seal hunt

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Editorial CartoonEditorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, December 19, 2013

Pamela Anderson, Simpsons’ Sam Simon offer cash to sealers

Philanthropist Sam Simon, one of the creators of The Simpsons, is offering $1 million in cash to Canadian sealers so they will retire and end the hunt.

Simon, though, was heckled and mocked at a St. John’s news conference Tuesday that he staged with Canadian actor and anti-sealing activist Pamela Anderson and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Simon and Anderson slipped an oversized cheque for $1 million under the door of the Canadian Sealers Association. Simon said the money, pledged through his charitable foundation, will go straight to CSA members if the group “facilitates and achieves a long-buzzed-about government buyout of the failing international seal trade.”

But Simon and Anderson came in for a rough ride before the gesture, with leaders of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union, which owns the building, and other fisheries advocates questioning their campaign.
“Please leave us alone. Take your insane group, and go away,” said Jim Winter, a longtime fisheries advocate.

“All of this is is a media event, a stunt, to provide a YouTube moment for fundraising for animal rights. That’s all it is,” Winter said.
Simon disagreed.

“This is a real thing, an attempt to end a horror show that shouldn’t be taking place in the 21st century,” said Simon, who created The Simpsons — which coincidentally debuted 24 years ago on Tuesday — with cartoonist Matt Groening and veteran Hollywood producer James L. Brooks. (Source: CBC News)

May 27, 2009

The news story of Michaelle Jean, Canada’s official representative to HRH the Queen, eating a bloody piece of raw heart meat from a freshly slaughtered seal caught my eye yesterday. I’m of two minds on this. On one hand I think way to go, Your Excellency, for not doing what a lot of other people in this day and age would do by reacting with a wince, turn of the head, and a boisterous “yecch, no way”. But on the other hand, I wonder if it’s less about politeness than it is attention seeking activism masquerading as pure self indulgence.

When it comes to cartooning on the subject, I’ll admit to doing exactly what I wonder the GG does with regards to the attention seeking theory. I can sit quite comfortably in the deepest reaches of Canada, far, far away from the Arctic ice floes and pass judgment through a cartoon and attract as many eyes as possible on anything as contentious as the seal hunt. As one person sums it up quite bluntly in reaction to a YouTube version of an anti-Canadian seal hunt cartoon I created with an animator, “Isn’t that nice! And you say you’re Canadian, eh? Hey, look everybody!! It’s Graeme MacKay and Scott Blackett! Two assholes from Ontario taking part in spreading hatred against the fishing families of Atlantic Can.”

He’s right. The future existence of the seal hunt doesn’t exactly keep me awake at night. But it does make for convenient fodder for cartoons. It has made me into an accidental seal hunt advocate.

Take for example, PETA, The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, using the same animated clip mentioned above and making it into an e-card for its website. I gave them permission, (’cause who can resist the attention, right GG Michaelle Jean?) but was kinda taken aback a month or two later to notice their branding of the latest campaign against Canada over the seal hunt shows a familiar blood spattered maple leaf. This time the target is the maple syrup industry:

Perhaps it’s just natural to use a maple leaf to symbolize a maple syrup boycott. I do wonder how much the animated clip may have influenced the initial inspiration of the PETA people. If it did, my apologies to the maple syrup industry whose product I’m a huge fan of. I hope this doesn’t begin a movement supporting the ethical treatment of maple trees.

Comments

I love that Michaëlle Jean ate the seal heart. Yum! – Scott Blackett, May 27, 2009

I know this is a little late on the commenting, but the irony of this idea is worth sharing. Perhaps the maple syrup producers will go broke from the boycott. Then in order to feed their kids they will have to cut down their trees to make them into hardwood clubs for killing seals. – Maple Shekel, August 4, 2009

 

May 5, 2009

The news story of Michaelle Jean, Canada’s official representative to HRH the Queen, eating a bloody piece of raw heart meat from a freshly slaughtered seal caught my eye yesterday. I’m of two minds on this. On one hand I think way to go, Your Excellency, for not doing what a lot of other people in this day and age would do by reacting with a wince, turn of the head, and a boisterous “yecch, no way”. But on the other hand, I wonder if it’s less about politeness than it is attention seeking activism masquerading as pure self indulgence.

When it comes to cartooning on the subject, I’ll admit to doing exactly what I wonder the GG does with regards to the attention seeking theory. I can sit quite comfortably in the deepest reaches of Canada, far, far away from the Arctic ice floes and pass judgment through a cartoon and attract as many eyes as possible on anything as contentious as the seal hunt. As one person sums it up quite bluntly in reaction to a YouTube version of an anti-Canadian seal hunt cartoon I created with an animator, “Isn’t that nice! And you say you’re Canadian, eh? Hey, look everybody!! It’s Graeme MacKay and Scott Blackett! Two assholes from Ontario taking part in spreading hatred against the fishing families of Atlantic Can.”

He’s right. The future existence of the seal hunt doesn’t exactly keep me awake at night. But it does make for convenient fodder for cartoons. It has made me into an accidental seal hunt advocate.

Take for example, PETA, The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, using the same animated clip mentioned above and making it into an e-card for its website. I gave them permission, (’cause who can resist the attention, right GG Michaelle Jean?) but was kinda taken aback a month or two later to notice their branding of the latest campaign against Canada over the seal hunt shows a familiar blood spattered maple leaf. This time the target is the maple syrup industry:

Perhaps it’s just natural to use a maple leaf to symbolize a maple syrup boycott. I do wonder how much the animated clip may have influenced the initial inspiration of the PETA people. If it did, my apologies to the maple syrup industry whose product I’m a huge fan of. I hope this doesn’t begin a movement supporting the ethical treatment of maple trees.

March 26, 2007

The future is animation…

For more than a year I’ve been dabbling in the animation of my editorial cartoons. Actually, the real hard work in bringing life to my cartoons is done by longtime friend Scott Blackett. We’re both rather new at this and we’re learning about it and getting better as we go.

The seal hunt was our first animated movie. At 30 seconds, it’s also our longest. It’s a bit graphic but it puts out a clear message about the seal hunt with great effect. White backgrounds, it seems, work best in terms of clarity with our type of animaton. Another cartoon about Victoria and David Beckham meeting the press after arriving in Hollywood came out rather blurry after it was uploaded to YouTube.

My end of the job is pretty easy, although there are extra steps taken as l execute each cartoon if an animated clip is in the offing. Specifically, the background and features need to be drawn separately. If a lot of movement is required, extra limbs need to be created.

Once all the parts are drawn and separated they’re shipped off by email to Scott who’s based in Toronto. I don’t know exactly what he does to bring about the magic of the movement but I always get a huge kick out of the end result. I’ll let him explain the process later.

So we’ve begun uploading these videos onto YouTube with hopes of getting some hits and feedback. You can find our profile here.

FEEDBACK

Newfies are an easy target. I don’t agree with all aspects of the seal hunt, but there are many worse culprits — like the shark hunt which is decimating the ocean’s eco-system.

Here’s my take on the seal hunt, with Pamela Anderson being clubbed instead.

http://www.weltschmerz.ca/blog/2006/04/thwunk_1.php

Still, technically, I think that animation really works well. And it’s always fun to draw blood.

– Gareth Lind (April 3, 2007)