Sealed With a Kiss? - NOT!
Paul and Heather McCartney (photo left, with seal) squared off with Newfoundland and Labrador(Canada) Premier Danny Williams last night on "Larry King Live" in a heated debate over the hunting of seals.
"This is about propaganda. This is about using superstars like your husband," Mr. Williams said during one heated exchange with Mrs. McCartney.
"We're not here for propaganda," she replied, cutting Williams off mid-sentence. Ouch!
John Gleeson has a biting criticism of Sir Paul's latest cause in the Winnipeg Sun. Ouch again!
posted by louisj @ 11:34 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
During their recent visit to Canada, the McCartneys engaged in illegal activities, but compassionate and understanding Canadian authorities will not charge the 2 clueless folks from England
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McCartneys won't be charged
Singer and wife illegally touched harp seal pup
Graeme Hamilton, National Post, Saturday, March 04, 2006
Federal fisheries officers have decided against charging former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and his wife even though their petting and poking of a seal pup off the Magdalen Islands on Thursday was technically illegal.
Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations state: "No person shall disturb a marine mammal except when fishing for marine mammals under the authority of these regulations."
Photographs show Sir Paul and his wife, Heather, patting a white-coated seal pup as they visited the ice floes to protest against the Canadian seal hunt. At one point, the pup took exception to Mrs. McCartney's caresses and snapped at her.
Roger Simon, area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in the Magdalen Islands, said the offence was so minor it does not warrant taking the couple to court.
"It's almost like saying you're going 51 kilometres in a 50-kilometre zone," Mr. Simon said.
"If a fishery officer had been present, something like a warning would have probably been issued, saying, 'Well, if these pups are still nursing, we suggest that you don't pet them -- just watch them.' "
A court would have to be shown that the seal had been harmed by the pop star and his wife, Mr. Simon said, and research has shown casual interaction with humans does no lasting damage to young seals.
"She may have bothered [the pup] but I don't think she harmed him," he said, adding that Canada has better uses of its tax dollars than a McCartney trial.
"When disturbance is of such a minor nature, you wouldn't bring someone to court on something like this," he said. "Somebody would say that the Canadian government and the Canadian taxpayers must have better things to do than haul Paul McCartney into court because he touched a seal."
Mr. Simon said Mrs. McCartney was fortunate it was a harp seal pup she stroked and not a grey seal. "The pup you saw yesterday that snapped doesn't even have any teeth," he said. "A grey seal would probably still be grabbing on to her nose. They're a bigger, more vicious animal."
After 20 years working with seals, Mr. Simon has seen a lot of celebrities come and go. "Last year we had MacGyver [televison actor Richard Dean Anderson], we had Loretta Swift [Hot Lips Houlihan from television's M*A*S*H*] one year. One year we had Bobby Kennedy, Jr.," he said. But he was particularly unimpressed with Sir Paul's understanding of the seal hunt. He expected the ex-Beatle would be out of his league in his televised debate with Danny Williams, the Newfoundland Premier.
"Poor Paul, in a debate, would be hard-pressed because he doesn't know very much about the subject," Mr. Simon said. As an example, he noted that Sir Paul suggested to local reporters that the seal hunt be replaced by whale-watching tours. "We're surrounded by ice, and this isn't a whale area. This is where whales pass but never stop, so it wasn't very well-documented or researched," Mr. Simon said.
He called Sir Paul's seal-hunt knowledge "a crash-course, HSUS brainwashing thing." The HSUS is the Humane Society of the United States, which organized the McCartneys' visit.
FISHERIES ACT
Prohibitions (7)
No person shall disturb a marine mammal except when fishing for marine mammals under the authority of these regulations.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=3822bca5-58ba-45f6-91f6-d77fe99291c0
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