Hi again Heather - I wanted to write you again because I forgot to say
something yesterday that I should have. I don't agree with the seal
hunt! I also don't agree with baby cows being kept in blacked out
stalls and force fed for a couple weeks and then being carried out to
slaughter. That's what I meant when I said it's all bad. And I don't
think geography should have anything to do with a person's calling to
a cause - you obviously have a connection with the seals, and the
seals definitely need people to save them. And there are definitely
people here trying to do that too. The organization that I know about
is http://www.greyseal.net/index.html because it's a Nova Scotia
organization and it's the seals that I see dead on the beaches.
I should probably also explain that I'm not episcopalian but Buddhist
so maybe my take on life and death is a little more fluid. I don't
see death as being such a big thing and know that it can happen at
any moment and I think it's just all part of the ebb and flow. My
dogs having a good rub on the dead seals is just a part of the beach
experience if you know what I mean.
So in my email yesterday I wasn't condoning the seal hunt - I was
saying that it was on par with all the other factory farm operations
going on in the world in everyone's back yard - including the back
yards of Virginia. This hunt just happens to be going on in my back
yard. But it's like I said at the beginning of my email, I don't
think that saviours have to do with geography - you can save the seals
even though you live in Virginia - and I don't need to live in Nova
Scotia to save the seals. Although if you need a place to stay (and
you aren't afraid of being licked by 5 dogs at once!) because you're
coming to camp out on an ice floe in March or you want some advice on
a good vegetarian restaurant because you're passing through on your
way to the ice floes - you have definitely contacted the right person!
I hope this 2nd email has helped your sadness a little bit. I've been
thinking about my original email and I know I didn't state the above
clearly enough. I just sort of said that everything suffers and ended
it there. What I should have said was that everything suffers but
that shouldn't stop people from trying to alleviate it once they've
found out about the way that the torture is happening. If you believe
that the seals are being killed inhumanely then you should do
something about it!
Joan
She hasn't emailed me back but it's only been a few hours. I don't imagine she will email me back and it's okay if she doesn't. I hope I didn't hurt her feelings too bad. I think I might have hurt them when I inferred that she might be trying to save the seals because they were cute and had big eyes. But I think that IS a trap that a lot of people fall into. They see the cute seals being bludgeonded on the ice floes and are horrified and think nothing of the chickens with their beaks being burned off and the cows with their skin being torn off and the pigs being lifted off the ground by one foot so that they can be bled to death while they're still alive - and all of this is happening in their own counties and countries. And people look to Canada and Atlantic Canada and particular and think we're awful savages because of the seal hunt. My point was that seals aren't any better than chickens or cows or pigs. Okay, I've driven that right into the ground now.
But my point today is that they are all equally wrong and should all be stopped. They all are sentient beings and have as much right to life as you and me. Or maybe I should say that they all have as much right not to be born as you and me. That's what PETA would say! Because if we shut down those industries there wouldn't be a need for those animals anymore so they wouldn't be born anymore. The seals would be - but the cows, chickens and pigs wouldn't be.
And so here ends my sermon.
This is Meatout's Logo:
Meatout's Logo
I have it at the bottom of the main page of my website - the tag line is: Which do you pet, and which do you eat?
There's also a spectacular lady named Karen Davis who's got this organization called "United Poultry Concerns". She's completely insane, and completely committed to chickens - she's amazing - and can make you see that the food you're ingesting isn't food, it's another sentient being who because of commerce and factory farming is being treated very badly while they're alive and killed in an absolutely inhumane way.
Sealing
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