Sealer

Editorial 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)