JM: What has been your most harrowing experience in the course of carrying out direct action as a defender of whales and seals? Please give us details.
Captain Paul Watson: There have been many dangerous incidents and close calls from being attacked by a mob of 300 drunken sealers in the Magdalen Islands to being fired upon by the Norwegian Navy to actually being shot by the Japanese whalers. Risks are part of doing what we do but I’m happy to say that in 31 years we have never sustained a serious injury nor have we ever injured anyone.
JM: How often have you been charged, arrested, or prosecuted for your allegedly “illegal” (though obviously quite moral) activities on behalf of our non-human animal brethren?
Captain Paul Watson: I have been arrested many times but I’ve never been convicted of a felony nor have I ever been sued. We intervene against criminal operations and the last place criminals want to go is a courtroom
JM: Intellectual activist and widely published animal liberation philosopher Dr. Steve Best has likened the Animal Liberation Movement to the Abolition of Slavery and has written of the possibility of a full scale war over animal rights. What are your thoughts?
Captain Paul Watson: I don’t see a full scale war but I do see a philosophical debate and I do see more and more awareness of the contradictions and the need to stop consuming meat for three important reasons, ecological, ethical and health. However in the event of an ecological collapse there will be a war for survival.
JM: As a vegan, you have characterized those who continue the practice of eating animal flesh as necrovores (rather than the “carnivores” many proudly claim to be). Please elaborate upon this and tell us what you think it will take to raise humanity’s moral consciousness to the point that a majority of people end their cruel and unnecessary consumption of meat.
Captain Paul Watson: Humans do not eat like carnivores. Carnivores bring down living prey and eat it raw and most predators target the soft organs leaving much of the muscle for scavengers. Humans eat dead flesh and rarely eat the organs, preferring the muscle tissue. Most of the beef that people eat has been dead for months and in many cases for years. The meat is disguised with bleach and dyes in many cases to hide the decay and the fact that the flesh is putrid. We are closer in our eating habits to vultures and jackals than wolves and lions.
JM: As a final question, how optimistic are you that the dominant paradigm of capitalism, a system premised on greed, exploitation, and infinite growth, will collapse before it destroys our all too finite world?
Captain Paul Watson: Any political and economic system that does not operate in accordance with the three basic laws of ecology is doomed to failure. These laws are (1) The law of diversity, (2) the law of interdependence and (3) The law of finite resources. Our present political and economic systems are based on a premise of unlimited growth. This runs counter to the law of finite resources. Human populations are dangerously high and consumption of resources is out of control. Every eco-system on the planet is severely stressed. It will collapse. We are also dependent upon just a small handful of species for survival and if anything happens to them esp. rice, grains, grasses etc, we will have an ecological and human catastrophe.
For more on Paul Watson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watson
For more on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society AND to make a donation: http://www.seashepherd.org/
My special thanks to Paul for granting us this interview.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
