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Annual Atlantic Seal Hunt, Paul McCartney, Heather Mills

Seals, Kangaroos and Ex-Beatles - The Protest Continues

With the annual Atlantic seal harvest just around the corner, it’s no wonder the activist contingent are once again hitting the bricks (or the ice floes) in yet another quest for your hard earned dollars.

Every year it’s the same sad story, some tired ass has-been star gets wheeled out before the cameras to make a plea on behalf of doe eyed animals around the world. All in the hope that society will suddenly change and cute animals everywhere will be spared. Nobody seems to give a rat’s behind about the ugly animals though, or about rat’s behinds for that matter. Meanwhile the masterminds behind these former stars, groups like PETA, are not so much hoping for change as they’re hoping you’ll part with your spare change.

This year Sir Paul McCartney, former Beatle and ex-husband of model, Heather Mills, has been invited to Newfoundland by a well meaning but misguided local in the hope he’ll a) get the facts rather than believing the propaganda he’s been spoon fed and b) that he’ll actually spend some time in the province rather than just thinking he’s there as he did in 2006.

Yes, PEI is quite nice, but it’s not Newfoundland.

Unfortunately for his hopeful host, Mr. McCartney may not make it for a photo op this year. News reports out of Australia have him protesting a planned cull of some 500 kangaroos in that country.

It seems the 500 kangaroos (of which there are countless specimens in Australia) are destroying rare vegetation in an area that provides protection to several truly endangered species.

The fact that the kangaroos will first be injected with a tranquilizer then euthanized with a needle is very upsetting to Mr. McCartney. Oddly enough the potential destruction of the rare habitat, or for that matter the survival of that endanged animals there, doesn’t bother Sir Paul one iota. Go figure. They must be some really butt ugly animals.

According to Paul, who is a devout vegan, he stopped eating meat for a specific reason. It seems to have happened after an event in his life that he says he’ll never forget. The truth is he may have already forgotten it because his story keeps changing depending on whom he’s speaking with.

According to conflicting reports, McCartney either saw Bambi and was upset that Bambi’s mother was shot in front of the little dear (or deer) or he was watching some lambs frolic in a meadow while eating lamb (might have been easier on him if he’d been drinking Lambs) or he had caught a trout and suddenly realized that he’d killed it (I’m not sure why he didn’t know before hand that it would die, you know what they say about a fish out of water).

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m thinking that Sir Paul could provide a much more valuable service than protesting this kangaroo cull. If he just called all those kangaroos aside and bent their ears with his ever changing story the poor animals might just line up for that injection and everyone would be happy. I know I would.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to see animals suffer any more than any sane person would, but there are realities in life that we all need to face. People eat meat and, on occasion, people need to manage wild life for one reason or another (not that we are always that good at it).

The facts are not always pretty, but these things are real and these alfalfa munching do-gooders need to realize that.

If someone came to Newfoundland tomorrow and honestly tried to protect the Atlantic cod or ensure that the endangered Moroccan crap beetle (I made that one up) was protected, I’d give them a shiny new dollar in a heart beat but the cuteness factor, of animals that aren’t endangered, is just not high on my list of priorities as a reason to donate or support someone just because a celebrity tells me I should.

Anyway, not to worry, I’m sure Paul will find a little time to make a comment or two about the annual seal harvest, even if it’s from a sandy beach down under (no, I don’t mean Mill Town).

As a side note, a polar bear was spotted on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland this week. Residents hope the bear doesn’t kill any seals along the shoreline for food. They worry headlines across Europe will scream: Seals Eaten Alive in Newfoundland.