- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 160
The Telegram 3/29/08 (Transcontinental Media)
"By Aaeon Beswick
The Green Party's organizer in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ted Warren, has quit over the partie's ties with radical environmentalists.
Environmental organizations have proven they arent interested in ending the hunt, said Warren, founding editor of The Navigator and a former editor with The Telegram, who said he had to try to find common ground between protestors and sealers.
"We were asking the animal rights groups, hte people who have protested the hunt, to put their money where their mouths are"
The proposal he brought to animal rights groups would have seen them pay into a fund to compensate sealers for lost revenues if they stopped hunting.
The sealers, in return, would vote on afive-year moratorium on the commercial seal harvest.
Animal rights' groups would provide $12 million-$15 million to help develop an eco-tourism industry in which former sealers would bring visitors to the ice floes in their boats to see the seals.
"With lost sealing incomes being fully compensated throughout the five-year moratorium, the sealers would have nothing to lose and, potentionally, a great deal to gain from such a plan," said Warren.
"It would then be up to all those who have so vehemently protested the hunt to either help us build a viable alternative or admit their failure and allow us to go back to harvesting seals in the same way that we have for generations."
If sealers were convinced they could make more money through eco-tourism, at the end of the five year trial they could vote on whether to end the commercial hunt permanently.
The personal use hunt would not be affected.But Warren's proposal was shot down by organizations including Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) after preliminary discussions.
" When you consider that they're raising between $60 million-$100 million a year to protest the hunt, 412 million-$15 million annually to end it isn't very much. I suppose I was naive to think they'd ever follow through"
Warren claims he was told by Greenpeace and the IFAW that the organizations considered the hunt already dead due to an upcoming vote by the European Union (EU) on a proposed importation ban of seal pelts.
"That's almost a laughable position because an EU ban would probably affect pelt prices, but won't end the commercialhunt," said Warren.
"I got the sense that they know it won't end it and that, ultimately, they're content to keep on protesting and raising money."
Warren said the final straw for him was when Green Party Leader Elizabeth May condemned the federal government for arresting protest vessel "Farley Mowat", owned by the Sea Shepard Society and members of its crew.
"Some of the fishermen in the Gulf are my friends and these guys (on the Farley Mowat) were endangering their liveswith these stunts," said Warren
"I think the Green Party has tied itself to closely with the extremists in this debate,"
He said he stands by the right of Newfoundlanders to make a living from all available resources, including seals."
"By Aaeon Beswick
The Green Party's organizer in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ted Warren, has quit over the partie's ties with radical environmentalists.
Environmental organizations have proven they arent interested in ending the hunt, said Warren, founding editor of The Navigator and a former editor with The Telegram, who said he had to try to find common ground between protestors and sealers.
"We were asking the animal rights groups, hte people who have protested the hunt, to put their money where their mouths are"
The proposal he brought to animal rights groups would have seen them pay into a fund to compensate sealers for lost revenues if they stopped hunting.
The sealers, in return, would vote on afive-year moratorium on the commercial seal harvest.
Animal rights' groups would provide $12 million-$15 million to help develop an eco-tourism industry in which former sealers would bring visitors to the ice floes in their boats to see the seals.
"With lost sealing incomes being fully compensated throughout the five-year moratorium, the sealers would have nothing to lose and, potentionally, a great deal to gain from such a plan," said Warren.
"It would then be up to all those who have so vehemently protested the hunt to either help us build a viable alternative or admit their failure and allow us to go back to harvesting seals in the same way that we have for generations."
If sealers were convinced they could make more money through eco-tourism, at the end of the five year trial they could vote on whether to end the commercial hunt permanently.
The personal use hunt would not be affected.But Warren's proposal was shot down by organizations including Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) after preliminary discussions.
" When you consider that they're raising between $60 million-$100 million a year to protest the hunt, 412 million-$15 million annually to end it isn't very much. I suppose I was naive to think they'd ever follow through"
Warren claims he was told by Greenpeace and the IFAW that the organizations considered the hunt already dead due to an upcoming vote by the European Union (EU) on a proposed importation ban of seal pelts.
"That's almost a laughable position because an EU ban would probably affect pelt prices, but won't end the commercialhunt," said Warren.
"I got the sense that they know it won't end it and that, ultimately, they're content to keep on protesting and raising money."
Warren said the final straw for him was when Green Party Leader Elizabeth May condemned the federal government for arresting protest vessel "Farley Mowat", owned by the Sea Shepard Society and members of its crew.
"Some of the fishermen in the Gulf are my friends and these guys (on the Farley Mowat) were endangering their liveswith these stunts," said Warren
"I think the Green Party has tied itself to closely with the extremists in this debate,"
He said he stands by the right of Newfoundlanders to make a living from all available resources, including seals."
