By Barry Stagg
February 1998
Seal Hunters and Urban Fashion
Killing seals is out of fashion in Toronto. The fickle and the indifferent are embracing cross-species democracy. This conceit begets the detached commitment to decline "clubbing any animal over the head to put food on my table". This quote is from an indignant letter from a seal hunt protester published in the Globe and Mail on New Year's Eve. Agrarians everywhere should take note of the post-modern grasp of the human food chain. Sealers and farmers should beware of the urban enlightenment that threatens to establish this social hierarchy:
1. Civilized people
2. Innocent seals
3. Sealers.
Ranking pets and other favoured animals over other less privileged humans is nothing new. The stereotypical pampered poodle is a more enduring example of the "baby seal" syndrome. However in this age of instant video communication ,wealthy plunderers of the soul such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) wreak havoc upon sealers' efforts to make a living. The IFAW projects its opposition to sealing as a worthwhile moral achievement. It amounts to video-enhanced poodle pampering. Mass media manipulation in the name of poodle pampering is still just as wrong-headed now as it was when mass media meant yelling from a soapbox.
The trend to damning the commercial killing of animals persists . With it comes the disturbing issue of whether there is an aspect of politically correct bigotry involved. Intolerance of others in society based on cultural, ethnic or racial criteria is socially unacceptable. Why then should intolerance directed towards sealers based on a misguided notion of cross species democracy be regarded as distinct from discrimination based on skin colour? If the fundamental foundation of the sealing protest is the ranking of seals over some humans then by any human standards of discrimination this is an act of basic bigotry. In the minds of ordinary people with a modicum of common sense, seals do not rank over people any more than cats and horses or poodles rank over your relatives or mine. If the designated superior group happens to be seals rather than another group of humans does the basic act of discrimination alter in any way? Exposure of the ideas of the seal advocates to the light of day may help others to decide on the soundness of the concept of 'Animal Rule'.
Perhaps a close look at the profitable evangelism of seal protest groups would be informative. Any appeal to the public that invites supporters to self -style themselves as civilized and enlightened in comparison to the 'Designated Depraved' needs plenty of sunshine directed upon its principles and its real motivations. Seal protesting looks like a very profitable industry that keeps a lot of people in shirts, ties and airline tickets while the sealers worry about little things like food on the table.
The fashion industry takes many forms. Substance is never a strong element of any fashion concept. The practices of professional fundraising are variants on the fashion business. If enough people can be attracted to the images and spoken invitations of the cause then the fundraisers are profitably successful. The issue for sealers is whether their lives and industry are to be reduced to baubles suitable for fashionable packaging in the service of the fundraising business.
Is the legal commerce of rural Newfoundland to be profaned into casual fodder for promotional videos prepared for professional fund raisers? The substance of a worker's life should not be trivialized like some moronic dance routine prepared for a music video. Let the dancers and poseurs of downtown Anywhere do their flimsy routines if they must. The substance of a sealer's life is not to be atomized into a bloody confection harnessed in the service of the fundraising industry. Let the guiding principle be people over poodles, sealers over seals.