LET’S TALK ABOUT INDOCTRINATION
October 8, 2023
COMMENTARY BY CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON
IN RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE IN THE NEWFOUNDLAND NEWSPAPER THE WESTERN STANDARD By Christopher Oldcorn. Oct 6th, 2023
WESTERN STANDARD: The president of one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest unions stated that media and animal rights activists have influenced Canadians against the Atlantic seal hunt through “indoctrination.”
“It was all crushed,” Greg Pretty, president of the 14,000-member Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, told the Senate Fisheries committee.
“We had the products, we had the beautiful coats, you name it, we had it,” testified Pretty.
“We had seal oil. We did all that. It was all done, but it was all crushed. It was crushed by outside forces, and we never had a champion in Ottawa to stand for us.”
CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: It was a very long struggle beginning in the Sixties that finally resulted in the ban on Canadian seal products in Europe and China in 2008. It was not easy, but we did indeed crush this abominable travesty. This was a despicably cruel industry, grossly inhumane and only existed because of Canadian government subsidies and support. The movement to “crush” this industry was successful and the world is better off for it. It is particularly ungrateful for Greg Pretty to claim the industry had no champion in Ottawa. The opposite is true, the seals and deal defenders had absolutely no champions in Ottawa. The Canadian government sent icebreakers, fisheries enforcement and the Mounties and created the very Orwellian Seal Protection Act that made it illegal to film, document, witness, or approach anyone killing a seal. The problem is that even the Canadian government could not defeat the anger and the shame directed at sealing from the International and Canadian public. Canadian government and the sealing industry indoctrination failed. The European Union and China did not buy it and banned it on the grounds of cruelty.
WESTERN STANDARD: According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the seal trade, which used to be valued at $34.3 million annually, has significantly declined to approximately $275,000 per year due to the 2009 European Union export ban and the 2011 ban in China.
In a May 17 briefing note, the department of Fisheries Seal Market Development said Asia was “one of its last opportunities for their industry to again become commercially viable.”
Pretty told senators that seal hunters had no effective lobby.
“We don’t have a national champion on seals,” said Pretty.
CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: From Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the sealing industry had 100% support from the Canadian government. Fisheries Minsters included Newfoundlanders John Crosby, Brian Tobin and Loyola Hearn, all fiercely defensive of the industry, all of whom condemned any organization or individuals that opposed the slaughter. The killing continues and although the quota remains at around 400,000 seals annually, the kill is just 10% of that number because the anti-sealing movement used the most effective tactic of all – the cutting off of the market for seal products. What is left of the industry survives because of government subsidies, a glorified welfare program meant to entice votes in Newfoundland for the government.
WESTERN STANDARD: “You know, if the beef industry in this country was under attack like the seals are today, there would be action taken about it, believe me.”
“Any time that somebody from this province can land in Ottawa and have their coat sprayed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and nothing happens, there might be a small misdemeanour charge, but that signal goes to the high schools and it goes right to the media who also are a part of that process that promote these individuals to the detriment of our harvesting industry,” said Pretty.
“We haven’t seen that level of campaigns against, say, eating beef, eating lamb,” said Senator Salma Ataullahjan (ON).
CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: Obviously Greg Pretty is unfamiliar with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They have been relentless in attacking the slaughter industry, far more so than they have been opposing the seal slaughter. Greg you kill, you slaughter, you massacre, you inflict horrendous pain and abuse on the seals. You don’t harvest them. You harvest apples, not seals. Although slaughterhouse are despicably inhumane places, even abattoirs do not club baby animals in front of their mothers or skin them alive nor do they leave their wasted corpses on the ice.
WESTERN STANDARD: “What is driving this campaign against the seal hunt?”
“We started talking about baby seals and the prettiness of the facial composure of a seal versus other animals,” replied Pretty.
“The lamb is cute,” said Senator Ataullahjan.
“I love rack of lamb, I must say, but I have never seen anyone paint my coat over it,” replied Pretty.
“Seriously, the point is that is part of the process.”
CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: The answer to what is driving the campaign against the seal hunt is simple: compassion, empathy, and kindness. Millions of people oppose the killing of lambs, the killing of pigs, chickens, and cows. This what aboutism has no basis in reality. The people opposing the slaughter of seals do not share your love for a burnt rack of slain lamb.
WESTERN STANDARD: Lorelei Roberts, the assistant deputy fisheries minister for Newfoundland and Labrador, expressed concerns that seal hunting faced criticism even within public schools in the province.
“One of my friends’ daughters, she is 9, and she spoke to me about seals,” testified Roberts.
“She said, ‘You know, Lorelei, they are talking about seals in school, but I wanted to come and ask you about it,’” said Roberts.
“She said, ‘They are saying that we kill baby seals.’”
“I said, ‘You know that is actually not factual,’” said Roberts.
“We don’t kill baby seals. We kill adult seals, and there are a lot of seals, and it is the same as if we have meat from cows, meat from pigs. There is a purpose for an animal.”
CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: The truth is, Lorelei, they do kill baby seals. What you told that young girl is the very definition of indoctrination and it is based on a lie. In fact, most of the seals slain are baby seals. Not whitecoats, we put an end to that perverse atrocity decades ago, but the seals being killed are 6 to 8 weeks old which qualifies as baby seals in the minds of most reasonable people. Seals are not killed for meat, they are killed for fur and the bodies are left on the ice.
It is a lie to say there are a lot of seals. A healthy population of harp, hood and gray seals equates to a healthy ocean because seals prey upon fish species like mackerel and capelin that prey upon young cod. Prior to European colonization seal populations were much higher and at the same time fish populations were much healthier. The more seals, the more the production of fecal material to provide nutrients for phytoplankton.
Seals do not destroy fish species and populations. That crime is the responsibility of modern mechanized fisheries. We need to get rid of the draggers and trawlers and not the seals.
The slaughter of seals is 90% ended. We need to shut down the final 10% because 40,000 baby seals slaughtered each year is still too much and unacceptable. The kill quota must be 100% and we will not rest until we achieve a zero quota.