The real villain in this story is the anti-sealing industry. Like the famous five big tobacco executives who swore that they had no knowledge of the ill effects of cigarettes in Congress, the anti sealing groups base their arguments on the big lie.
Even in the images in the media today, these groups portray the hunt as being somehow related to the killing of baby seals, a practise which has been outlawed in Canada for 20 years. And yet they still use the white coat imagery in their ads. Why?
Well according to various reports, the graphic image of the bloodied seal in contrast to the white ice is very effective at raising money for these groups. They invent horror stories such as this one in the Boston Globe. A report in the St. John's Telegram a couple years ago put the advertising revenue gained by anti sealing groups at double the estimated $60 million value of pelts, meat, and omega oils to the Newfoundland economy.
It's no wonder these same activists want to block Radio Canada from airing a documentary that shows them standing around on the ice as a seal pup washes up and eventually dies.
Phoques, le film, (Seals, the movie), produced by Quebec filmmaker Raoul Jomphe, has ruffled feathers at the Humane Society of the United States, because of a scene showing members of the group watching a dying seal for more than an hour as they filmed a promotional video of the hunt on ice floes in Atlantic Canada.
- Report from CanWest news service March 6, 2007
No, I think Canadians understand the interests of the parties. And I didn't even mention the seal-flipper pie.
No comments:
Post a Comment