B.C. restaurant keeping seal meat on menu, despite threats

Restaurant that serves seal faces threats A Vancouver restaurant believed to be the first in B.C. to have seal meat on the menu has contacted police after receiving several threats.

The operators of a B.C. restaurant say they have been receiving threats since adding seal meat to the menu, but they’re not backing down.

Edible Canada, a restaurant located on Vancouver’s Granville Island, says it prides itself on serving unique Canadian ingredients in their dishes. For a three-course menu during this year’s Dine Out Vancouver Festival, Edible Canada president Eric Pateman decided to include Newfoundland seal meat as an option for diners. The dish, created by Pateman himself, features seal meat served over pappardelle pasta.

Pateman said he wrestled with the idea for months before introducing seal meat at the restaurant. But he gave it the greenlight, saying it’s more sustainable than a lot of the seafood Canadians eat.

“Seals are being hunted for their pelts predominantly, so the meat typically has been going to waste, so there’s a primary sustainability there,” Pateman said in an interview with CTV Vancouver, adding that the seal population has also risen significantly in the “last number of years.”

The seal hunt in Canada has a long history of controversy that goes beyond the country’s borders. Celebrity animal rights activists such as Paul McCartney have championed international campaigns to ban the hunting of seals, calling it cruel and inhumane. Hunters, however, say seal hunting is not only a tradition in Canada, but it helps protect fish stocks.

Peter Fricker, a spokesperson at the Vancouver Humane Society told CTV Vancouver that the organization believes the commercial seal harvesting industry is “on the verge of dying, and we’d hate to see it revived just to start supplying meat as a delicacy for trendy foodies.”

Fricker said seal meat may be “sustainable food but it’s certainly not a humane food. The East Coast seal hunt is known around the world as an example of extreme animal cruelty.”

Pateman said, since word spread that the restaurant is serving seal meat, they have received “threats of vandalism, threats of significant violence against us.”

The vandalism and violence threat came from one person, Pateman later said. He said Vancouver Police investigated the threat and dismissed it.

The restaurant is not backing down from serving the seal dish to anyone who orders it.

“We’ve hired security guards,” Pateman said, adding Vancouver police are “very cognizant of what potentially could go on.”

Pateman is hoping there are no problems and that the dish gets people talking about where their food comes from. He says there is a lot of “misinformation” out there regarding the seal hunt.

“I pride myself on understanding where my proteins and my meats come from, whether it be beef, lamb, pork or anything else and I don’t think seal is any different.”

With files from CTV Vancouver