Carry on, Canada
by Janice Henke, Anthropologist

The seal hunt protest has been tested again, and again, it has failed to get the attention that its organizers had hoped for. Perhaps a retrospective look at the way these protest events turned out is in order; no major news organizations treated these events as if they were "news". Perhaps this is because so few people took part in them. Perhaps mainstream media feel that the events are orchestrated tightly but that even the ranks of those who turn out to declare that they are believers, are so few that there is nothing of social significance going on. And quite possibly, the word has gotten out to the media that the protest claims are entirely bogus.

As for the traditional threat that the seal protesters pose to Canadian fish exports; this does not appear to have any significant economic impact. People in major cities who want to eat fish are going to buy their traditional cuts and species, just as they always have. When this boycott was attempted in the early 1980s, it failed to make any difference in consumer patterns and it failed to have an effect on the marine management policies of the government of Canada. And this continues to be true, in spite of the fact that protest advertising continues to use the whitecoat pup image. That icon of the animal rights movement is just as appealing as ever, but it does not seem to influence enough people to make a difference. Perhaps the general public has realized that the image is a marketing tool, rather than a symbol of something that is terribly amiss. It has been over twenty years since the EU ban on the import of the products of seals under the age of one year. The market for seals is now outside of Europe, and Europeans miss the business. Perhaps they have learned their lesson.

It is also possible that the majority of the general public is now aware that lies are continually told about the hunt. This year's claims that some 40% of seals are skinned alive, is such a blatant falsehood that perhaps it has fallen flat on its face. It is simply too bad to be true.

In addition, it is possible that sophistication of the general public is now at a level that exceeds all previous expectation. The Internet is a powerful marketing tool, but it is also being recognized as a forum without any reliable editorial control. The website of the Canadian government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans is an excellent dash of cold water on the heated and silly rhetoric of all the "save the seal" protest sites. At this time, the failure of this year's seal hunt protest efforts is probably due to a number of factors. Whatever they are, we welcome this as a promising trend in public response to the false accusations and malicious claims that have been made. Carry on, Canada.