Reply to NAALPO From Captain Paul Watson (Sea Shepherd)

[Guest guest]

Reply to NAALPO From Captain Paul Watson

Sat, 8 Apr 2006 15:54:56 -0700

REPLY TO PRESS RELEASE

 

 

There is some serious mis-information in this press

release.

 

At no time did the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

ever refuse to pay for the legal fees for Dr. Jerry

Vlasak. Attorney John Mitchell was retained by Sea

Shepherd to represent all 11 Sea Shepherd crew that

were arrested on March 31st, 2005.

 

John Mitchell is currently representing all 11 crew

including Dr. Jerry Vlasak with the appeal against the

convictions. John Mitchell is not representing Jerry

pro bono and this is a totally false statement. Since

March 31st, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has

spend $50,000Cdn on legal fees on this case. Some of

the crew have contributed to these expenses including

Lisa Shalom. Jerry Vlasak has not contributed to the

costs at all. Instead his wife Pam Ferdin has been

discouraging people from supporting Sea Shepherd and

the legal defense fund.

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has not refused

to pay transportation for any of the eleven crew. The

Society advised all eleven crew that the convictions

were being appealed. Sea Shepherd was not even aware

of Jerry Vlasak's arrival in Canada until after he

arrived.

 

Sea Shepherd has been updating our website with

reference to Jerry's entering jail and his hunger

strike despite Pamelyn Ferdin's distribution of

anti-Sea Shepherd e-mails attacking the Society with

mis-information.

 

Sea Shepherd covered the cost of Lisa Shalom's

expenses to go to Charlottetown to appear in Court and

to organize a demonstration on Jerry's behalf before

the jail in Charlottetown.

 

Dr. Jerry Vlasak was not kicked out of Sea Shepherd.

He was asked to resign from the Board of Directors. He

was told he could still participate as a crewmember

with Sea Shepherd campaigns. He was asked to resign

because he violated a primary policy of the Sea

Shepherd Conservation Society which is that the

Society does not condone, advocate or support any

tactic that could cause injury or death to any human

being. Dr. Vlasak was aware of this policy when he

joined the Board of Directors. In April 2005 his

statements advocating violence became the story and

pulled the moral high ground from under us. We lost a

great deal of media and public support for the seals.

Pamelyn Ferdin said this was unimportant. We

disagreed.

 

The release states that Jerry Vlasak believes that

there must be a year round campaign against the seal

slaughter. The fact is that Sea Shepherd and other

organizations like HSUS and IFAW are in fact involved

in this campaign on a continuous basis.

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is supporting a

campaign to undermine the international markets for

seal oil and we are leading a boycott effort against

Costco for marketing it. I joined Brigitte Bardot and

Persia White in Ottawa to oppose the seal slaughter. I

and other Sea Shepherd reps have done numerous

international television and radio international

interviews on this campaign. We are actively promoting

the boycott of Canadian Seafood and we are supporting

the boycott of tourism to Canada.

 

Last year we brought our ship into the ice and we will

be returning next year. The only reason we do not have

a ship there this year is because we have just

completed a major campaign to Antarctica to protect

whales and our ship is in South Africa. We did not

have the time or the money to get the ship to

Newfoundland for this year.

Our organization is the only group that actucally goes

to the ice with ships and actively opposes sealers on

the ice. Jerry Vlasak will not be returning to the ice

next year but we will.

 

What I find astounding is that Pamelyn Ferdin who has

never been to the seal slaughter, can ask why I am not

in Canada at this moment and her husband is, when in

fact I have just returned from Canada and I have been

going to the ice and opposing the seal slaughter since

1975. I have been beaten by sealers, I have been

jailed and fined and I have spent more time in jail on

this issue that Jerry is spending, yet Pamelyn is

attacking me because we simply asked her husband to

resign from the board for advocating the killing of

sealers. Jerry by the way has only gone to the seal

slaughter once and that was at our expense and on our

ship. Pamelyn is now proclaiming that he is the only

true champion of the seals because he is sitting in

jail and not eating.

 

Instead of thanks for supporting Jerry in jail, we get

slammed by his wife and accused of doing nothing.

 

It seems to me that we should be able to agree to

disagree on tactics and that Pamelyn Ferdin has some

serious problems with enemy identification if she is

attacking Sea Shepherd. She is even lauding Greenpeace

despite the fact that Greenpeace actually supports the

seal slaughter as " sustainable " .

 

This is a diverse movement and there are many

approaches, many tactics and many strategies and we

support them all. We support Jerry's tactics if he

applies them as his tactics but we simply said that we

cannot support his tactics in the name of Sea

Shepherd.

 

Sea Shepherd does not endorse causing injury or death

to any person, period. If people disagree with this,

fine, but that is our policy and we believe it is a

responsible policy and we have no intention of

changing it.,

 

This attack, this misinformation does not do this

movement any credit nor does it contribute to the

defense of the seals. We disagree with Jerry yet we

still continued to support him as a defender of seals

- that is why Lisa has organized the demonstration in

his support. That is why we are covering his legal

fees and his appeal. That is why we have not spoken

negatively in public or in private about Jerry Vlasak.

Why? Because he is not our enemy.

 

We regret that NAALPO and Pamelyn Ferdin believe we

are their enemy - but we are not.

 

We wish Jerry all the best, we applaud his courage and

we hope that he will respect us for what we do as we

respect him for his approach.

 

Sincerely

 

 

Captain Paul Watson

Founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

(1977)

Co-Founder of Greenpeace International (1979)

Co-Founder of the Greenpeace Foundation (1972)

National Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006) of the Farley Mowat Institute

 

 

Give me a fair ship so that I make sail into harm's

way.

 

- Captain John Paul Jones

 

- Founder of the United States and Russian Navies

 

Whom when I asked from what place he came

And how he hight, himselfe he did ycleepe,

The Shepheard of the Ocean by Name,

And said he came from the main-sea deepe.

- Edward Spencer

 

-

Press Office

NAALPO List

Saturday, April 08, 2006 1:03 PM

[animallibpress] JAIL PROTEST HELD ON

BEHALF OF DR. JERRY VLASAK!

 

 

 

 

PROTEST HELD ON BEHALF OF JERRY

VLASAK, MD OUTSIDE THE PEI JAIL

 

For Immediate Release

Saturday, April 8, 2006

21044 Sherman Way #211

Canoga Park CA 91302

phone: 818.932-9997 fax: 818.932-9998

press

www.animalliberationpressoffice.org

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Eastern

Canada -Dr. Jerry Vlasak, one of three press officers

with the North American Animal Liberation Press

Office, (NAALPO), is the first of the anti-sealing

protesters to turn himself in; he currently sits in

jail on his 13th day of a hunger strike. John

Mitchell, legal counsel for the eleven activists, said

he is aware of plans by several of those arrested with

Vlasak to turn themselves in and serve their

respective sentences. But none of those individuals

have contacted or advised Mitchell with respect to

when they intend to return to Charlottetown.

 

Lisa Shalom, a fellow activist and one of three

females arrested on the ice floes last march along

with the eight other anti-sealing protesters, decided

to hold a demonstration. She had elected to pay the

fine of 1000C to the court in lieu of jail time but

wanted to make sure that Vlasak had support in

Charlottetown from the outside. Charlottetown, PEI is

not London; New York or even an Austin, Texas- so it

was a challenge for Shalom to get people out on behalf

of Vlasak in a city that has close ties to the seal

kill. In fact, one of the jailers told Vlasak that his

father is a " sealer. "

http://theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=2193 & sc=2

 

(NAALPO NOTE: One paragraph in the article is

completely incorrect. Dr. Vlasak is not spending time

in jail to raise money for any conservation group. Dr.

Vlasak is NOT in jail to raise money, but to fulfill

his sentence, protest the seal kill and protest the

unjust conviction of himself and the ten other

anti-sealing activists.)

 

Dr. Vlasak, formerly of Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society, was questioned by a reporter last year and

stated that in his personal opinion violence in

defense of innocent seals being clubbed to death is

morally justifiable if the seal killers would not stop

any other way. Vlasak states, “Those very words got me

ousted as a board member of SSCS - but I stand by them

without regret. If it were your child or companion

being clubbed to death, would violence in self-defense

not be morally justified in order to stop it? I was

simply giving my own personal opinion, as I have a

right to do under the U.S. Constitution. "

 

SSCS has refused to pay for Vlasak’s appeal, but

Mitchell plans to include Vlasak pro bono in the

appeal along with the ten other activists. Dr. Vlasak

also had to pay his own way to turn himself in, but he

said such was the least he could do for the seals -

since he has been banned from the ice floes for three

years.

 

On Sunday, March 26th, HSUS took Zodiacs out to

the ice floes - but one of them was rammed by a

fishing boat with the film of the seal kill

confiscated. These HSUS activists have now been banned

from the ice floes. Vlasak states, “I have always

believed that there has got to be a year-round

campaign against this seal slaughter - not just once a

year during the actual kill, with the million-dollar

multi-nationals suddenly moving on to other

campaigns. " Finally, HSUS has come up with the idea

of a worldwide boycott of Canadian seafood. This is a

great start, but ALL Canadian products - and tourism -

should be boycotted! HSUS has also brought major

attention to this kill by enlisting Lady Heather and

Sir Paul Mcartney. HSUS is focused on bringing major

attention to this hunt, and its own Rebecca Aldworth -

who lives in Canada - is spearheading that effort.

 

The " second phase " of the massacre of baby seals

in the Labrador Front, Newfoundland started last

Tuesday and is going to kill 234,000 infants for their

fur and penises - sold to make European coats and

Asian aphrodisiacs.

 

For more information - and footage - on the seal

kill, please e-mail or call the North American Animal

Liberation Press Office at

press or (818)

932-9997, respectively.

 

 

National Press Officers:

Lindy Greene-Southwest

 

 

Camille Hankins-New York

Jerry Vlasak MD-Los Angeles

 

 

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