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Animal · le 8 mars 2008

http://tinyurl.com/2924lh

The issue of the seal hunt is showing up in the news again. Must be fund-raising time for international animal rights organizations.

I'm not going to go on and on about whether I think seal hunts should continue or not. For me, that's not the point of my anger. I have little tolerance for liars and swindlers; that's all.

Harsh words? I don't think so. And I think the only reason words like that aren't being used more often is due to basic Canadian politeness. Add to that the complexity of the animal rights movement, and a good dollop of urban elitism, and what we've got is a messy mire of tainted public messages.

I have a strong respect and appreciation for those who are committed to caring for the animals of the world that need human voices to speak for them. I absolutely agree that human needs should never be an excuse for deplorable treatment of animals that are nearly extinct or are suffering because of pure human meanness.

In fact, I've finally persuaded my dear old mother to take her sparse dollars that she used to send to the big animal rights organizations and send them to her local SPCA instead. She's the sort who never would let us own a pet, saying that caging an animal was a cruelty city people should think twice about.

I have a bit softer take on that. For those who benefit from the companionship of a snugly cat or a protective dog, I understand that both parties live better lives in a beautiful mutual way. I've seen for myself how mobility restricted people have been raised out of depressions because of an animal's kindness.

But I do see my mother's point about how city bred pets can also lead to abandoned, mistreated and even dangerously tempered animals when humans lose sight of responsible caring. If you don't plan to have a house full of cats, you should do what needs to be done to prevent that, rather than deal with the problem after a litter arrives. And she agrees with me that the SPCA is the best way to deal with those who have pets to be a target of their anger with the world.

I can go further about my respect for organizations like Ducks Unlimited, which is made up of hunters who see what industry can do to natural animal habitats. And thank goodness for those who get in the way of senseless killing of gorillas and elephants and such.

However, none of that caring compassion is evident to me in the anti-seal hunt movement.

If it were simply a movement to make sure that sealers are as humane as possible, that would be fine. But that's been achieved already. It seems to me that nothing will satisfy them until all killing of all animals is halted completely, and that's part of why I'm suspicious of their truthfulness.

Another part is the way they tell their side of the story. Has anyone noticed the public voice they choose is often a young sweet child-like female voice? I suppose that raises emotion-based support better than a gruff demanding presentation. I heard one such activist in a news story saying "and the men were laughing and joking while killing". I suspect she saw this as evidence that sealers are heartless. Does she think that sealers should be citing the Rosary instead? Is she not aware that humour is often used whenever hard physical labour is being done? Does she not know that poorly paid vegetable harvesters often joke about to lighten their loads? Would those sounds offend her sensibilities as well?

The global fish population is being dangerously sabotaged by unrestricted practices elsewhere in the world. The animals of the Rainforest are being driven to extinction by corporate greed. The caribou of the western North are at risk because of the search for oil. Slaughterhouses are under-inspected in many nations because of low funding for inspectors. But it's the seal hunt that is in the newsletters sent out to ask for donations. Why?

That's where my accusation of swindling comes about. Like I told my mom, more donation money is being used for the cost of keeping organizations alive than is being used to actually protect a species that seems to be able to look after its population growth by itself. I told her not to be fooled by the glee being expressed about getting American restaurants to boycott all Canadian ocean products. That's been shown to be false; and by the American Restaurant Association itself. Most of the restaurants they mention on their website are vegetarian or never used Canadian products in the first place, according to a ARA's recent membership survey.

If, as I suspect, this particular branch of the animal rights movement is really about pushing us towards a vegetarian global community, then they should say so. To tug at vulnerable heartstrings for the sake of dollars is wrong.

The humans of the world do need to take a good hard look at their arrogant use of all that Mother Earth provides, I agree. But lying to my mother isn't the way to go about it.