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SUNDAY INDEPENDENT SEPT 2007 : |
SI_NWS_E1_020907_p09
Donna Collins - Reporter in
Namibia asked me to pass this on
Fw: aluta continua!
Scroll down for her text, please.
From: Seal alert SA sasealion@wam.co.za
Date: August 1, 2006 8:16:33 PM
GMT+01:00
Subject: Donna Collins - Reporter in Namibia asked me to
pass this on
aluta continua!
Dear All - How on earth and in all the
good seas, does Seal Alert-SA thank and commend such a courageous
reporter and her legendary editor Hannes Smith of the Windhoek
Observer ? In only the best way I know how - "I give to them the
greatest gift - the gift of living life".
Next years pupping season will too have
its victims in this conspiratorial "war on seals", and although it
will cost me over ten thousand rand in feed costs alone, and
require my doting parenthood for the next twelve months and over
two thousand hours to save its life - I will do so again and again
- in the belief that there are people out there like Donna and
Hannes. Donna and Hannes, the next baby seal pup has your names
written all of it.
As will the pups named after Elma
Robberts, Brigette Weidlich, Mbantjiua Ngavirue, Christof Maletsky
of the Namibian, and Eleanor Momberg and Tabby Moyo of the Sunday
Independent, Elise Tempelhoff of the Beeld and Adam Welz of
Noseweek, and Seije Slager of Trouw; Sara and Lisa Chait of
CapeTalk, and Dagmar Wittek of Johannesburg Radio, and Stan of
Pretoria Radio, Lea Budge of Australian Radio, and please forgive
if I have omitted anyones name.
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
----- Original
Message -----
From:
donnanews
To:
SealAlert-SA
Sent:
Saturday,
January 09, 1904 10:29 AM
Subject:
aluta
continua!
Hi Fancois
Would you like to pass this onto your media "friends" and seal
friends on my behalf.
Regards
Donna Collins
"Aluta
Continua"the struggle
continues.
This message is for all you journalists out there who are knocking
the relentless efforts of Seal Alert SA, in their desperate fight
to see that justice is done for the seals - and that the
inhumane mass killings of horrendous proportions are stopped and
re-adjusted.
I am a Namibian journalist writing for the Windhoek Observer
and live in Swakopmund. My paper, whose editor is the
legendary Namibian journalist Hannes Smith ran two stories so far
on the seal culling operation. My efforts to interview Albert
Brink on the seal issue, owner Sea Lion products factory in Henties
Bay, fell flat yesterday when I was refused any access to the
factory. He is orchestrating the cull or "harvest" at Cape
Cross.
The Ministry of Fisheries is on a whole is tight-lipped but stick
to their guns as this is an annual event, and issued some
releases and statements in Windhoek to the local media in defense
of the initial anti-campaign attack. They stated that Namibia must
utilise its natural resources, plus the people should acquire the
taste for "seal meat." One reporter I know from a local coastal
newspaper, who already told Hugo to "get lost", boasts having eaten
seal meat which he claims is "delicious like game", and regularly
drinks the oil.
No one has been allowed to enter into the "forbidden" area for
fresh photo material, except the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation
last week. I have just spent an hour on the phone (again) trying to
get comment from someone at the Ministry regarding the issue, but
was kept on hold, passed to the directorate of resource management,
back to a PA, then the switchboard - then cut off.
Brink is the 'main man' who has many years of seal culling under
his belt, and says he is carrying out orders on behalf of the
Ministry of Fisheries, who overnight increased the quota from 60
000 to a whopping 85 000. He is also running a thriving
operation together with a couple of partners at the seal factory,
pushing out seal products for the tourist industry. His wife runs a
seal boutique in Henties Bay.
There is a Mafia type secrecy over the seal cull issue in general -
an agenda that makes you wonder if this killing is considered so
"normal", then why hide it. They start to kill shortly before
day break when all is quiet. Brink refused an interview with
me at short notice yesterday (31 July), and blew his top when I
suggested taking photos of the seals arriving at the factory,
where they are offloaded every morning after the "harvest". "You
people are just distorting the facts," he snorted over the phone.
"I'm sick of the bad press, we kill sheep and cows, so why
not seals."
I am scratching my head to find out what bad press. Aside from a
few articles here and there, the subject is being relatively
ignored. We have had no foreign press here. And the more a man like
Francois Hugo who has balls to fight for this cause talks
out, the more he is being challenged. Yes, he pummels us with
information which cannot all be translated into articles, but the
bottom line here is - there is an urgent message to
re-address this seal plundering which cannot be ignored - and as
journalists we shouldn't.
Funny how everyone dropped everything when Angelina Jolie arrived
in Namibia to have a baby. People scrambled for the slightest
crumb, paying fortunes for a smattering of information of this
Hollywood star. Pages of papers, tabloids and magazines around the
globe were filled with speculation, rumours, facts, non facts as
the world hungered for more on the couples every move. I know I was
there. Namibia was the new Hollywood.
Yet, when the same country a few weeks later embarks on the mass
killing of the biggest ever quote of seal pups ever, no one has a
word to say. It just goes to show where the priorities of the media
lie - no wonder all our species are dying out. I am not
saying we all need to be the official mouthpiece for Seal Alert,
but are you telling me that a seal slaughter story of this
magnitude doesn't sell papers, doesn't make headlines and prick the
consciousness? Every day over 600 seals are clubbed to death.
Whether we are in favour of it or not. Where are you Carte
Blanche????? Where are you Sunday Times, Beeld and all those
powerful voices.
Today I spoke to a visiting Brit from a large animal rights
organisation presently in the country. He previously went to the
culling fields at the Cape Cross, and explained in gruesome detail
how it works. "It's not a pretty sight". And to quote him he said.
"The animals are chased into a corridor by two groups of
clubbers who bash away at these creatures heads - and then plunge a
knife into their hearts - hopefully to cause instant death - but I
doubt that always.
"You can imagine how accurate the blows must be after swinging that
club for a couple of hours - their arms get pretty tired I am
sure," he said cynically. "This is still considered the cruelest
method by world standards - and when they have finished their nasty
business they cover the blood splattered beach sand with more sand
so the tourists can walk in and view the lovely seal colony.
"I had the misfortune of stepping into one of these freshly covered
area's and was up to my ankles in blood. Many people in Europe
won't come to a place where the people are hammering their animals
to death, so it must have an effect on the country's tourism I am
sure."
There are those who believe that this slaughter is a solution to
the mass starvation the seals have suffered in their thousands for
years due to the dwindling fish stocks in the sea. And there are
others who blame man for the interference in the first place.
But by excusing ourselves from putting pen to paper we as the media
are justifying this killing.
I'll
help where I can. Donna Collins (Photo. journalist Namibia)
contact: donnanews@africaonline.com.na
"If Brink, wants to
slaughter seals, buy some land, fence it, buy seals, feed
them , medicate them, be responsible for any disease out-breaks
they may
cause - keep them confined, and if he can then run a profitable
business on
these terms alone, good for him - until then these seals belong to
everybody - they are wildlife and we will have a say in how they
are protected and not killed." Francois Hugo Seal Alert SA