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July 1, 2009

Animal rights stuff I don't get

Why is it that many people can be happy with the mass killing of geese, chickens, pigs, horses, cows, goats, and sheep, but it bothers them when we kill seals?

A NY Times article, Canadian Chefs Serve Seal, With a Side of Controversy, discusses a flourishing restaurant trade in seal meat in Canada, despite bans in Europe and the USA. It seems that the fur as waste can't be the real issue, because if fur is cruel and leather is not, then eating seal makes things less cruel, not more:

Canada allows two distinct hunts each year: a small one by Inuits in the Arctic, mainly a subsistence hunt for food, and the much larger Gulf of St. Lawrence hunt on the Atlantic coast, driven primarily by the fur trade.

In the latter hunt, which has been the focus of protests by animal rights groups, fishermen are allowed to kill 280,000 seals out of a herd that Canadian officials estimate at 5.6 million. About 15,800 Canadians hold seal hunting licenses.

...
Christian Archambault, a second-generation fishmonger at the Atwater Market in Montreal, flatly refuses to stock seal, but he acknowledged a distinction between urban diners simply exploring a new trend and Inuits following a tradition. “They have a right to eat it locally,” Mr. Archambault said.

The Canadian humane society also does not oppose the small hunt in the far north. Its main objection to seal dishes in restaurants, it says, is that the cuisine deflects attention from the bigger hunt, which the society has been working to end. “If they’re selling meat, they’re promoting the commercial seal hunt,” said Rebecca Aldworth, a director of the Canadian Branch of Humane Society International. “The restaurants aren’t the story here. The seal hunt is the story.”

Ms. Aldworth added: “If the restaurants believe the hunt should end, they should not be serving seal meat. Most countries are taking steps to end the hunt, not promote it.”

I also don't understand why indigenous consumers deserve special rights. Perhaps for limited resources like whales, we can give any limited hunting rights to those who hold the most long established rights to do so, which in this case would be the Inuit. However, there are plenty of Canadian seals. If killing them for their food and skin is wrong for white Canadians, it should also be wrong for Inuit ones.

I'm really having trouble seeing the difference between the seal hunt and the American deer hunt, and that comparison makes me less sympathetic with the seals. Public opinion on this matter could just come down to Denis Leary's bit:

What are you?
I'm an otter.
And what do you do?
I swim around on my back and do cute little human things with my hands.
You're free to go.
And what are you?
I'm a cow.
Get in the fucking truck, ok pal!
But I'm an animal.
You're a baseball glove! Get on that truck!
I'm an animal, I have rights!
Yeah, here's yer fucking cousin, get on the fucking truck, pal! We kill the cows to make jackets out of them and then we kill each other for the jackets we made out of the cows.

Posted by OneEyedMan at July 1, 2009 8:26 AM

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