Five Reasons for Animal Rights Activists to be Hopeful

It occurred to me that my post yesterday contained some pessimistic observations about the human race. Whenever this blog features despairing observations, I like to counter with a more hopeful follow-up. There are plenty of reasons why Animal Rights advocates should be hopeful.

Here are five!

1. In the Flushing section of New York's Queens borough, Public School 244 (pictured right) has gone vegan! All of its meals are now completely free of animal products. This occurred in response to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's noble attempts to make New York City a more health-conscious metropolis. And guess what? Apparently the switch has been a big hit with the kids! As one 9-year-old put it: "This is good. I'm enjoying that it didn't have a lot of salt in it." In addition to P.S. 244 going vegan, more than a thousand local schools - at Bloomberg's urging - have switched to whole grain breads and pastas and now have salad bars. (Source)

2. The number of vegans in the United States is on the rise! A study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group in 2012 found that the number of Americans identifying themselves as vegans was 2.5%, a sharp increase from the 1% of self-identifying vegans in 2009. In other words, in that three-year period, the number of vegans in the United States more than doubled! As I've said on this blog many times before: Our numbers are growing all the time! (Source)

3. On May 1, Vietnam Airlines stopped shipping primates for research purposes. "Even though Vietnam Airlines has never been in breach of international regulations governing the transportation of live animals," a V.A. statement said, "we decided to stop transporting primates destined for experimental purposes from May 1, 2013. The relevant operation manual shall be deployed system wide by Vietnam Airlines to ensure this decision." (Source)

4. Here in Canada, every major grocery chain in the country has now pledged to stop buying pork from farms that use gestation crates. This is a huge breakthrough victory that shows how much clout animal rights activists have in this country. As Twyla Francois of Mercy for Animals Canada quite rightly stated: "We are pleased that retailers have finally listened to their ethically-minded customers and are taking action to end the abusive practice of confining pigs in tiny metal crates so small the animals cannot even turn around, walk or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives." Moreover, restaurant chains such as McDonalds and Tim Horton's have also pledged to no longer purchase from farms that use gestation crates. (Source)

5. More encouraging news from Canada: In April, the General Court of the European Union, based in Luxembourg, upheld a three-year-old ban on seal products from Canada and Norway. This policy has inflicted tremendous damage on one of this country's most vicious rackets, our sorry equivalent of the Latin American cocaine trade. Despite the ban, this gruesome, vicious, bloodthirsty seal hunt continues. More than 70,000 seals were murdered in 2012, and that number jumped to 76,000 in this season. Dismayed by the E.U.'s decision, a representative from the Ottawa-based Seals and Sealing Network issued a statement: "It's bad news for the seal industry, but it's even worse news for other industries. If they're starting to ban products based on so-called moral issues, then who's next? Is it lobster because boil them? Beef? Pork?"

NOW THERE'S A GREAT IDEA!

The Canadian Seal Hunt: First the Bad News, Then the Bad News

When it comes to the ultra-violent and sadistic Canadian seal hunt, which do you want to hear first? The bad news? Or the bad news?

First the bad news: During this year's commercial seal hunt, 70,000 harp seals were killed, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries. That number is up substantially from last year's kill figure of 38,000. (Source) This sad news runs contrary to view that the seal hunt is dying due to declining demand for seal fur in other parts of the world.

Senator Mac Harb fought a
good - but very lonely - fight
against Canada's gruesome
and ultra-violent seal hunt.

Now the bad news: In a noble attempt to end this sickening practice, Senator Mac Harb introduced a bill to the Canadian Senate in early may that would end the commercial seal hunt. It was a brave thing to do. It took guts and very strong principles for Senator Harb to do that. 

Not surprisingly, Tweedledum and Tweedledee - whoops, er, uh, I mean, Harb's fellow Conservatives and Liberals in the Senate (the two political parties are virtually identical here in Canada) went after Harb's legislation and torpedoed it like the Lusitania. Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield spoke for most of the senators when he aid:

“Mr. Speaker, this is yet again another attack by a Liberal senator to try to undermine this safe, humane and sustainable hunt that is vital to coastal communities in northern and eastern Canada. Members on this side of the House have been unequivocal in our support for the Canadian seal industry. We will not abandon this industry at the behest of opposition parties or irresponsible and out-of-touch animal rights activists. We will continue to put the livelihood of hard-working Canadian families first.” (Source)

And there is one more piece of bad news (as if we need anymore): The Canadian Television Bureau, in an Orwellian move reminiscent of Eastern Europe during the communist era, banned an anti-seal hunt advertisement made by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) from being shown on Canadian television. So much for the people's right to see all sides of the story. This is merely another move by Canadian authorities to put the seal hunt out of sight, out of mind. 

Defenders of the seal hunt insist that it is an essential part of the livelihoods of large numbers of people, and that if it were banned, it would devastate the economy. But I quote from a Canadian Press article: "Darin King told the [Newfoundland] provincial legislature that 680 sealers took part in this year's hunt, which had a total allowable catch of 400,000." Since when have 680 people added up to substantial portion of the nation's economy? 

Pardon the abrupt change in subject, although I'll tie it in shortly to the seal hunt. Cocaine is a vital part of the economy in Latin America. In Andean nations, various Caribbean countries and Mexico, untold thousands rely on the production, movement and distribution of the drug. It's huge. It's in demand. And if the giant narco-captialist system were destroyed, it would devastate entire villages and ruin the livelihoods of families throughout South and Central America. Armies of campesinos go to work in the coca fields, while a massive network of smugglers keeps the drugs flowing north. 

Why do I bring up cocaine? Nobody argues that thousands of Latin Americans are dependent on so-called Cocaine Capitalism for their survival. Perhaps that's one reason why the War on Drugs never really went anywhere. Had it succeeded, it would have left vast areas of Latin America's narco-economy in ruins. 

And yet look at all the lives that cocaine destroys. Look at all the harm it causes. Look at all the hopes it has snuffed out. 

The seal hunt also destroys lives. Some would scoff the comparison I've just made. After all, in the case of the seal hunt, they aren't human lives. 

The prophetic Russian
novelist Leo Tolstoy
(1828-1910) warned
about violence against
animals.

That's a dangerous kind of reasoning though. It was Leo Tolstoy who said, "As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." What he meant by that is that the violence we inflict on animals will inevitably metastasize into violence against other human beings. Earlier tonight, I blogged about a murderer named Luka Rocco Magnotta, who started off killing cats and moved on to killing a human being and sending his body parts out in the mail. I'm not comparing sealers, who make a living from the seal hunt, to Magnotta. But what I'm saying is that a society that accepts the "they're just animals" argument is one that is tacitly approving violence. And that violence, in one way or another, is going to come back to haunt us. 

That's more bad news, in case you needed any. 

A Decent Showing in Atlanta...

In Atlanta, Georgia, activists staged a protest against the seal hunt in front of the Canadian consulate downtown. There weren't many of them - only about 12 - but what they lacked in numbers, they made up for in principles and integrity. The protest included gruesome undercover video scenes of the seal hunt and passing out literature. Activists urged passersby to protest the seal hunt in various ways. It wasn't a huge event, by any means, but it got the word out and showed that there are good, nonviolent ways to protest against the violent madness that is the seal hunt.

Seal Hunt Quotas on the Rise...

After that last Blog Entry, I don't want to get accused of picking on misguided militants more than those carrying out widespread systematic violence toward animals. So...

Here's the latest news on the Canadian seal hunt from AFP:

OTTAWA — Canada's fisheries minister on Monday hiked the total number of seals that hunters would be allowed to slaughter during an annual Atlantic coast hunt set to begin later this month.

The total allowable catch for harp seals this season will rise to 330,000, from 280,000 last year, while quotas for grey and hooded seals will remain unchanged at 50,000 and 8,200 animals, respectively.

The reason cited by officials for the increased quota is a growing seal population in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in waters east of Newfoundland.

"This government is united in its support of the thousands of coastal Canadian sealers who rely on the seal hunt for their livelihood," Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said in a statement.

"The seal hunt is a sustainable activity based on sound conservation principles."

The estimated populations of the grey and hooded seal herds are over 300,000 and 600,000 respectively and "continue to grow every year."

The harp seal population, meanwhile, is estimated at 6.9 million "or more than triple what it was in the 1970s."

Around 6,000 Canadians take part in seal hunting each year along the Atlantic coast, and 25 percent of their sales came from exporting products to Europe.

The 27 European Union states in July 2009 adopted a ban on seal products, ruling the goods could not be marketed from 2010.

Canada and Greenland account for more than 50 percent of the 900,000 seals slain in the world each year. Other seal-hunting countries include Norway, Namibia, Iceland, Russia and the United States.

I hear Canadians say, over and over again, that it's wrong to oppose the seal hunt because people rely on it for their livelihood. OK, point well taken.

But far, far more whites in the American South relied on slavery for their livelihood in the 19th Century. They made the same arguments: Abolish it and the result will be a disaster for the poor souls (in this case, poor white souls) whose well-being and survival depend on it.

Similarly, today, if the cocaine trade were wiped out, numerous villages in Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador that survive on the cocaine economy would be decimated economically. Same thing with villages in Afghanistan if heroin and opium were suddenly stamped out. A lot of struggling Afghans who rely on the heroin and opium trades would be hurt. But that doesn't legitimize those trades; it merely shows that when you get rid of some sort of lucrative economic resource, the results can be very painful and difficult for ordinary people. But the alternative of maintaining immoral industries is deeply troubling.

I am sympathetic to the people who rely on seal hunting for a living. There is no denying, however, that the practice itself is ghastly and brutal.

The seal hunt rivals factory farming in its barbarism. I don't advocate throwing pies at Gail Shea or blood at people who wear fur, and I certainly think many of the anti-seal hunt types - who traipse into Canada to protest and traipse out again - have been insensitive to the plight of the seal hunters. But I agree - 100 percent - with those who believe that this is a cruel practice.

That said, it's no crueler than manufacturing leather products. It all comes from the same place.

When I think of these things, I'm reminded of a Wisconsin serial killer named Ed Gein (1906 - 1984), who made all kinds of crafts out of the remains of the people he butchered. When police finally caught him, they found lampshades made of skin, human skulls on bedposts, scalps sewn together to make slipcovers, and various objects made of human bones.

Such discoveries shocked the world. Maybe the day will come when the way we currently use animals will prove equally shocking to future generations.

Then again, maybe not. I don't always have a hell of a lot of faith in human beings.