Keep the slaughter out of our sight
Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, March 07, 2006

This annual seal hunt is a disgrace to Canada. I'm sitting one morning, trying to enjoy my bacon and eggs while reading the newspaper, and I actually come across arguments FOR the hunt! How dare people be so unevolved, as to actually condone the systemized public slaughter of such helpless creatures?

And as though it weren't enough, later that day over dinner I see Paul McCartney on Larry King, as well as a Canadian politician who condones this public slaughter! The inhumanity ... I could hardly finish my steak.

The problem is clear: We are allowing these animals to be killed within public eyeshot. Imagine a beef slaughterhouse, where standard procedure is to drive a spike into each animal's head, knocking it unconscious (most of the time), and then to saw the head clear off. Now imagine this occurring atop Canada's beautifully pure and symbolic white ice floes, with image after bloody image injected into our minds via the evening news. Outrage would quickly ensue.

The solution, then, is also clear: What we need to do is discretely gather up these seal pups, and slaughter them instead behind closed doors with no windows or television cameras. Out of sight out of mind, right? That way, we can herd our own collective guilt back into latency, and continue to reap the many wonderful benefits of bludgeoning to death animals both beautiful and tasty.

Jared Faber,

Oak Bay.