Last month, Canada's Governor General, Michaëlle Jean was visiting Nunavut (a northern territory of Canada) to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The native Inuit people did a traditional seal hunt while the Governor General was there. As part of the community feast, the Inuit offered a piece of the seal's heart, and it has apparently sparked outrage amongst PETA and other animal rights groups. The article today is from CBC entitled, "
Governor General's seal snack sparks controversy."
Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean snacking on a slain seal's raw heart has sparked criticism from the European Union and animal rights groups.
Barbara Slee, an anti-seal hunt campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels, said she was disgusted by Jean's actions.
"The fact that the Governor General in public is slashing and eating a seal, I don't think that really helps the cause, and I'm convinced that this will not change the mind of European citizens and politicians," Slee told The Associated Press.
"It amazes us that a Canadian official would indulge in such bloodlust," Dan Mathews, senior vice-president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told the Toronto Star.
"It sounds like she's trying to give Canadians an even more Neanderthal image around the world than they already have." [...]
Canadian Inuit leaders praised Jean's gesture, saying it sends a strong message to the world about the traditional "country food" that Inuit rely on.
"Not everybody would do that, especially when they know that the seal hunt ... is a controversial issue because of the animal rights people," Mary Simon, head of the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, told CBC News on Tuesday.
"I just want to thank her for her support of our people and our culture."
Both Simon and Paul Kaludjak, president of the land claims group Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., said the seal hunt is not a controversial issue among Inuit.
"We don't really care about how the outside world thinks about how we eat our country food," Kaludjak said.
"Let them be disgusted, whatever they want to pursue, and that's their choice."
I think it's kind of insane for the groups who claim to embrace diversity to be condemning the Inuit culture for hunting and eating seal. These native peoples live in the arctic which is one of the harshest environments to survive in, and they have to live off the land and the land happens to have delicious seals. In my mind, it's kind of insane that people are trying to get the European Union to impose bans on the seal trade because seals are adorable. Meat is meat! Could you imagine if another country started boycotting your country because your country hunts fish and, *gasp*, eats them?
I think PETA is definitely out of touch with reality here if they think these are the actions of neanderthals. From where I come from, it's not cool to be putting down the culture and tradition of these native peoples.
The CBC's
Rex Murphy has an awesome piece ripping on PETA (wmv). The transcript can be found
here. (Thanks for the link Myron).
It's "disgusting," cried some - including the PETA brigade, who enroll such luminaries as Pamela Anderson among their house philosophers, and who have made such "tasteful" comparisons as animal farming to the Holocaust. They actually ran a "Holocaust on your Plate" campaign. Disgusting is a word PETA and Pamela have lost the right to use.
Actually the Governor General was a model of deep courtesy in her actions and visit. How much we talk the talk of "diversity," "respect for traditions," and regard for aboriginal peoples. Yet here we have the head of state of Canada - not just flitting by, but staying over, participating, mixing in depth with the people of the far north. The response? We have all sorts of superior people calling her "too bizarre," citing her actions as "bloodlust," "Neanderthal," "offensive" and insulting her as stupid and immoral.
I enjoyed how Rex took pot shots at Hollywood as well.
