On April 19, Morrisseyposted an essay on protesting Canada's annual seal hunt, calling the practice "greedy and barbaric." He claimed that Canada is "regrettably fashionably dead." Moz challenged Gail Shea, Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, on her claims that the seals are massacred "humanely," suggesting that she test the methods by getting her head blown off, too.
Shea responded with a statement inCanada'sNational Post,published April 22. A spokesperson, Sophie Doucet, said that Morrissey's comments "reveal a total ignorance of the Canadian seal hunt," which she defended as "sustainable." She added, "This is clearlyjust another case of a millionaire celebrity, desperate for a hobby, shamelessly regurgitating misinformation and myths that fringe animal-rights groups have been pushing for years."
Morrissey has now responded with a followup posted yesterday on True to You. He wrote:
There was something more than slightly desperate in Gail Shea referring to my recent comments on the annual Canadian seal slaughter as "ignorant", as reported in Canada's National Post.
Speaking on behalf of Gail Shea, Sophie Doucetshowing symptoms of the same Shea disorderstated: "I would urge Mr. Morrissey to consider the impact that his ignorant and inflammatory statements have on the livelihoods of thousands of hard-working men and women in rural communities".
I should remind Sophie Doucet that building and maintaining the Concentration Camps of Auschwitz also provided livelihoods, but this hardly made the Camps warranted. Let it also be added that the vast financial benefits of the seal slaughter are not directly intended for those hard-working men and women in rural communities, who, in fact, are merely used by the Fisheries Minister to do the messy task of searing flesh.
Further, Sophie Doucet's shrill tension claims that my anger against Canada's carnival of death: " ... is clearly just another case of a millionaire celebrity, desperate for a hobby".
I can assure Sophie Doucet that I know more about the seal hunt than I wish to know, and only by suppression of humanity could anyone look away and not care. Also, whether a challenge comes from a millionaire or from someone who is homeless is a remark that would only be made by someone of imperious ignorance, who cannot develop the moral debate, and whose own personal financial agenda comes before the lives of thousands of healthy beings.
More importantly, Gail Shea is so constantly absorbed by challenges and counterchallenges of her actions and beliefs that we must wonder why it has not yet occurred to her that she might be doing something wrong. The answer, as it usually is, would be the impossibly constricted mania for financial profit - at any price.In Western culture, there is no acceptance of the Canadian seal slaughter, and simply because someone bears the badge of Minister does not insulate them from being a disreputable thug. Murder is not debatable, and the people of Canada must speak up and stop this carnage in order to restore the global image of their country. As ever and as always, it is always up to the people to put things right.
Morrissey's observation, "In Western culture, there is no acceptance of the Canadian seal slaughter," has some truth. According to PETA, the U.S. has banned the sale of seal fur since 1972. The European Union voted to cease the sale of seal products in 2009. The same year, the U.S. Senate called for "an immediate end to the annual seal slaughter," PETA reports.
Watch a video about the annual Canadian seal slaughter:
Watch Moz do "Meat Is Murder":
