Governor General Jean Likes Veal and Lamb as Much as Seal Heart

Many of you have probably heard by now about Michaelle Jean's public seal-eating stunt earlier this week. The Canadian Governor General, the Queen of England's representative to Canada, helped cut open and gut a slaughtered seal and ate a piece of the animal's heart, all in front of television cameras. And to be clear, she apparently asked if she could try the heart. This comes, of course, on the heels of the EU's ban on the import of seal products because of the horrid, despicable nature of the commercial seal hunt in Canada. But Jean wants to show solidarity with oh-so-oppressed seal hunters. And she is certainly not offering any apologies for it.

Defending seal hunting while in the company of an Inuit community, she remarked, "It is done in a sustainable way. A very respectful way." Let me guess--you're rolling your eyes. Canada's commercial seal hunt too has Jean's full support, and the notion that it is "respectful" is too outlandish for anyone to take seriously. Yes, it's so respectful that entire groups of nations are condemning it. It's so respectful that the videos and images documenting it make people ill. Yes, when I see a human chase down a hopelessly fleeing baby seal and bash her head and body with a club, spraying warm red blood onto the white ice--when I see a still-conscious baby seal being skinned alive for her fur and skinless babies' bodies all thrown in a pile--"respectful" is what comes to mind.

But the Winnipeg Free Press reports that Jean now wants to make sure we know that she lacks concern for all animals equally:

"When I eat beef, I am totally aware that eating beef is also. . . a once-living thing. Vegetarians make a choice in their life," she said.

"I haven't made this choice. When I eat lamb, I know that I am eating a lamb. When I eat veal, I know that I am eating a veal. Those, too, are very cute animals."

What, does she want an award for knowing and not caring? What's next on her itinerary? Perhaps she'd like to beat a baby seal herself. Perhaps she'd like to drag a flailing, weak, wobbly-legged veal calf to his slaughter; perhaps she'd like to be right there when the baby lamb's frightened cries are silenced by the slitting of her throat. Perhaps she'd like to eat their hearts too.

Media reports remarked on the fact that she had to wipe the blood from her fingers after eating the heart and that when she went out on a hunt with sealers (no seals were killed at the time), she wore her sealskin gloves. Good thing she thought to take off the gloves before asking if she could eat the heart--we wouldn't want to ruin the skin of a baby seal by getting seal blood on it.

---
Update: See the next post, "Because Calves Apparently Aren't as Cute or Worthy as Seals," for continued thoughts on this.