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Dear Sir, 

Please allow me to express my disappointment with my friend Andrew Clarke and his letter regarding Laura Dakin, the crew of the Farley Mowat, and the annual Canadian Government sponsored Harp seal massacre in the Gulf of St. Lawrence [BDA Sun, April 25].

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's campaign against the seal hunt is NOT because harp seal pups are "cute and cuddly looking". It is because the act of smashing a bladed hakapik into a seal's head and skinning it while it is still alive is barbaric, inhumane, and totally unnecessary.

His attempt to compare the slaughter of harp seals for their pelts with "the harvesting of all other forms of animal meat/products" is misguided. Do we kill domesticated cows, pigs, sheep and birds just for their skins? How does that compare to seals living in their natural habitat? With the exception of the First Nations people, did we ever eat seals?

[To quote Mr. Clarke], "Unless Ms. Dakin and her crew are complete vegetarians (as chef, perhaps she only cooks non-animal dishes for the crew)". Actually, Laura cooks VEGAN meals for the crew, and she is very good at it too. She spent one year as personal chef for Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

"They would be best to see sealers as honest, hard working folk who are providing for their families". The sealers are fishermen whose incomes are subsidized by their provincial government (at $70 per pelt), because they are unable  to catch the same amount of fish as in previous decades. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans repeatedly tries to blame seals as the reason for the depletion of "their" fish stocks. The real cause of the decline in fish populations is overfishing.

"As for the Farley Mowat, what Ms. Dakin fails to reveal about her ship is that she was found to be the vessel in the wrong. The so called "ramming" she received was as a result of her captain violating the vessel's licensed observation limits. Not the other way around". On March 30, the Farley Mowat , a Dutch registered ship, was in international waters, 35 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, which is outside the Territorial Marine Boundary (12 nautical miles) for Newfoundland, Labrador and Nunavut, when its port stern was struck, twice, by Canadian Coast Guard ship Des Grosseilliers. The Captain, Alex Cornelissen, has a GPS tracking map to prove this. There is also video and photographic evidence.

...There are two sides to every story, but, unfortunately, Andrew Clarke doesn't have the ability to see beyond the misinformation Canadian Fisheries officials are telling the public.

Philip Cook

Greenpeace member &

SSCS supporter[[In-content Ad]]

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