The seal hunt currently underway in Newfoundland, Canada is generating quite a stir. Images from the cull are being sent all over the world, convincing many that Canadians love to kill cute, defenseless animals. Seal skins are being harvested for materialist wants while the seal carcasses are left behind to paint the ice blood red. It’s a horrific scene, and it is no surprise to see animal welfare protesters out in full force.

But stop the press! What is the real issue here? Before continuing, I should probably play my get out of jail free card by noting that I was once vegan and still love the taste of soymilk.

With my Infinite Impunity Card front and center, let’s examine the issue — beginning with why the seal hunt is happening in the first place. Participants come from poor fishing communities whose economies are explicitly tied to fishing. A lack of output threatens working families struggling to pay the bills, maintain medical service, educate their children and generally have the kind of life most people have or want. Because of the depleted cod stock, the fishing communities are running out of options.

They are ordinary people in a bad situation and are doing what they can to provide for themselves and their loved ones. If I was a father with such responsibilities, I would be the first one out on the ice, doing my very best. I would hate it, find it disturbing and would probably get physically ill — but the alternative would seem a non-option. People should give the Newfoundlers, facing poverty and economic uncertainty, the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Humane Society is organizing a boycott of Canadian seafood products. This act will invariably put further stress on already impoverished communities, thereby creating conditions leading to crisis, and thus force working families to commit even more desperate acts just to stay afloat.

This “boycott” — a very clean and unassuming term to describe an economic attack against poor people — could not be more reactionary. It certainly isn’t the “humane” thing to do.

It isn’t “humane” when fisherman Ren Genge and his family must live in fear. They have received 50 or 60 threatening telephone calls, and his wife has disconnected the phone. Renge said that “They’re telling us they’re going to skin me; they’re going to kill me; they’re going to kill my family … They’re coming to get us.”

It is curious how some of the animal rights activists involved possess such warm empathy for animals but then turn around and treat human beings with such repugnant hostility. They fly into the hunting grounds by helicopter with their expensive cameras and flashy gear. They fly in to confront the impoverished workers, calling them bastards and videotaping the ordeal to show others how shocking the hunt is. They fly in with all their free time, having no idea what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck.

They (correctly) cite statistics showing how the hunt won’t make participants rich, forgetting that it might help working families live with some level of dignity. They produce their videos and get huge donation checks from other people who also don’t appreciate how wonderful and rare it is to not have to worry about feeding their children.

They poorly represent ordinary animal-welfare supporters, who cause no trouble and want only to be left alone — just like the people participating in the seal hunt.

Seal hunting is painful to see and won’t help participants that much, but step into their shoes for a moment. Consider the actual people in this bad situation for a moment. That is the humane thing to do.