Radical animal rights/enviromentalists are often more interested in propaganda than truth. Thus it isn’t surprising that an anti whaler, formerly with the very radical Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, claims he faked his own boat’s sinking. From the story:
An animal-rights activist has claimed he sank his own protest ship in an attempt to “garner sympathy with the public and create better TV” during a clash with a Japanese whaling ship. Peter Bethune, a former member of the Sea Shepherd activist group, also claimed Paul Watson, the organisation’s chief, of wanted the Ady Gil trimaran to sink after it collided with the Shonan Maru II in the Southern Ocean in January.
The row is the latest twist in an increasingly ugly public war between the two men that has threatened to overshadow the start of the Antarctic whaling season. Images of the stricken Ady Gil, its bow shorn off, were beamed around the world at the time, generating attention for the anti-whaling group’s cause. The hi-tech craft, which had been lauded as the Sea Shepherd’s “secret weapon” against the whalers, sank two days later. Mr Bethune, who was on-board the craft at the time but has since left Sea Shepherd, claimed that Mr Watson wanted the boat to sink to generate publicity.
If true, that is an egregious waste of the money people have donated to the Sea Shepherd’s—as in Bob Barker who bought the group its anti whaling ship.
I’m against whaling based on an animal welfare analysis, but I’m tellin’ ya: With these guys, the watchwords always have to be, “Do not trust and do verify.
(Photo of the Bob Barker by WJS, July 2010, Hobart Harbor, Tasmania, Australia.)
