More Vegan Bits in the Media

Here are a few snippets from some online sources I read this morning:

This morning, yet another foodie article (this one on the Time website) extols the supposed virtues of smacking your lips over the delectable remains of the carcass of a locally-grown animal you have butchered yourself. Apparently, pigs are the new crack. According to San Francisco chef Ryan Farr, who teaches classes on "hog-butchery", nobody can resist:

There is nothing bacon does not improve. Bacon is the new black," says Farr, whose charcuterie company produces 4505 Chicharrones, the pork snacks favored by several San Francisco bars and restaurants. "I have five vegan friends who close their eyes when they eat them and pretend they are potato chips," Farr says. "Bacon is the gateway meat.

For more foodie raving about the supposed delights to be had in playing with a slaughtered nonhuman's body parts, check out this Guardian food blog bit where eating a pig's head is described as being the "utterly sensible and right thing to do" (but do so forewarned that it's not for the weak-stomached).

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The LA Times reported yesterday that Animal Network's Whale Wars nabbed a "record 3.2 million viewers" for its season finale last Friday. Whale Wars is a show that follows Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Paul Watson and his crew as they interfere with Japanese whaling in the Antarctic. I wonder if Animal Network could get 3.2 million viewers to watch the season finale of a show dealing with abolitionists interfering with the treatment of animals as property? My glass of seawater can be half-full, can't it?

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For those in the Philadelphia area, vegan cartoonist Dan Piraro will be appearing at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival on Saturday, September 5 at 8 pm at the Rotunda. For more information, check out the story in the Delaware Country Daily Times. A vegan since 2002, Piraro frequently weaves references to the use and abuse of animals in his strip Bizarro.

Whale Wars on Animal Planet

I found myself wishing I still had cable this morning as I read about this evening's premiere of a show on Animal Planet. It's called "Whale Wars" and is a seven-part weekly series that essentially looks at the work done by Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society -- with the film crew spending a number of days on Watson's ship as it confronts whalers on international waters. Here's Animal Planet's official blurb about it, and here's what's on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's website. The show starts at 9 PM ET/PT.

The LA Times talks about it here.

Interview with Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

We are conditioned to respond in socially acceptable ways i.e. protests, petitions boycotts etc. We also have the problem that nature and other species are an abstraction to us. Humans fight for property, for immediate self defense and for religion. Hominids are a self centered species. When people ask how I can risk human life to protect a whale, I cite the fact that we do not think it is unnatural or unethical to risk our lives and to kill over property like land and oil. And we accept dying and killing for ridiculous religious beliefs. I think fighting for endangered species and threatened habitats to be much nobler.

--Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shephard Conservation Society

Paul Watson was interviewed by Jason Miller recently and talked about his work defending marine life, as well as his issues with Greenpeace (whose solicitors he calls the "Avon ladies of the environmental movement"), veganism, and the conflicts between capitalism and the basic laws of ecology. Read the full interview here on the Axis of Logic website.

Canada's shameful seal hunt and the forthcoming EU ban

Those of you following this year's Canadian seal hunt are already aware that the anti-sealing Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship the Farley Mowat was recently seized and boarded at gunpoint by Canadian authorities. Bail was later posted by the ship's namesake, Canadian author Farley Mowat. The dispute now seems to be over whether Canadian authorities acted illegally by seizing the Dutch-registered ship and its international crew in what Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society head (who, incidentally, hails from New Brunswick), asserts were international waters. Since authorities have seized the ship's contents, including its GPS system and computers, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society now doesn't have the means to prove where the ship was seized.

According to a Canadian Press piece on the seizure:

Captain Alexander Cornelissen, who hails from the Netherlands, and first officer Peter Hammarstedt are accused of steering the Farley Mowat to within 900 metres of the hunt. That's an offence under federal regulations unless an observer's permit has been granted. The Mowat does not have one.

Both Mowat and Watson said the seizure and arrests were illegal since the Farley Mowat is a Dutch-registered vessel and it was outside of Canada's 12-mile territorial limit.

On Monday, Hearn said the ship was seized within that zone, but the staff later said the minister misspoke.

Two Maritime law experts said Monday that Canada was within its right to arrest the ship and its crew if they were indeed violating seal hunt regulations.

"Canada has jurisdiction over fish and marine mammals out to 200 nautical miles," said Ted McDorman, a law professor at the University of Victoria. "So for purposes of marine mammal management, the waters out to 200 nautical miles are Canadian waters."

Without an observer's permit granted by the Minister of Fisheries, according to the Sea Shepherd Society, it's illegal in Canada to film, photograph or even witness a seal being killed. The Canadian government, under the guise of safety concerns, has basically legislated a cover-up of what actually occurs during the seal hunt. And according to recent news reports, if Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Wilson had his way, nobody would be allowed to observe the hunt at all. Wilson recently called Paul Watson a ''terrorist''; that seems to be the automatic ''go to'' place these days for anyone wanting to condemn the words or actions of environmental or animal activists.

According to Paul Watson, the ship was boarded by the authorities to avoid the embarrassment of having the footage taken by the Farley Mowat's crew shown to the rest of the world. The issue is indeed a sensitive one for the Canadian government right now, especially with the recent announcement following informal meetings of the EU environment ministers a few days ago that the EU environment chief is preparing to propose a ban on seal products coming from countries who cannot prove the seals were slaughtered in a humane way.