Brok

In een recent opgedoken Interview met Paul Watson uit 1978 dat nu op You Tube staat vertelt Paul Watson (één van de meedeoprichters van Greenpeace in 1972 maar die vervolgens Greenpeace verliet en zijn eigen Sea Shepherd oprichtte) waarom actie voeren tegen de zeehondenjacht zo aantrekkelijk is: ” Ik denk dat van alle dieren in de wereld en alle milieuproblemen in de wereld de zeehond het gemakkelijkste item is om geld in te zamelen.”

Barbara Frum – Paul Watson Interview, 1978 CBC

This interview recorded on CBC Radio in 1978 goes a long way towards revealing the motivations behind the activist groups that campaign against the Canadian seal hunt. The interviewer is the late Barbara Frum and the person being interviewed is Sea Shepherd founder and leader Paul Watson.

• BF: Mr. Watson, how easy is it to raise money against the seal hunt?
• PW: Well, I think that of all the animals in the world or any environmental problem in the world the harp seal is the easiest issue to raise funds on. Green peace has always managed to – to raise more money on the seal issue, for the campaigns, than has actually been spent on the campaigns themselves. The seal hunt has always turned a profit for the Greenpeace Foundation. And then other organisations like IFAW, API, Fund for Animals, also make a profit off the seal hunt.
• BF: Are you suggesting that they fight for seals rather than other animals because it’s easy, or easier to raise money that way, or because it’s a profit maker for them?
• PW: Well it’s definitely because it’s easier to make money and because it does make a profit, because there are over a thousand animals on the endangered species list, and the seal isn’t one of them, the harp seal isn’t one of them.
• BF: Did anyone in Greenpeace express that aloud, that it was easy to make some hay, and some money on the seal hunt, so therefore let’s get into that?
• PW: Well, yeah, a lot of people have done that. See the thing is the seal is very easy to exploit as an image. We have posters, we have buttons, we have shirts, all of which portray the head of a baby seal with the tears coming out of its eyes. Baby seals are always crying because – its – they’re always – the salt tears keep their eyes from freezing. But they have this image – they’re baby animals, they’re beautiful, and because of that, coupled with the horror of a sealer hitting them over the head with a club, it’s – it’s an image that goes right to the heart of – of animal lovers all over North America. And now we have a dozen people this year from Greenpeace California – I mean they’re coming from the highest standard of living region in North America – they’re traveling to the place with the lowest income per year on this continent telling them not to kill seals because they’re cute. But they’re not an endangered species. Yet off the coast of California there are three species of dolphin – the spinner, the spotted and the white belly – and they are being slaughtered towards the brink of extinction by American tuna boats. And then the slaughter of Ridley sea turtles in Escobilla in Mexico.
• BF: Now what happens within Greenpeace when you raise a point like that?
• PW: They know they can’t raise any money off of it. They know that if they send a crew down and interfere with the killing of the sea turtles in Mexico that they are not going to get any support. And they know that if they – the problem with the dolphins is that there’s so much competition there is so many groups that are trying to raise money to protect dolphins and protect whales…
• BF: How much money did Greenpeace raise the year you left against the seal hunt?
• PW: Well, last year, I had submitted a budget for $60,000. We spent $55,000, and I beleive we raised well over $100,000. And I do know that…
• BF: So you never did as well in raising money as Brian Davies group?
• PW: No, the IFAW is much more – ah – efficient. Greenpeace is a younger organisation. I think they’re more efficient now. The moneys coming in, you know, a couple thousand dollars a day into each office now. They’re raising much more money this year then they ever have in years previous.
• BF: Did you see any evidence that anyone prospered from the money raised in any of the organisations against the seal hunt? When they go out for example and take helicopters and take protesters, are these people paid a salary? Do they spend the money they raise, or do they keep it?
• PW: Well, Greenpeace protesters in the last two years were not paid a salary. They were all volunteers. This year, the crew members are paid “volunteers”. Their salaries, I would believe- I would think that the amount of money spent on salaries for the Greenpeace organisation right now is about a quarter of a million dollars a year. There are other groups too, like API – Animal Protection Institute -
• BF: How much do they spend to fight the seal hunt?
• PW: I don’t think they spend anything. And they put their money into advertising, which they say makes the public aware, and also it has their address on the corner which has people send in more money. So in fact, every time they invest money in advertising, they make more money back in return.
• BF: Any idea of total sum of all the money raised every year, to fight the seal hunt?
• PW: Well, I would estimate between API, IFAW, Greenpeace and any other groups that’s three to fou million dollars.
• BF: Are these funds collected from individuals who feel badly or are there corporate givers, do you know?
• PW: No, mainly they’re from…ah…
• BF: So two and five dollar customers?
• PW: Yeah. A lot of school children, a lot of pensioners.
• BF: Your fear then is that it isn’t just money that people can easily spend, that it’s coming from people who you think would be better off keeping it?
• PW: Well, I think that a lot of the money is now being abused.
• BF: In addition to their salary, I assume that there’s a lot of money to be used from the group for your personal living expenses – traveling, money raising?
• PW: Oh, certainly! The people in addition to getting a salary – Greenpeace people are flying around the world all the time. I mean Australia, Japan, Hawaii, California, Norway, England. There – at any time there are a dozen people that are on their way to or from these countries. Right now we have Dr. Paul Fong is in Hawaii on his way to japan. People are in Europe. You know. So there’s a lot…
• BF: And those are all business expenses?
• PW: Yeah. I think that the problem that is happening, and that it deserves criticism, is that the organisation becomes more important than the issue.

— end of interview —

30 years after this interview aired the Canadian harp seal hunt continues.
The harp seals, which were not endangered 30 years ago, have tripled in numbers since then. Their current conservation status is “least concern”.
Peer review studies by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association have shown that the killing of the seals at the Canadian harp seal hunt is acceptably humane, and at least as humane as the killing of animals in commercial slaughterhouses.
The seal hunt remains an important source of food and income for people living in remote coastal regions where other opportunities are limited.
Several major conservation and animal interest groups see no reason to oppose the Canadian harp seal hunt. Those groups include the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
In spite of the seal hunt being neither a conservation nor an animal welfare issue, it is still the target of major protest and fund-raising activities by several largeanimal activist groups.
The major groups now opposing the seal hunt are the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Humanse Society of the United States (HSUS) and Watson’s own Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS).
The information circulated by these groups about the Canadian harp seal hunt is generaly deceptive, largely false, or completely false. All these groups are headquartered outside of Canada. While once they raised millions from seal hunt campaigns, they now raise tens of millions.
These groups stil exploit the image of young white coat seals in their fund raising campaigns, even though hunting of white coats has been illegal in Canada over 20 years.

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Bekijk de spot op You Tube

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