For the sake of diplomacy and good relations, and occasionally a political point, royals and their representatives have regularly chomped on foods not usually found in their pantries. But few have taken to the task with quite the enthusiasm of the governor general of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, as, this week, she cut out the heart of a slaughtered seal and ate it raw.
The Queen’s representative in north America was visiting an Inuit community in Nunavut, in the Arctic, when a couple of dead seals were laid out before her in symbolic defiance of a looming EU ban on seal products. With an ulu blade, a traditional knife, she bent over one of the freshly killed seals and cut along its body. After firmly slicing through the flesh and pulling back the skin, she turned to the woman beside her and asked for a taste. “Could I try the heart?” she said.
A chunk of the organ was duly cut out and handed to Jean, who took a few bites, chewed on it and pronounced it good.
“It’s like sushi,” she said, according to the Canadian Press news agency. “And it’s very rich in protein.”
As she wiped the blood from her mouth and fingers, she said she had done it in solidarity with the Inuit, including those in the community she was visiting, at Rankin Inlet, which is home to 2,300 people. They claim their way of life is threatened by the EU ban on seal products.
Unless bureaucrats figure out how to enforce the vegan religion upon the species I belong to – one which evolved as an omnivore – I intend to eat any animal protein I prefer as long it’s not an endangered species.
#19 – qb,
I don’t have any issue with the Inuit hunt, other than that we poisoned the seals and whales so badly that the breast milk of Inuit women is now so full of PCBs and mercury that it can literally be classified as hazardous waste.
So, I really only care about the much larger and more wasteful kills in the Magdalenes. I think these are executed far more cruelly and without being used for food.
AFAIK, the Inuit kill with rifles. It’s the fishermen who kill with a large stick with a spike at the end.
“…the Marine Mammal Regulations prohibit the use of the hakapik as the instrument for the initial strike of seals over the age of one year. ”
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/seal-phoque/faq-eng.htm#q6
The hakapik is just used to ensure that the seal is dead.
#21 – MrMiGu,
Reread your own post. They can use them to kill the pups. As soon as they lose their white coat, they’re ripe for the picking.
Watched it. No worse than visiting an abattoir.
I have no issue with the use of meat.
If they finally get the lab grown stuff to work and be inexpensive, I’ll eat it.
I am an omnivore. I will eat meat along with vegetables. Many lifeforms are killed in the harvest of grains and vegetables as well. Who cries for them?
I’ve not seen a single vegan turn down a bowl of grains because some snakes, rats, mice and a vast amount of insects died to make it.
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#23 – Cursor_
What exactly does eating meat have to do with killing animals, especially baby animals, for their fur and wasting the meat entirely?
Good lord I bet her Maj is glad she missed that one
I say nuke the seals. Let God sort it out. No wait there are no commie seals….never mind.
Needless slaughter for fur. Just rape everything you can get your hands on for a buck. That’s what makes us human.
And BTW, there would be plenty of fish for the seals if we didn’t overfish them to the brink of extinction first.
What’s more disgusting to eating the bite sized raw heart of an animal is to see it being done in front of children as some sort of proud moment.
I’m curious to know what would be people’s reaction if we replaced seals with even more “popular” animals, let’s say a cute Golden Retriever?
Our culture towards animal rights is full of hipocrisy. Most people who defend seals, whales etc., have no issue with the slaughtering of cattle, pork, and other animals that are very often superior (pigs for example are considered some of the most intelligent animals, more than dogs and cats).
Say what you want about vegetarianism, but at least it has coherent values.
#30 – Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein,
Excellent point about the hypocrisy. I’m somewhat guilty of it myself. I have been trying to eat less pig for exactly that reason, but have not yet fully eliminated it from my diet.
(sick humor)
I like pork ’cause it tastes like people!
(/sick humor)
In general, my problem is not so much with the eating of animals, but with our general treatment of them. I buy organic primarily because in addition to the feed, a minimum quality of treatment is at least supposed to be enforced. I see no reason to torture my food before it gets to my plate.
I would love to see better standards across the board for all of the many ways in which we mistreat animals, including research, slaughterhouses, ranches, etc.
Now she has more heart than Cheney.
@ Misanthropic Scott
Seals hunt is one of the most controled hunt in the world. Why do we accept all others kind of hunt (who creates a longest agony and more pain) and want to banish seals hunt???
And we could talk about Spanis bullfight..
It is sad for the european democracy to see how far some activists can go with lies and demagogy.
#33 – Alexis,
I agree with you about bullfighting of course.
But, why do you say that the seal hunt in the maritimes is particularly well controlled? Fishermen essentially go out there and beat the crap out of seal pups until they die. The hakapick is not a human way to kill the pups. And, yes, it is the primary weapon of choice to do so. It’s only the adults that must be shot first.
Besides, finding someone more cruel than the seal hunters does not absolve the seal hunters for their cruelty. It merely points to the fact that there are many cruel people in the world and that we need to work to stop more such cruelty.
Do you see it otherwise? If so, how?