Rod Stewart comes to St. John’s; plays a big concert: everyone’s in love.
Photos emerge of Rod wearing a seal skin coat at Vogue Furriers, and people fall further in love. “TAKE THAT PAUL MCCARTNEY!”
Rod is the new cod.
But then Tuesday rolls around, and Rod tweets his outrage that Vogue Furriers made him seem like a seal trade supporter … as if they could have inferred any differently when he waltzed into their fur store, and put on a seal skin coat.
His outrage went on to declare he hadn’t realized it was a seal skin coat, and he doesn’t support the hunt. There are a few issues with that statement. What grey furred Newfoundland animal did he think he was donning, albino moose? And what is he saying: if it was the skin of an endangered tiger or the fur from inhumanely farmed minks it’d be okay?
I am enraged to learn that an image of me has been misused for something I do not support. Full details here: https://t.co/PKTpAwYX5g
— Rod Stewart (@rodstewart) July 14, 2015
Fun Facts for Any UK Rocker with Misguided Notions about the Seal Hunt
1.) Yes, we wack them over the head. Bludgeon is the term. But only because one swift blow is more humane than shooting them, missing the mark, trying again, etc. And why litter the great white landscape with bullet shells?
… and quite frankly, a country that only banned its vicious fox hunts in 2005 — which involved men on horses leading packs of dogs to tear foxes apart — doesn’t have the right to say what is and is not humane. Especially since you still use dogs to help cull fox when numbers spike (I know, I know, you only use a few dogs now.)
2.) There is probably no animal hunt in the world that uses as much of the slaughtered animal: from meat, to fur, right down to medicinal uses of their omega-rich fatty oils … and even further down to their penisses. Every bloody inch of the thing, it’s no wonder we don’t pump them full of bullets.
… unlike say, the fox hunts. Did you even eat the foxes, or was it all “for sport” and a bit of fur?
3.) They’re not going anywhere. And cuteness shouldn’t factor into the attention a species is given — endangerment and ecological value should.
… Where was your conservation concerns for the the zanzibar leopard, the eastern cougar, the javan tiger, the pyrenean ibex, or the west African black Rhino, Rod? They all went extinct in your lifetime. As did many more, like the spix macaw, or the baiji dolphin. Where were you for the black-faced honeycreeper, or the Japanese river otter, Paul McCartney? Here are 5 animals predicted to be extinct by the end of 2015. can we please turn our concerns where they belong? The Northern White Rhino (there’s 5 left, all in captivity), The ivory-billed woodpecker (probably already extinct), the amur leopard (about 30 left), the south china tiger (functionally extinct for being beyond salvation), and mountain gorillas. GORILLAS!
Please, let Bob Wakeham, the woolly veteran curmudgeon at The Telegram, handle these situations of nationalistic food and status-identity security next time.{ http://www.thetelegram.com/Opinion/Columnists/2015-07-18/article-4216350/The-latest-headliner-at-the-anti-sealing-club/1 } This is an Arts magazine, not a fishing & hunting channel, or an ecology journal. If anything, it should be bringing something besides ivory-billed woodpeckers or comparisons to fox hunting to this exciting discussion. It is a double election year. Please read (or reread) Calvin Coish’s book, Season of the Seal, for a start, and stop regurgitating National Geographic obituaries Mr. Pelley, you, you…equivocating tear-jerker! This method, name-dropping of species, makes you seem like a celebrity, and not like a journalist. Vogue gambled and lost with their use of a man’s image, without gaining his permission to claim a personal endorsement. This singer was brought here to perform his music, and not to promote seal penis-worship – was brought to Vogue’s store, because Vogue sponsored the music event – a clothing problem/solution was created, so he could/would give them a ‘shout-out’ on stage for the much necessary, life-saving help. Basic show/biz synergy. He tried to fulfill his obligation to his sponsors, and accepted free clothes, on loan , for his bandmates to wear on stage. Like any normal Scotsman would. (Elton John would have told Vogue they were cheap hacks compared to Norwegian furriers and avoided the controversy?) Write what you know, Mr. Pelley. Know your role at The Outcast. Typing “we wack them over the head” is easy and simple while nestled nicely in a padded task chair. More music and less star-wacking please. Tell us about the minks? Maybe Brian May can tell you about the badgers?
Some solid points, EARTHGROUND. But this isn’t n Arts magazine, is it? I could care a less about local arts. I pick up The Overcast for articles like this one that provide a different perspective on things, or a plain hilarious one, like Ed Riche’s satire on local politics, Drew Brown’s sharp political pieces, or Vicki’s funny take on parenting. It’sa vibrant finger on the city’s pulse. This is also where I read about local restaurants. And I thought Pelley’s point wasn’t to attack poor ol Rod, but to illustrate that the seal hunt is the weirdest hunt in the world for the world to be frowning on.
And, in rebuttal I offer
https://www.facebook.com/captpaulwatson/posts/10153357039530932:0
Twatson the most hypocritical of all … the ecoterrorists who hides in France and send kids to do his bidding in other countries. Countries that he is not allowed to travel to because of his breaking laws there.
From a Newfie living in the UK.
All so don’t forget th UK government is trying to soften up and even reverse the laws on fox hunting in England only they got caught out by the SNP who were going to vote against the government stopping it as they only just have a majority.
The vote to change has been put on hold. Lol
Like you say nothing is used from the fox except blooding the youngsters with the cut of tail.
Total hypocrites they should concentrate on their own home issues.
Seal hunt stories a media gold mine!
To be fair, he wasn’t fitted for a coat. Staff asked him to try it on for a photo. Implying that he was being fitted for one suggests he supports the industry. NTV covered this yesterday.
It’s still stupid that he “didn’t know” it was a seal skin coat.