Maddened Zealotry

This is neither an easy nor an entertaining read. First you must absorb two pages of acronyms, after which you’ll know that ICES is the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and that CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. Particularly encrusted is Chapter Five, with 104 footnotes dangling from it.

In short, Icy Battleground: Canada, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Seal Hunt is a scholarly work. But it is also a merciful relief to anyone who has been caught up in more than 30 years of savage propaganda (from both sides) wrapped in a thick fog of governmental bumpf. Here, at last, are the straight, unbiased goods.

Donald Barry, by thorough research and steady overview, at last provides a clear picture of three decades of the North Atlantic seal hunt and the annual circus of protest and counter-protest, berserker attack and suicidal defence, which has gone along...