I love all animals equally, I love seals - I don't want them to die inhumanely as much as I don't want cows or pigs to die inhumanely - which also is happening 365 days a year - unlike seals, which only happens for a couple weeks a year. It just seems like the proportion of froot-loops in the anti-sealing activist community seems to be rather disproportionate. This is an email Paul Watson sent out July 13th:
-----Original Message-----
From: Les, Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 08:48:06 -0700 (PDT)
---------------------------------
From: Paul Watson [mailto:paulwat...@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 8:43 PM
Subject: My regrets but I won't be able to attend the BOD meeting.
Wanted for Conspiracy to Protect Seals
My sincere apologies but I won't be able to attend the Sierra Club Board meeting.
I arrived in Halifax today. I did some television interviews prior to giving a lecture at Dalhousie University. It was a good crowd but I noticed a number of police officers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers in the audience.
I was warned that they intended to arrest me after the lecture.
I left by a rear exit. A police officer spotted me and said, "Mr. Watson...."
He made a mistake in not identifying himself as a police officer so I was under no obligation to stop.
That's all I heard. I ducked down a stairwell of the Student Union Building. He followed. I ran down three flights of stairs and I could hear feet pounding the stairs above me. I had no idea where the stairs were leading but they brought me to the ground floor. I was outside and ran up a short flight of steps, around a corner and ducked into a pub. I went to an upper level of the pub where there was an unoccupied beverage room and watched as police surrounded the Student Union Building. They proceeded to stake out the building for three hours. I waited them out then went to my rental car and left.
I had no idea why they were intent upon arresting me. I've since discovered that the warrant is for conspiracy to disrupt the Canadian seal hunt. This stems from my taking my ship Farley Mowat into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in March and off the coast of Labrador in April.
The police know that you are expecting me at the Sierra Club Board meeting. So regrettably I cannot attend. If I do they will arrest me, transport me to Charlottetown for a bail hearing. and I will miss the meeting anyway.
Thus I am returning to the U.S.A.. I'm sorry Elizabeth but the smell of bananas here in Canada is strong. I have hurt no one. I've damaged no property. I simply documented an atrocity. My crew were violently assaulted and we video taped the assaults yet not a single charge is being laid against the sealers, yet they are putting eleven of my crew on trial for approaching a seal hunt and now they are seeking to arrest me for conspiracy to document the slaughter of seals.
It is for this reason that we are advocating a boycott of Canadian seafood products and remember there are NO sustainable oceanic species. The cod fishery has collapsed and I predicted 20 years ago that it would. I am now predicting that the snow crab fishery will collapse within two years. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans is overseeing the complete destruction of the oceanic eco-systems of the
Northwestern Atlantic ocean.
So for those of you who wish to feast on lobster, scallops, snow crabs, or fish during this meeting, remember these species are no different than the bush meat that we condemn in Africa. We are systematically hunting down and exterminating entire species of marine life - just so people can have the luxury of dining on exotic flesh.
Anyone who partakes of the flesh of these species cannot call themselves conservationists.
So I'll see you in September if I am successful in avoiding the gendarmes here in the Great White North.
On the lam in Nova Scotia.
Captain Paul Watson
Certainly I applaud him for comparing him for putting crabs and lobsters in the same category as chimpanzees and orangutans - that makes people realize that all animals are sentient beings just like us and should be treated with equal respect, but other than that - if he's in Nova Scotia right now I think he needs to go the beach and breathe in some of our nice air and just relax.
Postscript on July 24, 2005 - Silver Donald Cameron had an article in today's Chronicle Herald about this incident in an article called "Shepherd on the lam" at http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaystory?2005/07/24+122.raw+NovaScotian+2005/07/24 and they've also written up the scene further on the Sea Shepherd's website at http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_050715_1.html
Category: [Sealing]
In defense of Paul Watson... I've heard Mr. Watson speak. He's seen some awful stuff, e.g., men who cut the fins off sharks and throw them back in the water to drown. He is very hands-on in protecting not only seals, but turtles, dolphins, and other aquatic and land animals.
ReplyDeleteIf memory serves, the authorities arrested his wife on what seemed like bogus charges, so he has some justification for his concern about the police.