Paul McCartney protests seal slaughter

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 2, 2006

ON THE ICE FLOES IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE – Paul McCartney and his wife took to the frigid ice off the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday in a bid to halt Canada’s annual slaughter of weeks-old seal pups.

Animal rights activists contend the killing of the doe-eyed baby seals, who are often clubbed to death, pierced with boat hooks or skinned alive, is cruel and unnecessary, but fishermen say they need the income.

The McCartneys, dressed in orange thermal jumpsuits, traveled in helicopters with a dozen journalists and members of the Humane Society of the United States and the British-based Respect for Animals group.

Hundreds of seals and their fluffy white pups, only days old, were lolling on the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the mothers taking breaks from nursing to bob in the water and fish. The pups will shed their white fur within two weeks, when they become game for fishermen, who get up to $70 each for their pelts and blubber.

The former Beatle acknowledged that residents have hunted seals for hundreds of years.

“Well, in our view, that doesn’t make it justifiable,” he said. “Plenty of things have been going on for a long time, like slavery. Just because it’s been going on for a long time doesn’t make it right.”

The McCartneys rolled on the ice with one pup, which gently nipped at Heather Mills McCartney and mewed for its mother. Mills McCartney expressed sadness that it and others would likely be killed in a few weeks, their pelts going mostly to Norway, China and Russia.

Paul McCartney implored fishermen to turn instead to ecotourism such as whale watching, as communities have done along the Atlantic coast.

“This is one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth,” he said. “It’s very rare that you can come to a beautiful, wild place like this. In our view, it would make more sense to look at ecotourism.”

Sealers say the hunt has kept their communities afloat for centuries.

“He’ll go out there and cuddle up to a whitecoat and they look beautiful, you can’t get away from that. And it is cruel, you can’t get away from that either, but it’s something we’ve done for 500 years,” said Jack Troake, a 70-year-old sealer. “It’s helped to sustain us. We go to bed with a full stomach, a tight roof over our head. It’s part of our culture, our history.”

The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972, and the European Union banned white baby seal pelts in 1983.

The British government also is considering banning seal goods. Respect for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States, which coordinated the McCartneys’ visit, are encouraging a boycott of Canadian seafood.

“I think the McCartneys are two of the most visible people in the world, and with them drawing attention to the fact that this hunt is still going on, this is going to get that message out,” said Rebecca Aldworth, a Newfoundlander who is observing her seventh seal hunt for the Humane Society.

Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans insists the seals are not killed before they shed their white fur – typically two to three weeks after they are born.

“All these animal rights groups take people out there to pose with these cute little ones. To suggest that they’re out there clubbing these little white furry ones is just wrong. That’s completely banned,” said Phil Jenkins, a department spokesman.

The government endorses the hunt as a cultural right and announced a management plan in 2003 with a quota of 975,000 seals over three years.

About 325,000 seal pups were killed last year, bringing local fishermen $14.5 million, which they say their families badly need. The start of this spring’s hunt has yet to be announced because mild temperatures have made the ice thin.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said Canada would not terminate the hunt and insisted it is the most regulated mammal harvest in the world.