Canada has been in the news lately primarily for its health care system, which may be wonderful or lacking, depending on who you ask and who’s telling you. But while Canadians may or may not be boycotting their own health system for Michigan’s, others are boycotting Canada due to its seal hunt.
Rarely have I found a cause which should be so in line with libertarian thinking, yet is so misrepresented. Some libertarians who oppose the seal hunt even neglect to mention the primary reason this is such an easy choice for libertarians.
 |
| From Seal Hunt |
Canada’s polar bears are dying because they don’t have enough seals to eat, yet Canada’s government each year subsidizes the world’s largest slaughter of marine mammals, the Canadian seal hunt.
 |
| From Seal Hunt |
This is a favorite cause of Paul McCartney, as well as many animal rights activists. It’s also a cause close to the hearts of Canadian MPs– not surprising when you see the seal hunt described as “a make-work project for out-of-work fishermen”; one can’t help but wonder why our own government hasn’t tried to import seals as part of Obama’s economic stimulus plan, since these plans are based on the same central idea as that failed plan is (and which many animal rights activists might support in our own country!)
Each year, Canada uses taxpayer dollars to attempt to sell seal meat internationally, even though no one from anywhere but Taiwan and South Korea is willing to buy it (including Canadians, if that tells you anything). Canada also spends “R&D” (again, tax dollars) to market “seal oil” as a source of Omega 3 fatty acids in an attempt to make some sort of successful product from the seal hunt, but to little avail. There’s one product that can actually be sold from the seal hunt, the sealskins, and 80% of the sealskin that’s purchased is bought from a Norwegian company that receives significant financial backing from Norway’s government.
 |
| From Seal Hunt |
Finally, while the United States has banned the import of seal skin since 1972 and the European Union since a few days ago, it has been the boycott of Canadian seafood by American buyers opposed to the seal hunt that has damaged Canada’s economy and, I predict, will force Canada to eventually end the seal slaughter.
This is certainly a case where free market boycotts and education can make more of an impact on the ending of a practice consumers object to, rather than countrywide bans. Even if the United States had not banned seal skins in 1972, there wouldn’t be much of a market for seal skins in America today simply because most Americans are revolted by the practice. You can see if your grocery store is participating in the boycott of Canadian seafood here.
Leave a Reply