The newly founded animal group, WildAid, and its campaign to save sharks from shark fin soup pots are no different.  Unfortunately, most of Hollywood's pretty people appeared busy for the send-off of its "save the shark soup" campaign, so WildAid had to settle for aging author and mega-millionaire, Peter Benchley, as it's celebrity icon.  Looks and age aside, WildAid's coupe is that their shark crusade happened to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of Benchley's epic film, "JAWS."  But all is not lost.

Benchley, on a Hollywood-sponsored promotion tour for the newly repackaged "Anniversary" edition of the film on video, is able to advocate for sharks at no additional charge. 

While Benchley may lack Pierce Brosnan's good looks (Brosnan likes to front for the extreme animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA) or sex appeal of a super model, he definitely falls into the category of celebrity animal advocate a la Brigitte Bardot.  Both he and Bardot are past their productive professional years and well into "old age" and relish the new-found attention brought with close association with animal groups and causes.  As a result, both are now white-hot passionate about animals.  Perhaps one could coin the phrase describing this phenomenon as the "Brigitte Bardot Syndrome."

In many ways, Bardot is archetypal of the extreme elements within the animal and environmental movements.  Bardot knows how to capture media attention, with or without her clothes.  Like the extreme animal groups, she holds herself as a repository of "correct thinking" and does not hesitate to unleash her anger against any who doubt her position even when fact and science suggest otherwise.  In a word, like so many animal and environmental groups, Ms. Bardot is "intolerant." 

Intolerance is a very appropriate word to describe Brigitte Bardot and extreme animal/environmental groups in general.  In 1997, she was found guilty and fined by the French Courts for her open advocacy of racial intolerance toward non-French cultures, in particular, émigrés from Islamic nations.  Animal groups like WildAid, despite their protests to the contrary, really are intolerant of the traditions and heritage of cultures other than their own.  WildAid, founded and populated by members of the Environmental Investigative Agency (EIA), may claim it harbors no ill sentiment toward Asian cultures.  But, its EIA lineage suggests differently. 

EIA has been party to or led campaigns against Asian traditional medicine, against cultures around the world, including some of the most endangered, whose diets include whale and marine mammal products, and against rural Africans denying them their sovereign right to manage their own wild resources, to mention a few. 

Benchley's press tour circling the globe has indeed opened numerous opportunities to spread the "gospel of sharks" according to WildAid.  In one press interview, WildAid campaign director Peter Knights is quoted as hoping to enlist the world's children to 
"put in a good word for the sharks."  One would hope that any good word from children echoes sound conservation practices and biological facts regarding the species.  Indeed WildAid and the world have a responsibility to teach children the truth, so they, like "informed consumers" of more advanced years, may make equally informed decisions. 

To date, WildAid, EIA and others have exhibited a cavalier attitude toward the truth and demonstrate a penchant for mouthing emotion-filled but fact-empty statements about sharks and the environment in general.  Let's hope our children learn to distinguish between the "donut" of resource conservation and the "hole" being peddled by WildAid and friends.

As Benchley parrots the claims about sharks espoused by WildAid, yet unfounded by science and fact, it is not without great irony that one British interviewer brought up an incident between Benchley and Spielberg. 

Writing in Financial Times (July 15/16 Weekend FT), Nigel Andrews noted that a spat between "JAWS" producer/director Steven Spielberg shortly after the film hit the big screen resulted in Spielberg naming a character "Major Benchley" in his film, "CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND."  Major Benchley, according to Andrews, is the person in the film "who misinforms and misdirects the UFO watchers."  It seems Mr. Benchley is reprising the role of Major Benchley by "misinforming and misdirecting" the press and public on sharks, shark fin soup and the cultures who value both.

When all is said and done and the sound and fury surrounding the WildAid/Benchley anti-soup tour subsides, perhaps the best position to take is this: Bless the animals and the children but the company and compassion of Mother Teresa is preferable to Mr. Benchley and Brigitte Bardot.

This series of comments has been presented for the sole purpose
of informing the public and the press on issues of importance
dealing with the sustainable use of wild resources.