Product Description
The northeastern seaboard of the United States and Canada, from Cape Cod to Labrador, was the first region in North America to suffer from human exploitation. In this timeless narrative, Farley Mowat describes in harrowing detail the devastation inflicted upon the birds, whales, fish, and mammals of this icy coast -- from polar bears and otters to cod, seals, and ducks. Since its first publication some 20 years ago, this powerful work has served as both a warning to humanity and an inspiration for change.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 2 reviews)

A shaking litany of slaughter by humans

This book should be read by everyone who cares about animals. It is a sad litany of what humans can do in search of greed. Mowatt has assembled facts and figures that bring to life the slaughter of species that is still going on. One wonders what could have been done and what still can be done to stop more animal slaughter.
SOS is at once depressing and then an awakening to us all.
September 30, 2005

Slaughter for Profit

Passionate, well-written account of what has become of animal life in North America since the arrival of the Europeans in the early 1500's. Amazing. I will never look at the world in the same way. Farley Mowat, focusing on the North-east of North America, paints a vivid picture of what animal life was like from 1500 to the present, frequently quoting those who saw it in its near natural state hundreds of years ago -- the great awk, the white bear, the buffalo, the whales, the dolphins, the seals. The European intruders saw this great abundance of life as an opportunity for profit, saw the millions of whales as so many tons of train oil. From one chapter to the next, the animal "nations" were slaughtered with no thought of the future, until there was no more profit to be made. "Sea of Slaughter", as sad and painful as it is, is a must-read book. A sampling of Farley Mowat's words (I am sure he won't mind):

"So ends the story of how the Sea of Whales became a Sea of Slaughter as, one by one, from the greatest to the least, each in turn according to its monetary worth, the several cetacean nations perished in a roaring holocaust fuelled by human avarice.
Now that there are no longer enough of them remaining to be of any significant commercial value, the fires that consumed their kinds are burning down. But it is unlikely -- our instincts being what they are -- that even the far flung scattering of survivors will ever be secure from our rapacity unless, and until, they receive worldwide protection.
Surely this is the least we can do to make atonement for the evil we have done to them. And it WAS evil -- of that, make no mistake."

August 06, 2005

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