|
|
|
|
International Boycott of Canadian Seafood Imminent
Department of Fisheries and Oceans has refused to negotiate an end to the
commercial seal hunt
Released: January 26, 2005 (Toronto)
A powerful network of international animal protection organizations,
representing tens of millions of members globally, concluded a two-day meeting
at the Sutton Place Hotel to map out an aggressive strategy to end Canada's
seal hunt. "Canada's commercial seal hunt is now the largest and cruelest slaughter
of marine mammals on earth," said Dr. John Grandy, Senior Vice President of
The Humane Society of the United States, which has a constituency of more than
8.5 million members in the United States.
"Despite overwhelming public opposition, the Canadian government continues to
promote and even subsidize this brutal industry. That is why we are reluctantly
calling for a boycott of Canadian seafood products when the first seal is clubbed
or shot to death on the ice this spring. We believe the Canadian government
will soon realize the impact of a fisheries boycott is too high a price to pay
for the seal hunt."
The connection between commercial fisheries and the seal hunt in Canada make
a boycott of Canadian seafood products a logical next step in the campaign.
Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by commercial fishermen from Canada's
East Coast. Even in Newfoundland, where more than 90 percent of sealers reside,
revenues from the hunt account for less than one half of one percent of the
province's GDP, and only 2 percent of the landed value of the fishery.
Media reports and government data indicate individual fishermen who participate
in the hunt earn a very small fraction of their total incomes from sealing.
"I've been involved in the campaign to end the seal hunt for 30 years," said
Stephen Best, Director of Environment Voters. "I ran a fish boycott in the United
Kingdom in the early 1980s, which combined with political action, brought the
number of seals killed down to 18,000 - the lowest in the history of the hunt.
So we know this strategy works."
75 percent of Canadian seafood is exported to the United States, achieving more
than 3 billion dollars annually - a figure that dwarfs the few million dollars
produced by the commercial seal hunt. Close to 80 percent of people polled in
the US and Europe oppose the seal hunt, with the vast majority of those surveyed
willing to make consumer choices to help end the slaughter.
"The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has accused us of economic blackmail,
but our goal is to protect the marine ecosystem," said Barry Mackay of the Animal
Protection Institute, an American animal protection organization headquartered
in California. "Federal and provincial fisheries ministers have repeatedly and
disastrously buckled under what we would consider political blackmail from the
fishing industry. This practice has driven cod and other fish species into serious
declines, and the government calls that negotiating. But when animal protection
groups try to protect seals and the rest of the ecosystem, government and industry
call it blackmail. Regardless, attempts to negatively label us won't work because
consumers are on our side."
"The World Society for the Protection of Animals intends to use its international
network of organizations to educate consumers about the seal hunt and to urge
them not to buy Canadian seafood products," said Silia Smith, Director of WSPA
Canada. WSPA is an international network of more than 400 humane organizations
in more than 100 countries, and holds consultative status with the United National
Social and Economic Council and the Council of Europe. "Along with our partners
in this campaign, WSPA has an enormous capacity to influence consumers in the
United States and abroad."
Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Representative Animal Protection
Institute
www.api4animals.org
