Empathy for animals is a natural emotion; strong enough for laws that are created to protect them, but in excess, it can impair judgement necessary to protect people.
It manifests in animal rights organisations and individuals with strong conviction, often enough to operate independently. They are typically popular, narcissistic celebrities like movie stars who are very effective in raising awareness of themselves and their issues of interest. Fame causes some to offer opinions unabashedly on subjects they have neither knowledge nor experience, and are completely oblivious to the harm they inflict on other people.
Brigitte Bardot (BB) was an attractive young French movie starlet whose sex appeal was a factor in her popularity. She was also a very strong animal rights activist who led a personal campaign to stop the harvest of harp seal pups (whitecoats) in the Gulf of St Lawrence in 1977.
A photo of BB embracing a harp seal pup during the hunt was released to the world, and the negative public reaction it caused was reason enough for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada (DFO) to impose regulatory constraints on hunters. Harp seals were not allowed to be taken when white in colour.
BB was a meddlesome, ego-inflated foreigner whose intentionally planned protest was to evoke viewer enmity of the hunters. It was the act of killing seals, not over-harvesting them, that motivated her. The escapade inflicted hardship on maritime harp seal hunters and Inuit hunters of ringed and bearded seals in the Canadian high arctic, 3,000 kilometres north of the Gulf of St Lawrence.
The harp seal population is at an all-time high of approximately 4.7 million animals (DFO, 2022), and it continues to increase. Maritime fishers believe these and other seal species, mainly hooded and greys in the region, pose a serious threat to the fish stocks they depend on and are calling for a cull.
If sex appeal and stardom worked to prevent the harvest of harp seal whitecoats, it was sure to work for the founders of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who wanted to ban trapping of fur bearing animals. They enlisted Pamela Anderson, a Canadian animal rights activist and popular television star of Baywatch, to enhance awareness of their cause.
It not only succeeded in PETA’s efforts to ban trapping of fur bearers because of its perceived cruelty to animals, it also included banning the use of natural fur in garment making. Possessing a fur coat was almost a crime and anyone caught wearing one was subject to invective.
Scorn and derision are powerful negative emotions commonly used by abusers and bullies. Former Queen Elizabeth II was a victim who acceded to their denigration and condemned her beautiful fur garments to their closet, never to be worn again in public. Faux fur is not fur!
The economic impact on indigenous trappers caused by the collapse of the fur market was devastating but of no consequence to the PETA people; they had “no skin in the game.”
PETA also demanded better care and treatment of domestic animals. Farmers have responded accordingly and eggs that are now produced by free-range hens are readily available in supermarkets.
Reverence for animals too big to hug is possible; even ugly and dangerous ones can qualify. In Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby Dick, whaling ship Pequod’s Captain Ahab had an intense obsession; revenge for the white sperm whale that had bitten his leg off in a previous encounter. Alas, this vengeance cost him his life, his ship, and his crew.
Large baleen whales were over-harvested by 1960, and hunting had almost ceased. The International Whaling Commission highly regulates whaling, but Japanese whalers were harassed repeatedly by vessels of the Sea Shepherd Society, founded in 1977 by Paul Watson. Presently he is about to face the same whalers whose legal hunting activities were affected by his enmity and dangerous interference.
A traditional hunt for pilot whales continues on the Faroe Islands despite international protests, and Norwegians continue hunting Minke whales because they feed on their important herring stocks.
Whale populations continue to increase, some more quickly than others, though not rapidly enough for whale-huggers and movie star Pierce Brosnan (known for portraying MI6 Agent 007 James Bond in four films between 1995 and 2002) of the International Fund for Animals Welfare (IFAW). His plea to former President Barack Obama in 2010 for a ban on whaling was ignored.
Galeophobia, aka selachophobia, is an uncontrollable, irrational fear of sharks that may require medical treatment, but a genuine fear of sharks was hyped by Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, a novel and movie based on an attack caused by a great white shark that terrorised swimmers. Locals demanded it be hunted down and destroyed but like Ahab’s white sperm whale, "Jaws" aka "Bruce" also took revenge like Moby Dick, and killed six of the crew that were trying to kill him.
Great white, bull, tiger and other big sharks have always been a real rational fear because of their attacks that have resulted in deaths or lost limbs to surfers, swimmers, and fishers. In Australia, popular swimming areas are fenced off as a safety precaution and menacing sharks are baited to be caught for removal.
Great white sharks, however, have been defined as apex predators by selachophiles who have designated them as an ecosystem necessity; essential to maintaining the mythical balance of nature [sic] eco-sustainability. The designators are mainly foreign meddlers indifferent to the safety of indigenous surfers, swimmers, and fishers. If they are not seashore inhabitants, they probably lack empathy for surfers, swimmers, and surfers.
Moreover, in 2006 great white sharks were declared an endangered species; not to be killed so their fins will no longer be available like other shark fins in the preparation of the Asian delicacy “shark fin soup.”
Seals, sharks, and whales (and even elephants) are a source of meat for humans based on availability, which is usually seasonal and consumed fresh locally if processing or preservation is unavailable. I wonder how many advocates for saving a species have ever tasted one.
Did BB ever try “flipper pie,” or Pierce Bosnian, elephant “bush meat”? I wonder how many cultures have been impacted by their behaviour.
Article reprinted with permission from the IWMC – World Conservation Trust.