To: The Ambassador of Norway
and Mr. Petter Meier
Fisheries Counselor
Norway
Dear Ambassador and Mr. Meier,
I would like first to commend your government for conscientiously
warning your young women and children to not consume whale meat,
considering it's being overloaded with toxins including mercury, PCBs
and dioxins. I certainly cannot say this for the Japanese government
which not only allows whale meat in supermarkets to be labeled as
"Health Food", but feeds it directly to young children in their school
lunch program, in spite of their full knowledge of the toxicity and its
health effects.
I take this opportunity to ask your government, as a Canadian
citizen, to join other European nations including Austria, Belgium,
Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourgh, the Netherlands,
Slovenia and Turkey to ban the importation of all Canadian seal
products, on grounds of cruelty and ecological destructiveness.
I also would like to take this opportunity to point out the absence
of a very important point in your letter below, without which no
consideration is complete. The following words and phrases come to mind,
all relevant to this point in question: agony, baby, compassion,
cruelty, empathy, evolved, family, generosity, inhumaneness,
intelligence, kindness, language, love, massacre, respect, skinned
alive, society and why.
Regarding just the one word "cruelty", there is simply no way to kill
a whale that can be considered humane, even if killing whales for any
reason is justified, which it is not - not in this day and age any more,
when we no longer crucify people, or burn them at the stake, or have
them drawn and quartered. Just because whaling was going on in the 17th
Century does not mean that it should still go on in the 21st Century.
I have just one more question. Does Norway not believe in law and
order? I'm sure that if somebody breaks a law it Norway, he'd be duly
charged, convicted and punished. So why does Norway as an entity behave
on the world stage in open defiance of international law and
international agreements? Norway doesn't even bother to go through a
loophole the way Japan does ("scientific research"). What kind of
example is the Norwegain government setting for its own citizens?
Norway may have been basking in the lack of pressure from the
international anti-whaling movement, but should consider itself lucky up
to this point because the main force of the movement has been directed
against Japan, and rightly so. But if Norway stands too close to Japan,
it may stand to receive some shrapnel.
I have never written a letter to Norway. I'm writing one now. And
others will too. I think the time has come for Norway to reconsider its
whaling policy, and be known as a compassionate nation.
Sincerely yours,
Anthony Marr, Founder
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
Since 