Can Taylor Swift help Canada's seal meat industry, senate committee asks
ottawacitizen.com
Previous government efforts to boost the sale of seal products have also failed, noted Fink. As an example, she pointed to a 2014 plan which recommended the Fisheries and Oceans department try to revive the market for the sale of seal penises.
Nothing says buy seal penises like... Taylor swift?
Is the simulation collapsing into a Swift-ularity? She's suddenly at the center of everything, including seal meat. Wtf
Certainly seems so.
Taylor Swift is the only important person in the world according to the news.
I mean I like her music, but if you asked me a couple of years ago who's going to be shaking the world in 2024, definitely wouldn't say Taylor Swift.
I don't think I've ever heard a single song of hers.
You probably don't know which ones are hers, but that's like saying you've never heard a Michael Jackson or Beatles song. They're everywhere and you'd have to avoid music in public altogether to avoid it, she has songs everywhere.
I am nowhere though. I don’t go to stores, I don’t drive a car or listen to radio. I don’t watch TV. I suppose a song might have snuck into a film or so, but I don’t recall when I last watched a film.
I have a hard time being in public, and if I’m solo I’ll generally wear my noise cancelling headphones, otherwise I get all jittery.
Though I admit that it’s not impossible for me to have heard a song by her. I know a little about her, like how she worked really hard to buy back the rights to her songs. I think she works independently now too?
Couldn’t name a song by her though.
You’ve never heard the song “Shake it off” from your fortress of solitude cave on mars?
Doesn’t ring a bell. Signal is weak here.
Though! I thought of two songs I’ve heard a little from that I think are by her. One is that stalkerish sounding one with ripped jeans. The other is one where she sings that she’s problematic.
One is a bit older, but the other is fairly recent. My friend showed me the song because I was confused why “I’m the problem” suddenly became such a common meme.
If your young, it's not that difficult to avoid music.
But she was huge like 20 years ago as a country singer, went to pop, and now makes slightly more grown up pop.
If you're over 30 and American you've 100% heard one of her songs because radio was still a thing back then.
I'm glad I wouldn't really be able to tell if the pop song is hers by just listening to it. But then I stopped listening to pop in high school and radio stations once MP3 players could hold more than 3 grindcore albums at a time.
Wow. I thought she was about 30? I assume she didn’t start her career as an infant.
What?
She's like 35 and was one of the biggest country singers as a teenager, so about 20 years ago...
I said "over 30" because you'd have to be at least 10 to remember it, a toddler wouldn't remember the song on the radio
I’m not really a radio person. Grew up in a poor family in Sweden, so we never had a car, which is where most listen to radio.
My sleep addled mind made her out to be like 50 and was really shocked because she don’t look the part. Makes sense if she’s around 35.
As ridiculous as this story is on its own, the Taylor Swift comment was obviously a joke. The guy was testifying that Russians and celebrities were spreading "misinformation" about seal hunting, and that they needed to counter that with a PR campaign of their own. And the official said "(since Ryan Reynolds is out) we're targeting the Swifties" as the target demographic, and laughed that Swift might endorse the seal hunt.
She was name dropped because she's the most famous celebrity at the moment, to highlight the absurdity of the idea, not because the idea has merit. It's still a funny story about seal murder. The author of the article even has a statement from the official buried in the last paragraph that says "obviously, that was a joke you dipshits" or something. I'm paraphrasing.
Edited to accurately describe what she said.
Murder? I'll have you know that was sealf defense, when he threatened me with the malice in his eyes, his fate was sealed.
On a side note what's the going rate for a seal penis. I sealiously don't want to keep it.
Do you know how many magazines Time sold when they made her person of the year?
She's the only thing keeping the news industry alive.
Honestly, I would be okay with that. We could do a lot worse.
they dont even make a case of what benefit this provides besides money for specifically them. Go into a different industry if consumers dont want what you're selling.
But... What if clubbing baby seals is their calling? /s
But they want money without having to adapt, why won't people just give them money for things they don't want?
Maybe the seal population needs to be controlled? 🤷♀️
If that were the case you'd think they would mention it
Don't worry, great white sharks have been spotted not far from where the seals live. Soon the seal population won't need to be controlled by a quick death by humans. It'll be controlled by great white sharks tearing them apart!
Then we can all be happy!
seal meat is a thing?
Yeah, otherwise they wouldn't be much more than skeletons.
here in the states, 'clubbing baby seals' is a basic euphemism for 'evil'
its beyond strange to hear there is not only a market for seal meat, but that it is flat out an accepted industry. i have no horse in this race though, id eat it.. or the horse
I remember habing a T-shirt Hell shirt that showed two baby seals in swanky attire dancing under a disco ball, with the words "Stop Clubbing Baby Seals" in glittery rhinestones.
Haha I just checked and not only does that site still exist it looks exactly the same as I remember from like 20 years ago
I've had horse a couple of times. It's pretty good.
What would you compare it to?
That's a good question. It's kind of it's own thing, kind of gamey though. It's not got much fat in it. This being said, horse isn't produced for consumption in my country and as such the meat is procured from horses that have lived life as pets pretty much exclusively.
There is a lot of misinformation on both sides about the commercial seal hunt in Canada. Which makes it difficult to get the truth.
But to call people who are engaging in the hunt using traditional or modern methods as evil is some fucking bullshit. Most times it's a group who don't understand the nuances, using a standard that doesn't apply.
Now, saying that there aren't problems with the hunt would be rather disingenuous, and most of the anti-hunting groups deliberately misrepresent the facts because seals are cute. At the same time, the industry associations and hunters themselves are biased.
There is a way to ethically hunt seals, and having a market to sell the meat and fur is imperative for that. I'm not passing judgment on the hunters if the animals don't suffer, and they stick to the quotas and guidelines set forth by the DFO.
Aren't seals endangered? Forgive me if I am wrong but there is no ethical way to hunt an endangered population. Unless they are targeting populous seal populations, which of those there are not many.
Wikipedia has them listed as Least Concerned. So, not in a way that would have conservatory issues associated due to population.
Like I said there is a lot of disinformation surrounding the topic.
Yes. Normally sold internationally beacuse the market in Canada is rather small.
The people who hunt seals have been trying to boost domestic consumption for years.
Never heard of Canadian Club?
She really needs to just put the whole music thing on hold and help us with literally everything else, apparently.
What in the fuck is this article. Its like a bad joke, what does seal penises and taylor swift have in common?
Wouldn't you like to know ;)
We're sure this isn't a satire site?
How is seal meat still an industry? We have no need for seal anything, we aren't Inuit people living way up north or some shit.
Fucking capitalism will murder anything it can.
Is this Ottawa’s version of “The Onion”?
canada is like an onion source: am canadian
Literally. Canadian news is just American news two weeks behind.
And without all the school shootings and it has healthcare. Id say its america premium
Hell no. Our healthcare is completely screwed right now and instead of school shootings we have everyone car being jacked.
Naw, that's the Beaverton.
I was expecting that they wanted Taylor to speak out against seal meat, not endorse seal penis meat.
Naw. It’s them seal penises, gotta sell the aphrodisiac; and who better than T Swift?
If anybody knows about Seal penis, it's Heidi Klum.
Lol why in the fuck would she agree to that? I'd be surprised if she wasn't vegan already.
And by the way, I kept being told that seal hunt and meat was for native populations to use and such. Now it's become a corporate market? How is that tradition?
Is she going to eat all those seal pensises herself? Come on Taylor, share!
This is curbing on the plot of an episode of Elementary from, like, 5 or 6 years ago.
It was ridiculous then too. 
The Burns Omni-Net sweeps the sea clean!
What the fuck did I just read?
Anyone who thinks the seal meat industry should expand greatly should either supply a very good reason for why anyone should want to support this or retire. I opened that article just to see if it had an answer to "why?" and there was none to be found.
The closest was "people eat lamb chop and veal sandwiches all the time", which has never been the case for me. I'd try it, but wouldn't go out of my way for it and wouldn't make a habit of it, especially not to just support the seal industry.
Most likely, if they had a good reason, it would have been the focus of this article. But since there wasn't one, I can only assume that they have none.
Edit: I'm referring to the senators trying to push this as if it is something that benefits Canadians for the retirement comment, as I see I didn't qualify that "anyone".
They have a great reason, they want more money.
Well yeah, but I meant a good reason for anyone else to care.
Taking bets on bot or clueless.
That all you got?