logging and acid rain of neglected spawning

streams for salmon and other species, while the government was

narrowly focused for the past 50 years on killing harp seals as the

purported solution to all of the fishing industry's problems.

 

Count on them to be obtuse, stupid, defensive, and

impervious to any rational argument--but they will not like not being

liked.

 

Make clear that you are aware that the seal hunt survives

primarily as a means of appeasing outraged out-of-work fishers, who

would otherwise be politically problematic in a nation where the

balance of regional power is such that whoever would become prime

minister must win the Maritime provinces' seats. Without the

Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, and the Prairie Provinces plus British

Columbia would split three ways with no one to tip the balance.

 

Point by point:

 

>The harp seal population in Canada is healthy and abundant. The

>population is nearly three times what it was in the 1970s. This is

>due, in great part, to the strict conservation measures Fisheries

>and Oceans Canada (DFO) has in place, and our commitment to the

>sustainable management of all seal populations.

 

Even if this was true, and it can be debated, what

difference does it make? Atrocities are atrocities, whether the

victims are few or abundant.

 

The DFO already demonstrated via the cod debacle that it is

incapable of reading the signs of an impending population collapse.

Atlantic Canada went from record catches to none within barely five

years.

 

 

>In Atlantic Canada there has been, and continues to be, a hunt for

>harp and hooded seals. Sealing brings important economic benefits

>to coastal communities. Seals are a valuable natural resource,

>that, when harvested in a responsible manner, provide valuable

>income to about 15,000 Canadian sealers and their families.

 

The same argument could be made for growing cocaine in

Columbia, or opium in Afghanistan, or for employing child

prostitutes in Thailand. Economic benefit is not a legitimate

defense of cruelty.

 

 

>In September 2002, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association

>(CVMA) issued a Special Report on Animal Welfare and the Harp Seal

>Hunt in Atlantic Canada. Results of independent observations of the

>seal hunt made by representatives and veterinarians of the CVMA in

>recent years were reported, and compared to observations made by the

>International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The conclusion of the

>CVMA study is that a large majority of seals taken during the hunt

>(98 per cent) are killed in an acceptable humane manner.

 

Acceptable, that is, to the members of a body dominated by

agricultural veterinarians whose work is primarily in factory farming

and the slaughter industry.

 

The CVMA, as presently constituted, is not qualified to

judge cruelty or set humane standards. It should not even be

admitted to this discussion.

 

 

>The hunt of harp (whitecoat) and hooded (Blueback) seal pups has

>been banned in Canada since 1987. Regulations also prohibit the

>trade, sale, or barter of the fur these pups.

 

Completely pointless. All this means is that the pups are a

few days older before slaughter. They are still babies, still

dependent upon their mothers.

 

 

>The existing multi-year (2003-2005) management measures for the seal

>hunt are based on sound conservation principles and a commitment to

>strong, peer-reviewed scientific advice.

 

Whose " sound conservation principles " ? The DFO has

demonstrated that it wouldn't know " sound conservation principles " if

it saw them--and peer-reviewed scientific advice, when the so-called

peers are politically appointed hacks, as dependent on perpetuating

the sealing industry as the sealers themselves, is of no authentic

scientific credibility.

 

 

> Quotas are set at levels that make the continued health and

>abundance of the herd the main priority.

 

The first priority your correspondent mentioned was " valuable income. "

 

 

>To help ensure proper conservation, DFO will continue to emphasize

>at sea surveillance and conduct dock-side checks, to monitor quotas,

>and to check sealers for proper licence and observation permits; as

>well as ensure humane hunting practices, compliance with Marine

>Mammal Regulations, and the proper use of hunting instruments.

 

Then why was a full third of the DFO deployment during the

2005 Gulf of St. Lawrence seal hunt and the first week of the

Labrador Front seal hunt detailed exclusively to watching the

movements of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society?

 

And when was the last time the DFO actually prosecuted

sealers for violations that were not detailed on camera by activists?

 

Unfortunately, I suspect the Atlantic Canadian seal hunt

will only end the same way that cod fishing and salmon fishing

virtually ended, as seals go the way of the great auk, the barn

door skate, the northern manatee, and any number of other Atlantic

Canadian species that have disappeared during 500 years of killing

anything that lives in the Grand Banks and elsewhere along the

Maritimes' coasts. Seals will be killed until there are no more,

because no one can figure out any way to live on rocks that barely

sustain human habitation without exploiting the sea.

 

Intelligent people wouldn't live in places of so little

economic potential and such a harsh climate as Newfoundland and Nova

Scotia. That's the problem in a single sentence.

 

Cheers,

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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