Watching the seal hunt unfold this year, I had to wonder about compassion - that emotion that conveys kindness and consideration. It seemed to me that as a society we have lost our compassion toward other beings or people. We no longer care about anything beyond our short term selfish selves. Beyond that, we are seemingly no longer allowed to care, disallowed from wearing our heart on our sleeves, no longer encouraged to voice our concern or distaste for a brutal practice.
Various celebrities stood up and opposed the hunt only to be ridiculed by the media with a who-do-they-think-they-are indignity. Meanwhile, private individuals wrote letters to members of Parliament, the Prime Minister, signed petitions and attempted to rally against the hunt but their attempts were silenced by a lack of coverage. The famous deemed pathetic publicity whores when they protested, the anonymous deemed insignificant.
The seal hunt is consistently justified by the Canadian government and the hunters themselves - a necessary and viable source of income they say. Statistics were referenced, quotas were set, and the term heritage is utilized to justify the hunt for them. A hunt that according to various reports brings in a measly $14 million a year is defended rather than investigated. To it’s proponents, the hunt is quantified as an income. To kill a seal is to make a buck. To kill a seal is to make up for the lost fisheries. But I ask, how do you quantify the suffering of an animal? How do you quantify the loss to Canada’s self image now replete with bloody ice floes and carnage?
Time and again, various government representatives spoke out in outrage against various celebrities, individuals and even other countries comments opposing Canada’s hunt. One replied to a German criticism daring them to look at their own history before pointing fingers. Another thanked an American family for choosing to spend their vacation elsewhere as they protested the hunt with their tourist power. Both responses were insulting and in the long run debilitating to Canada. The media however, condoned these ridiculous responses and seemed to slant coverage in favour of the hunt rather than the discourse against it. This is not the Canada I thought I lived in.
Our government was upset at the compassion shown for seals rather than it’s policies and politics. Combined with the media the hunt was defended as though the entire population was proud of our seal killing capability. They ignore polls indicating quite the opposite, refuse to discuss the issue or re-examine viable options. Several parliament ministers and senators slam opponents refusing to see the other side, denying opponents a voice, denying our right in a democracy to disapprove of our government’s actions.
I am not a celebrity. I am a regular Canadian who does not want this practice defended on my behalf anymore. I am opposed to the senseless and brutal slaughter. I do not want blood on my hands. I do not want to carry the responsibility of pain, suffering and the extermination of any species on my conscience. Instead, I want my government to listen to it’s citizen’s concerns. I want my Prime Minister to examine the slaughter of seals, to step beyond the official reports and clearly re-think this issue. We are exterminating the seals as a means to their own end. It is nasty, brutal and selfish. I demand that explanation because I like my sense of compassion. I am proud of being able to feel something for another creature. I am not ashamed to wear my heart on my sleeve and right now I feel like Lady Macbeth trying impossibly to clean myself of that damn spot.
Various celebrities stood up and opposed the hunt only to be ridiculed by the media with a who-do-they-think-they-are indignity. Meanwhile, private individuals wrote letters to members of Parliament, the Prime Minister, signed petitions and attempted to rally against the hunt but their attempts were silenced by a lack of coverage. The famous deemed pathetic publicity whores when they protested, the anonymous deemed insignificant.
The seal hunt is consistently justified by the Canadian government and the hunters themselves - a necessary and viable source of income they say. Statistics were referenced, quotas were set, and the term heritage is utilized to justify the hunt for them. A hunt that according to various reports brings in a measly $14 million a year is defended rather than investigated. To it’s proponents, the hunt is quantified as an income. To kill a seal is to make a buck. To kill a seal is to make up for the lost fisheries. But I ask, how do you quantify the suffering of an animal? How do you quantify the loss to Canada’s self image now replete with bloody ice floes and carnage?
Time and again, various government representatives spoke out in outrage against various celebrities, individuals and even other countries comments opposing Canada’s hunt. One replied to a German criticism daring them to look at their own history before pointing fingers. Another thanked an American family for choosing to spend their vacation elsewhere as they protested the hunt with their tourist power. Both responses were insulting and in the long run debilitating to Canada. The media however, condoned these ridiculous responses and seemed to slant coverage in favour of the hunt rather than the discourse against it. This is not the Canada I thought I lived in.
Our government was upset at the compassion shown for seals rather than it’s policies and politics. Combined with the media the hunt was defended as though the entire population was proud of our seal killing capability. They ignore polls indicating quite the opposite, refuse to discuss the issue or re-examine viable options. Several parliament ministers and senators slam opponents refusing to see the other side, denying opponents a voice, denying our right in a democracy to disapprove of our government’s actions.
I am not a celebrity. I am a regular Canadian who does not want this practice defended on my behalf anymore. I am opposed to the senseless and brutal slaughter. I do not want blood on my hands. I do not want to carry the responsibility of pain, suffering and the extermination of any species on my conscience. Instead, I want my government to listen to it’s citizen’s concerns. I want my Prime Minister to examine the slaughter of seals, to step beyond the official reports and clearly re-think this issue. We are exterminating the seals as a means to their own end. It is nasty, brutal and selfish. I demand that explanation because I like my sense of compassion. I am proud of being able to feel something for another creature. I am not ashamed to wear my heart on my sleeve and right now I feel like Lady Macbeth trying impossibly to clean myself of that damn spot.
