Gov-Gen Gobbles Raw Seal Heart On TV
- Thread starter dumpthemonarchy
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yes, since McDonalds only uses the delicious heart meat. If only the GG would share some of hers...:-|
I agree Walter. Seal heart tastes like Sushi? I heard that it
smells like Sushi but tastes like Chicken. 8O
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Raw seal heart is one thing, but has anyone ever tried blood pudding? Used to be one of my favorites as a young lad. Basically, it's bread soaked in seals blood with fat pork mixed through and some spices to liven it up a little. mmmmm....tasty.
Here's some valuable information from the Sealer's Association webpage. Chock full of data on the nutritional value of seal meat and recipies for those who dare to try it.
Absolutely!
Well said!
And I would add that this was the first time I thought Michelle Jean might actually be up to the task and worth her salary.......
Right on Michelle!!!!!
Some people don't realize that they're not supposed to get so much publicity. Benign good vibes are going to be replaced by some intense feelings that didn't exist before. The dainty white wine crowd that supports aboriginals from afar don't like seeing seal innards on the sushi menu.
I support what she has done because I think it moves us closer toward abolishing the monarchy in Canada.
Governor General's seal snack sparks controversy
Governor General's seal snack sparks controversy
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | 6:52 PM CT
Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean and her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond, in matching jackets, take part in a community feast in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, on Monday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean snacking on a slain seal's raw heart has sparked criticism from the European Union and animal rights groups.
Barbara Slee, an anti-seal hunt campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels, said she was disgusted by Jean's actions.
"The fact that the Governor General in public is slashing and eating a seal, I don't think that really helps the cause, and I'm convinced that this will not change the mind of European citizens and politicians," Slee told The Associated Press.
"It amazes us that a Canadian official would indulge in such bloodlust," Dan Mathews, senior vice-president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told the Toronto Star.
"It sounds like she's trying to give Canadians an even more Neanderthal image around the world than they already have."
Kicking off a weeklong visit to Nunavut on Monday as part of the territory's 10th anniversary celebrations, Jean gutted and ate some fresh seal at a community festival in the central Nunavut community of Rankin Inlet.
The move, to show support for the beleaguered seal hunters, comes as the European Union voted earlier this month to impose a ban on seal products after years of intense lobbying by animal rights groups.
Asked Tuesday whether her actions were a message to Europe, Jean replied, "Take from that what you will."
A spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas offered no official reaction.
"No comment — it's too bizarre to acknowledge," Barbara Helfferich said.
The EU's trade ban has limited exemptions to Inuit from Canada and Greenland to continue their traditional seal hunts. However, those exemptions are subject to a number of restrictions.
Canadian Inuit leaders praised Jean's gesture, saying it sends a strong message to the world about the traditional "country food" that Inuit rely on.
"Not everybody would do that, especially when they know that the seal hunt ... is a controversial issue because of the animal rights people," Mary Simon, head of the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, told CBC News on Tuesday.
"I just want to thank her for her support of our people and our culture."
Both Simon and Paul Kaludjak, president of the land claims group Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., said the seal hunt is not a controversial issue among Inuit.
"We don't really care about how the outside world thinks about how we eat our country food," Kaludjak said.
"Let them be disgusted, whatever they want to pursue, and that's their choice."
Kaludjak added there are better things to do than to criticize other people's practices.
Simon said people should take note of the message Jean is sending by eating the seal heart.
"It really sends a message out to the public that maybe these animal rights campaigns are off-base and are giving inaccurate information," Simon said.
Federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay weighed in on the controversy, offering Jean his full support.
"I think that was wonderful. I think she's Canada's new Braveheart for eating the seal heart," MacKay told reporters following question period in Ottawa on Tuesday.
When asked if he would eat a piece of seal heart, MacKay, who said he has eaten seal liver and flippers, replied, "Sure! Absolutely. I'd love to try it."
Just my perspective here: though I normally eat vegan, this is one occasion where I could potentially make an exception, depending on the circumstances.
I remember abroad when refusal to eat what was offered by the host could be interpreted as highly offensive. In China, I was invited at a business banquet on many occations, but I'll recount one somewhat typical instance here. As a strict teetotaller, I'd refuse the host's rice wine, which itself could take a few minutes of explaining before the host would acquiesce and no longer push alcohol on me. Then came all the food, some relatively expensive, just to please me. Well, seeing that I'd already turned down the alcohol turning down the food, which could include anything from dog to raw fish to deep-fried silkworm and some other thing that looked like deep fried cockroach, or even smelly tofu (that's what it's called, and for good reason), could be construed as an outright snubbing of my host, I'd give the smelly tofu my honest effort at a swallow without gagging. Besides, no animal was hurt in its production anyway.
When it would come to the meat, if my host insisted, I might make an exception and eat it for his sake as a sign of freindship, considering that he might already not have taken too kindly to my refusal to drink alcohol. It's called diplomacy.
And as far as I'm concerned, there is no difference between killing a seal and killing an ox. So if I were in the GG's shoes, depending on the circumstances, I might have made an exception to my diet and eaten the raw seal heart myself as a gesture of friendship.
So before PETA starts huffin and puffin about this, perhaps it ought to get its facts straight. No, I'm not for a generalized seal slaughter, but let's at least give the GG a hand for not letting the seal meat go to waste as often happens when hunting seal for fur. My father was a hunter, and though I was vegan myself, I could still admire the fact that he left nothing of the deer go to waste if it could be put to good use. It's not like that seal the GG ate was simply skinned and left to go to waste.
Hmmm.you know, Gerryh. I often find myself agreeing with you on principle, but do you always have to be so crude? Can't you just explain in a rational, respectful, and polite manner why you disagree with PETA rather than proclaiing to all here how you'd like some lips pressed against your rear crevice hairs?
One thing I do't understand: how did anyone come up with politicizing this? If I were the GG, I would certainly have been aware before having eaten the seal of the possible political fallout, for good or bad, but would certainly not have made my decision based on that. In the end, I would simply have made my decision according to how the host might feel if I should refuse to eat any. Honestly, my decision would not have been political in the least either way. How in the world did this end up as a political issue? It's only one seal heart, adult seal, and served as food for sustenance.
Probably...but then it wouldn't be me....and I'm not about to change who I am or how I react to things for people I have never met.
Maybe this heart eating was really just her practicing voodoo? Chickens. Seals. What's the difference eh?
Sure, when you're in another country, you may have to eat some odd looking food to get a business deal, and get stinking drunk too in the deal, not a bad tradeoff sometimes. Especially when the host pays.
It's all theatre and free vittles. I eat meat and I won't be stopping anytime soon, although I wish they would take farm animals off drugs.
I read today in the Metro newspaper that a UBC prof Lawrence Berg says criticism of this seal snack is "unwarranted". I find this offensive and politically correct by stifling free speech. He implies critics are bigots and colonials, gee, how out of touch. You're allowed to be offended and state your opinion.
Personally I was repulsed at first by the sight of this, eating offal, yuck, raw, double yuck. But we cook birds and carve them up on a table and show the insides. So people can carve a seal and eat it on the floor, more power to them, but not in my table, or floor.
I've heard that it's offal-ly good.
You don't have to eat, or serve, anything you don't want to. That's your decision.
I gotta chuckle every time I see that headline. Methinks "gobbles" may not be quite the correct verb. "Savours" might be better.