Canadian culture and tradition?

Spencer Warren writes about the annual baby seal slaughter in Canada, now under way:

Canada, a country that preens itself on its hyper-liberalism, this week resumed its annual ritual. For the next month, its eastern fishermen from Newfoundland and nearby areas are clubbing to death and shooting several hundred thousand baby seals—most of them less than three months old, some less than a month old. They sell the baby seals’ fur to the fashion industry. This is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth.

Many of the pups, the Canadian government admits, are wounded, then slip beneath the surface of the water and slowly die, which takes up to several hours. Some are skinned alive. The government does not enforce its “hunting” regulations, according to the Humane Society of the U.S. Others, not yet dead, are tossed in piles of the dead. The ice and waters run red with their blood. The Humane Society website has photographs of fisherman wielding clubs (fitted with a metal spike) over little animals lying helpless on the ice. (This year many, too young to swim, are clinging for life on the small pans of ice left after the mild winter, where they are shot by the intrepid “hunters.”) An audio can be heard of a seal crying out as it is being clubbed to death. Such cruelty toward livestock would be a crime in the United States and probably most other Western countries.

The conduct of the Canadian government raises the question whether the rule of law governs in Canada. Last year, one fishing boat rammed a Humane Society rubber observation craft, carrying observers and journalists who held permits. They were almost capsized and could have drowned in the frigid waters. After the ramming, Canadian police suddenly emerged from the fishing boat cabin and arrested the observers, confiscating their permits and video. No action was taken against the fishermen who tried to ram the observer craft, an action which the police obviously witnessed and perhaps plotted. This year the government is violating its own laws, restricting and obstructing observers, journalists and scientists who want to witness the slaughter in the open space in the air above and on the sea.

Recently, at a protest outside the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa, a group of the fishermen staged a counter-protest, carrying signs that said: “Culture and Tradition.” Evidently, tens of thousands of years of human evolution have passed over the fishermen of Canada’s east coast, for their cruelty and greed is what we would expect of cavemen.

Some VFR readers may question this posting. In response, let me note the very perceptive comment made by a reader last year. He wrote that conservatives are supposed to understand human evil; that understanding is crucial to conservative philosophy about man’s limits. Thus, conservatives should care about human cruelty toward helpless animals, because it vividly demonstrates human vanity and sinfulness at their worst. (This is further evidenced by how our news media ignores such atrocities, reserving time instead for Anna Nicole Smith.)

For those readers who are interested, the website above contains information about contacting Canadian officials, as well as the boycott of Canadian fish and tourism. Whole Foods and Legal Sea Foods are leading the fish boycott, which thus far is costing Canada several hundred million dollars every year. Information also is provided about the fashion companies that are refusing to use seal fur and the many that continue to use seal fur. The import of seal fur is banned in the United States. Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands are moving to join this ban, as is the entire European Union.

Here, here, and here are Mr. Warren’s blog entries at VFR last year about the seal hunt.

Brandon F. writes:

Thanks for that. Liberals give the impression and believe that they are the harbingers of compassion for animals and the earth for that matter. It’s unfortunate that conservatives are seen as the monsters that would perpetuate or support such barbaric behavior.

Caroline writes:

Thank you for this post. When I was 10 years old ( roughly 1970), an elderly neighbor who was active in animal causes lent me a very graphic film depicting the Canadian seal slaughter. I was in the 6th grade at the time and my elementary school actually permitted me to show it at a school assembly. The film was utterly traumatizing and really changed me forever. It was my first glimpse of pure evil. I have already surmised that you are an animal lover (and quite possibly a dog owner?) as I recall that after Hurricane Katrina, you reminded people to send money to HSUS and the ASPCA to aid in the rescue of the animals abandoned in New Orleans. [LA note: the reader is confusing me with Spencer Warren, who wrote this and past VFR entries on the Canadian seals and on the plight of dogs in New Orleans. Mr. Warren is indeed a dog owner.]

Although I recognize that the substance of your post is directed at the hypocrisy of supposedly liberal Canadians allowing the seal slaughter to continue (do you have an hypothesis to explain this anomaly, because I sure don’t) one of the things, it seems to me, that gets way too little coverage about the implications of the Islamization of the West, is the very different conceptions about animal suffering in Islamic and Christian tradition. Does Islam have the equivalent of a Francis of Assisi? I very much doubt it. Frankly, one of the most troubling aspects to me of Islam is Muslims’ hatred of dogs. I simply can’t imagine living in a world where dogs are routinely beaten, tortured and killed on the streets and in which I would actually have to worry about the safety of my dogs if I left them in the backyard while I went to work very day. That’s not a world I want to live in. And even after I’m dead and gone, that’s not a world that I want dogs to live in.

As silly as it might sound to some people, to me, that’s enough of a reason in itself to fight Islam’s encroachment. I know that many westerners are not reproducing and this may play some role in their complacency regarding what the world is going to look like in 50-100 years. But liberals can usually be counted on to react strongly, on an emotional level, to the prospects of innocent creatures suffering. I wouldn’t underestimate the impact on the western liberal psyche, in terms of viscerally grasping the implications of succumbing to islamization, if it were more widely understood that Muslims detest western man’s best friend. Also, Muslims are increasingly pressing for halal slaughter in the west. I actually don’t know enough about the technique to comment on its humanity or lack thereof in comparison to western factory farming methods, which are nothing to boast about either. But I would certainly like to see more public discussion, especially from animal rights organizations, about the likely fate of animals, especially dogs, in a world dominated by Islam.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 05, 2007 12:33 PM | Send