Last Ditch Effort: Canada Markets Seal Meat to China.

“Do not give others what you yourself do not want.” - Ancient Chinese Proverb

Canada has always struggled for ways to justify the unpopular seal slaughter because they want the fur even though its banned in the US and Europe.  When I interviewed seal slaughter activist and fashion photographer Nigel Barker, we talked at length about the Canadian government’s weak and insulting attempt to tell the world that Canadians like the slaughter, not just for the fur, but because they LOVE to eat seal meat.  The numbers for this argument match up so it appears that they are conceding defeat on this point and are now saying that it’s not Canadians that love seal meat, it’s the Chinese.

Since the European Union banned seal product imports, Canada has been looking hard to find a seal meat dumping ground so that the slaughter can continue.  Activists around the globe are fighting to make sure that the China does not becoming a dumping ground for the unwanted seal meat.  This tactic was also used to get rid of whale meat from Iceland that people in that country wouldn’t dare eat.

To meat eaters, everyone tastes like chicken.  So, why wouldn’t people just eat seal meat?  Why are people so upset?  Well, the seal slaughter is notorious in its cruelty.  Hunters travel miles through ice floes to find mother seals with their pups.  They use a metal rod with a hook on the end to beat and break the skulls of the pups who are usually only a few weeks old.  Often before the pup is dead, their skin/fur is cut and ripped off and the carcass left of the ice with the crying mother.  Fishermen have taken to keeping the carcasses as a PR move.  They don’t want the cameras from activist groups to see hundreds of carcasses on the ice, it would ruin the myth of the successful seal meat industry.

Canada’s attempt to sell seal meat in China is insulting.  They think that they can trick people into eating seal meat because the vocal opposition to the salughter is very limited and oppressed in China.  Writng about the slaughter online might be the best thing we can do in the US to help get the truth out there are combat the Canadian seal meat myth.