Morrissey Protests Killing Seals, Declares Canada ‘Fashionably Dead’
Outspoken animal rights activist Morrissey has criticized Canada’s seal-hunting practices in a missive published on his semi-official True to You site. He also praised China and the European Union for taking a humanitarian stance by refusing to sell Canadian seal meat. “Until this annual massacre is abolished, Canada itself is regrettably fashionably dead,” he wrote.
15 Revealing Quotes From Morrissey’s ‘Autobiography’
“Gail Shea, the Federal Fisheries Minister for Canada, says that baby seals are ‘killed humanely,’ and explains how the baby seals are shot by high-powered rifles,” Morrissey wrote. An online search revealed no such quotation from Shea, though she is quoted several times as supporting the seal hunt. “Is this a death that Gail Shea would wish for herself? Would it make her happy to be shot by a high-powered rifle? If she considers such butchery to be so ‘humane,’ why doesn’t she place herself amongst the tens of thousands of grey-coated harp seals that will be slaughtered within the next few weeks? She could then test the humane aspect of having her head blown off for herself. Only then could she be thought to speak with any authority on the subject.”
Despite his strong words for Shea, Morrissey did not condemn the whole of the Great White North, calling Canada “a beautiful country” and deeming its citizens “good people.” “But good people are often ineffectual,” he wrote. “Internationally, Canada’s sorry image is due entirely to its seal slaughter – which is greedy and barbaric, and it is dismaying to witness such ignorance in 2014.” He went on to say that people who wear fur are “of the thinnest intellect,” and rounded out his screed by writing that “killing baby seals with lightning brutality is now Canada’s primary global image.”
Morrissey should know a thing or two about international politics; after all, he is titling his next record World Peace Is None of Your Business. The album follows up his 2009 LP, Years of Refusal, and will come out “provisionally” between late June and early July. He recorded the LP’s 12 tracks with producer Joe Chiccarelli, who has previously worked with Alanis Morissette and the Strokes, and reported that he is “beyond ecstatic” with the results.
In addition to the album, Morrissey is working on his first novel, based on the success of his memoir last year. “In 2013, I published my Autobiography and it has been more successful than any record I have ever released, so, yes, I am midway through my novel,” he said. “I have my hopes.”