Music

Tanya Tagaq passionately argues against seal hunt boycotts

by Richard Howard

The Canadian seal hunt has long been a source of controversy, with animal rights activists labeling the practice as barbaric and lobbying for its dissolution as well as calling for boycotts of seal meat and fur.

One such movement spearheaded by the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) calls for the boycott of all Canadian seafood products, and since its inception in 2005 has gained the support of numerous restaurants, grocery stores, and high profile chefs. On Sunday, Polaris Prize and Juno Award winning Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq took to Facebook to explain why opposing sealing is misguided.

The singer pointed to Nunavut’s “healthy and innumerable population of seals” and that the animals are not at all endangered. Referring to the animals as “a perfectly renewable and sustainable natural resource that is accessible to Inuit,” she charged that fighting sealing is, in the end, “fighting against marginalized/poor people that don’t have resources (or appropriate control over non-renewable natural resources) to feed or support their families.”

Tagaq also sought to shine a light on what she considered to be hypocrisy on the part of the activists, who she noted “can’t get a $500 donation from you with a postcard with a chicken on it”:

She also linked to a 2013 article which covered celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain making similar points, calling the boycott “ill-advised” and suggesting that a total ban on seal products “dooms the indigenous people above [the] Arctic Circle to death or relocation.”

Tagaq ended by imploring people to do their research before protesting the seal hunt, and to “believe the people that live WITH the seals, living in the same ecosystem.”

It bears mentioning that HSUS, PETA, and other organizations have taken pains to point out they’re opposing the commercial East Coast seal hunt and not Indigenous sealing. However, an all-encompassing boycott such as the one proposed would likely have negative effects on Inuit people as well. Read Tagaq’s full post below: