Captain Paul Watson
Second Response to Columnist Ed Smith and his Defence of Sealing
Ed Smith the columnist for the Newfoundland Western Star newspaper certainly received a reaction to the column he wrote attacking me and defending the shamefully cruel slaughter of harp seals.
Apparently he received more letters of protest on this column than on anything he wrote before.
His column is below and as is predictable, he dwells on the very nastiest of comments made by his critics and whines that some of the comments border on hate mail.
But Ed, words don’t kill. Sealing clubs kill. Words don’t bash in your skull and slit you from belly to crotch while still alive as your guts burst out in steaming coils onto the ice.
All this talk about people hating Newfoundlanders Ed is trivial compared to the horrific pain, the senseless cruelty and the despicable waste that this barbaric industry is responsible for.
Despite all the “vicious” words thrown your way, no one has bashed in your head or the head of any sealer or Newfoundlander in order to peel the living skin from your body.
People around the world are angry Ed. They are angry and they are venting their frustrations and their passions at the place where this obscenity is taking place.
Why are you surprised that people are emotionally responding to such viciousness inflicted upon these defenceless animals? Many of your readers would physically attack an individual if they saw that individual kicking and stomping a kitten to death on the street. They would be screaming “hateful” names at any man they saw kicking a dog in the head on a sidewalk. So why are you surprised that people from around the world are reacting the exact same way against much worse treatment being inflicted upon the seals?
Let’s take a look at some of these names people are using Ed. What is the definition of a barbarian? It is someone who is barbarous and barbarous is defined as mercilessly harsh and cruel.
This is a fair description of the practise of sealing Ed. You might not agree with it but barbarous is simply a descriptive term when used in reference to this cruel and merciless activity.
How about the word thug? It means a brutal killer. The sealers kill seal pups brutally so this also is an appropriate descriptive term.
In the opinion of the vast majority of the world’s population the slaughter of seals in Newfoundland is uncivilized. That is why there is so much animosity and so much vitriol attached to the communications to you.
People around the world are fed up with Newfoundland’s obsessive cruelty to the seals.
Jobs are no excuse for brutality. Sealing is a barbaric remnant of the past and it has no place in the 21st Century and it is my mission to eradicate it, abolish it and relegate it to the dustpan of shameful history. If jobs were an excuse for questionable behaviour then we should let Columbian farmers grow cocaine and Afghani farmers grow opium. After all they are just trying to feed their families. We have Canadian troops over in Afghanistan interfering with opium growers, yet Ed thinks that it is unacceptable for people in other places to question the morality of sealing.
It’s time for Newfoundlanders to grow up and to accept that there is no justification for this kind of annual ritual of violence and greedy exploitation of marine wildlife. The seals are threatened enough already by global warming and the fact that the greed of the fishing industry has robbed the sea of fish upon which sea mammals and sea birds depend.
It’s time these killers found a new job, a real job that does not depend on cruel slaughter.
It’s time for Newfoundland to stop sullying the good name of Canada by associating the rest of Canada with such a horrifically cruel, obscene and immoral annual spectacle of viciousness.
The seal slaughter is plain and simply a disgrace.
Captain Paul Watson
***************************************************************************************************
EDWARD SMITH/THE VIEW FROM HERE
The Western Star
Words from the morally superior
Some of you will remember my column from last week. It was entitled St. Paul Had a Word for Them and featured Paul Watson from a sealer’s perspective. It wasn’t flattering and wasn’t intended to be. Like most Newfoundlanders I consider Watson’s efforts to destroy the seal hunt opportunistic and his knowledge of the hunt as it currently exists sadly lacking. Well my dear! The e-mails started rolling in. To be fair, I have to point out that many came from people genuinely concerned with what they see as a barbaric hunt, but who tried to keep rancor and hatred out of their letters. I appreciated them. However, the majority went beyond nasty. I’m wondering what the criteria is for hate mail. I do think it’s illegal. After more than 20 years of writing columns on practically everything I’ve gotten some negative feedback. But nothing like this. I’m wondering, too, if I’m only a minor writer for a minor paper (as Watson said) why are they so upset? Mail is coming in from all over the world so it’s obviously an organized response. Wow! Anyone want to offer OH and me sanctuary? We Newfoundlanders are aware that we are sometimes the laughingstock of the rest of Canada. They have this cartoon-idea of our people left over from post-Second World War when we were largely illiterate, poverty-stricken and kept down by a ruthless economic system. However, most of us have no idea of the amount of hate that seems to saturate the minds of mainlanders concerning us. It’s interesting because usually that extreme invective is directed towards people of whom you are afraid. Don’t know why anyone would be afraid of us. Anyway, I thought you might be interested in some of the letters I did receive after only two days following the appearance of that column. I have no doubt but that there’s more to come. Harka this, you, from a fellow Canadian in Vancouver. You are right to assume that Paul Watson is laughing his head off ... But he is not alone. Hundreds, if not thousands of compassionate people all over the world are laughing hysterically at these sadistic bastards as they whine for cigarettes and screech. We sincerely hope that these scum sucking retards are locked in the ice indefinitely as this way they will not be able to torture and destroy baby seals, which they so enjoy doing. Clearly, the world would be a lot better place to live without these heathens who have not a single molecule of compassion anywhere with their drunken, nicotine laced bodies. My only fear is the toxic waste their bodies would create once they started to rot, a process that evidently started in their brains a long time ago, likely at birth. . . . I am pretty much convinced that Newfoundlanders are actually a separate species of homo sapien than the rest of the world’s citizens. Somehow in the evolutionary process mercy, compassion and decency were bred out of your tribe. While other cultures and civilizations continued to advance throughout the millennia Newfoundlanders, likely because of their isolation, did not. They remain an uncivilized,
barbaric and compassionless society much as the rest of humanity was many hundreds or thousands of years ago. I am sure that an anthropologist would have a field day with this one, but I doubt any would waste their time studying a bunch of inbred, drunken, sadistic cowards who torture and kill baby animals, some for a living, others just for fun. I just wish Canada had not invited you to join confederation and instead designated Newfoundland as an ideal place to test nuclear weapons. If they had, the world would be a better place for all (except Newfies . . . of course! ; > ) Sincerely ( very ), From Toronto: Ed Smith works for Satan and bloodlust. From South Africa: “In (Mahatma Ghandi’s) book you would be an absolute low life not fit to live with the rest of humanity — you and your butchers on the ice.” From Paul Watson himself: (part of a much longer, rambling discourse) We’ve seen some good news these last two weeks. A sealing ship burned and sunk in Newfoundland and over 100 sealing boats locked into ice jams off the coast with many of them badly damaged and some destroyed. Thirty boats continue to be trapped in the ice and it is estimated that 25 boats in total have been lost to the ice. Heroes, hardly Ed, only in the most warped of minds can such barbarous sadistic creeps like these sealers be considered heroes. Your great Newfoundland missionary Sir Wilfred Grenfell, you know the guy who preached to the Beothuks before the Newfoundlanders exterminated them. At least their souls were saved before they were wiped out . . . The View: Isn’t that beautiful stuff? The Beothuks never roamed as far north as Grenfell. Besides, they were sadly all dead before Grenfell ever arrived. His fragile grasp of historical fact is also shown by the phrase, “Newfoundlanders exterminated them”. Many historians, if not most, now believe the majority of Beothuks died of the white man’s diseases, unfortunately but not intentionally spread to them by Newfoundlanders. If he can be this wrong about all that, how can he be so right about everything else? Watson: You side with the demons who torture and kill and I side with beauty and innocence. I’m on the side of the angels Ed and you, well you’ve cast your lot with the lowlifes and the thugs and the cruel imps of Satan. The View: I present one line from Watson’s ramblings without sarcasm and no other motive than to give him credit for at least one fine and positive thought. Watson: You see, Ed, I protect seals, whales, sea turtles etc. for children today and children unborn. I happen to think that it is a sane compassionate position . . . The View: You see, Paul, I support those who go down to the sea in ships to help feed their families. I happen to think that it is a sane and compassionate position. Two sane and compassionate men, and never the twain shall meet.
******************************************************************************************************
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org
"Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all."
- Walt Whitman
www.Seashepherd.org
Tel: 360-370-5650
Fax: 360-370-5651
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA