How heartening to see a set of politicians tucking in, with just a soupçon of Canadian self-consciousness, to seal loin in port jus. They’ve got a pretty good point, our cousins. The EU’s ban on seal products, against which they’re protesting, is hard to justify on grounds of proportionality, economics or morality.
I know that plenty of readers find annual Canadian cull macabre. But be honest: your objection is aesthetic, not ethical or ecological. Seals are not an endangered species: on the contrary, their voracious appetite has played no small part in the reduction of cod stocks. And, while seals undoubtedly look cuter than, say, oysters, it is hard to see what places them in a different moral category.
Instincts matter, of course, even when they’re irrational. We are programmed to respond warmly to the features of our own young: big eyes, little button noses and so on. So powerful are these genetic impulses that the same features in other species still seem adorable to us. I quite understand why people hate the idea of a seal waddling trustingly towards the clubman: I’m not wild about it myself. But we can all choose whether or not to buy the resulting products. It is surely a bit much for the state – let alone the EU – to enforce what is essentially a matter of taste on its entire population.
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3 or 4 glasses of port before dinner probably would make it edible.
mid island mike
Never had it. Looking at a seal, I get the impression that it might taste better raw (the heart)
Does it go down better when SEALED with a kiss? just kidding.