Guest Editorial by an Atlantic Canadian

When I hear people shoot off their mouths on topics about which they know nothing, I get annoyed. External criticism can be a positive thing if it forces Canada’s harp-seal hunt to adopt more humane methods or to enact stricter regulations. But the debate should focus on facts, not smear campaigns.

Too much of the material from professional protesters fails to inform and is carefully crafted to mislead, appeal to emotions and pry open sympathizers’ wallets. Although cute, young “whitecoat” seals usually highlight the anti-sealing propaganda, it’s been illegal to hunt them in Canada for more than two decades.

With 5.5 million harp seals off Canada’s shores, the population is estimated at triple what it was in the 1970s. But protesters refuse to let a few facts obstruct them. Why would I care if singer Paul McCartney and other celebrities join the protests? They should go hug a fish.

Emails circulating in some countries imply that Canadians club harp seals for sport. Seal-hunting never has been a sport. Rather, it supplements livelihoods for thousands of Inuit and Atlantic Canadians with few other options.

Animal-rights activists in Asia shouldn’t confuse the sealing industry with, say, cock fighting, which really is a sport that inflicts cruelty on animals to please spectators (and is illegal in Canada for that reason). Frankly, Asian protesters should focus on worthy causes, like a ban on cock fighting or bolstering the dwindling numbers of elephants and tigers.

Sometimes I wonder who profits more, those who hunt seals or the opportunists who protest and denounce to earn their livings. The latter group may include the same people keen to protect cormorants, even as those birds reach nuisance levels.

Similar dynamics emerge in protests against a kangaroo cull in Australia. While favoring free speech, I must plead with the professional protesters: don’t pretend to be environmentalists. The environmental movement is sorely needed, and deceivers give it a bad name.

Anyone visiting abattoirs to see livestock killed and butchered could take unsettling photos too. Death never makes a pretty sight.

Seal-hunting belongs nowhere on the radar screen among the most pressing environmental issues. Declining fish stocks pose a much greater problem. But fish aren’t sexy and can’t generate as many donations as seals or kangaroos. That’s really what drives the protests.

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