4 - Sunday, October 29, 1989 - North Shore News BoB HUNTER PAUL WATSON, whem British Columbians will remember fondly or otherwise for his various animal-saving exploits, is en route to Newfoundland again, scene of some of his most tumultuous encounters. This time it will be a relatively sedate affair. He has been invited to take part in a televised panel discussion with former premier Brian Peckford. He'll be staying at a hotel in downtown St. John’s, courtesy of the TV station spon- soring the debate. A few demonstrations outside his hotel are expected, but nothing on the scale of the storm of Newfie anger that has been directed against him in the past — al- though, who knows for sure? There is plenty of bitterness left on The Rock about the fate of the old-style sea! hunt. But there’ll be plenty of verbal fireworks when Watson crosses swords with Peckford. The New- foundlanders aren't going to be happy when Watson reveals his Pa P art of the ‘charm’ of seal penis-bones is that small tufts of fur are left on them. This somehow pleases sickies in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.’”’ latest discovery and hits Brian Peckford over the head with it. It turns out that the European ban on seal pup furs has not quite crushed the notorious seal hunt. It has been known for a while that the slaughter of baby seals off the north coast of Newfoundland has inched back up to levels that are higher now than they were when legislation was finaliy in- troduced in 1982 to ban the so- called “‘hunt”’ entirely. The ban was limited strictly to seal pups nine days old and younger. It was, at best, a piece of political window-dressing to clean up the brutal image that Canadians had acquired abroad during the years of protests against the annual spring slaughter. The ban didn’t lull the European Common Market into dropping its own ban against the import of seal pup furs, but it did lead to a new, and deadlier, kind of hunt. Instead of going after the helpless pups on the pack ice, hunters now take to boats and go after the pups that have grown just old enough to swim. Using rifles instead of the infamous hakapiks, they shoot their victims. The problem is that for every pup whose body is actually hauled aboaed, it is estimated that another two are shot, but their bodies aren’t recovered. There are two results. One is that the hunt is now virtually im- possible to monitor or regulate. The other is that more seals than ever are dying. Watson says that when legisla- tion was enacted seven years ago, roughly 20,000 pups were being slaughtered each year. Since then, he estimates that the ‘‘harvest”’ has risen to about 80,000. And that’s not the worst of it. If hunters lose two pups for every one they take, the actual kill must be around 240,000. So what are they doing with these dead seal pups? You may have heard vague rumors about new markets being found in Southeast Asia; why would all those people want to buy furs? Watson has uncovered documentation that shows that the brave new markets uncovered by agents working for the federal government as well as the Atlantic — seal industry have little to do with fur. What is happening, Watson says, is that the penis-bones of the male pups are cut off and sold to Japan, where they are in turn marketed to Southeast Asia as aphrodisiacs. In fact, part of the ‘‘charm”’ of seal penis-bones is that small tufts of fur are left on them. This somehow pleases sickies in - Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. Qne presumes that the sudden discovery of the supposed aphrodisiac qualities of sea pup penis-bones have much to do with the drying-up of traditional aphrodisiac sources, such as the horn of the rhinoceros, an animal which has been driven to the very edge of extinction. The situation with some species of rhinos is so desperate that Afri- can governments (those that are not wiping them out themselves) have taken to sawing off the male rhino’s mighty horn to save him from being a target of poachers, who only take the horn. One wishes there were such a simple, direct solution to the prob- lem of the continued killing of seals in Canada. Watson’s discovery over this revolting and obscene twist in the long sad story of Newfoundiand butchery comes at a time when the World Wildlife Fund has just add- ed 18 species to the list of en- dangered wildlife in Canada. This brings the number of animal and plant species on the endangered list in this supposedly nature-loving country to a total of 183. 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