Photo: WENN.com
Morrissey has spoken out against Canada's annual seal hunt, asking of minister Gail Shea, "Would it make her happy to be shot by a high-powered rifle?"
The Canadian seal hunt takes place every year, during which seal hunters are allowed to catch up to 270,000 seal pups that are as young as 10 days old. According the animal rights group PETA, there is no market for seal meat, and those that aren't sold for fur are left in piles to rot.
The annual event has long attracted criticism from animal rights groups, and now Morrissey has spoken out against the event.
In a statement posted on the Morrissey fansite 'True To You', the former Smiths frontman said: "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. Is this a death that Gail Shea would wish for herself? Would it make her happy to be shot by a high-powered rifle?"
He continued: "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."
Listen to The Smiths' 'Meat Is Murder' below
The statement went on to say, "Canada is a beautiful country, and the people of Canada are good people. But good people are often ineffectual. 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."
Morrissey concluded: "Until this annual massacre is abolished, Canada itself is regrettably fashionably dead."
Morrissey, who is a vegetarian, is a frequent and often controversial supporter of animal rights.
