Animal Rights Pirates Insult Inuit

Paul Watson of the criminal Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recently compared a government-ordered cull of doomed narwhals to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. The narwhals had become trapped without food and were in the process of starving to death. The Canadian government allowed local Inuit to slaughter the animals.

Watson described the hunters are “ruthless Inuit killers” who “laughed barbarously” as they shot narwhal.

Canadian fisheries minister Gail Shea and health minister Leona Aglukkaq condemned Watson’s remarks. “Inuit strongly believe animals should be respected and should never suffer as in this case,” the two Canadian officials said in a joint statement. “Mr. Watson’s comments demonstrate a deep ignorance of Inuit society, and seek to demonize their culture and traditions.”

Watson is the former co-founder of Greenpeace who abandoned the group after denouncing it for being insufficiently radical. The noted eco-terrorist previously called his former Greenpeace comrades the “Avon ladies of the environmental movement.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was profiled in the February 2004 Organization Trends. (The March 2004 Organization Trends examined other direct-action environmentalist groups.)