Keeping Tabs on the Antis 
By Janice Henke, Anthropologist

There isn't any significant news about the fur market or about anti campaigns attacking either the wild fur or the farmed fur industries lately. However, this does not mean they like us any better. PETA recently got into the seal hunt issue and their campaign is aimed at all fur wearers: It says that if anyone wears fur, that person is responsible for (what PETA claims is) the pain and suffering of the seal hunt because it is the desire for fur - any fur - that keeps the hunt going. PETA goes on and on with this line of propaganda, so for fur wearers, it's "Pack your bags, you're going on a guilt trip".

The PETA folks have recently caught on to the fact that HSUS, Greenpeace, Sea Shepherds and other such leaches have been making media hay this spring with their renewed anti-seal-hunt media blitzes.

Now for the really good news: You may have heard about the stupendous blunder made by Barbara Stewart, (former) free lance writer for the Boston Globe. The Globe is owned by the New York Times, notorious for its far left view on everything. Seems that Ms. Stewart wrote a piece that appeared in the Globe. It described the seal hunt that takes place off the eastern coast of Newfoundland, in an area called "the Front". The hunt was scheduled to start April 12, Tuesday. Ms. Stewart's piece, sent to the Globe from Halifax, described the hunt in bloody detail, blood on the ice, blood in the water, etc. Hundreds of boats full of Newfi thugs, thousands of seals dying horribly, ...you know the song. She described the scene as if she witnessed it herself. It was very creative and full of color. Problem was, she wasn't there, because if she had been, she would have had nothing to describe. The area was hit by high winds and an ice storm, and all boats made for whatever port they could find. The Canadian government postponed the opening of the hunt until Friday, and even then, a second storm was giving concern.

When Ms. Stewart's lies were printed in the Boston Globe, the Canadian government Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesperson called the paper and informed the staff that the hunt had not opened due to the storm, and that of course, the entire piece was a lie. They complained about the breach of journalistic ethics and about the paper's failure to check up on its freelancers. The Globe and its parent corporation were embarrassed.

Those of us who care about wildlife management and all the important connections of the fur industry to health of the environment, to say nothing about the health of the economy, can only smile when one of these blunders happens. Life is good when the antis are finally caught in a bald faced lie and there is great publicity about it. We hope that all PETA people got out of going naked and lying around painted red on the sidewalk in front of the Canadian embassy, were cold posteriors for their effort. Maybe a cold posterior and a red face are a good combination for their public image.