Anti-seal hunt ads in U.S. dismissed by fisheries minister by Mike De Souza

CanWest News Service

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

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OTTAWA - An American environmental lobby group has placed full-page
anti-Canadian ads in the New York Times ''to fatten up their own purses,''
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn said Monday.

Hearn's comments come after the Humane Society of the United States bought
two separate ads in the American daily newspaper, worth about $58,000 each,
calling for a boycott of Canadian seafood products over the commercial seal
hunt.

''It's starting to draw attention to the scam that's being pulled by these
people,'' Hearn said in an interview, referring to one of the ads which
appeared last Friday.

Hearn said few people are fooled by the campaign which has used well-known
celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Paul McCartney to denounce the seal
hunt.

''It's had the reverse affect on (the lobby groups), because people are
starting to ask what's going on,'' said Hearn. ''When they saw the truth, it
was a different story altogether, and there was fair amount of backlash
throughout the whole industry on the American humane society and other such
groups, who use issues like this to try to fatten up their own purses, of
course.''

The ads include a coupon for restaurant owners to fill out in order to join
the boycott, as well as a website address for pledges to fund the humane
society's campaign to protect the seals.

Hearn said he's now getting e-mails from Americans who realize the hunt is a
necessary exercise to control the rapidly growing seal population.

''We're seeing seals now in areas we never saw them before, like at the
mouth of salmon rivers, in trout areas, etc,'' he said. ''So it's not just
cod we're talking about here. We're talking about the decimation of a lot of
fish unless we keep the herds balanced.''

The U.S. humane society insisted it would continue its campaign until it
stops the hunt which generates about $16 million to the Atlantic Canada
economy.

''It is extremely cruel and barbaric, and we have been there for two years
documenting the hunt,'' said Pat Ragan, director of the protect seals
campaign for the humane society in Washington. ''The boycott is gaining
momentum. The number of restaurants and chefs that are joining has been
increasing substantially.''

While Ragan said the boycott has already cost the Canadian seafood industry
about $160 million in lost exports of snow crab, the federal Fisheries and
Oceans Department said the losses were due to a number of market factors,
such as rising energy costs, the Canadian dollar, and Hurricane Katrina.

''This so-called boycott has meant very little, if anything,'' said
department spokesperson Phil Jenkins. ''This particular issue is not even on
the radar.''

Ragan said more than 1,000 restaurants, grocery stores, and other partners
have joined in the boycott of Canadian seafood products, but a recent report
by a Washington-based lobby group concluded that nearly 80 per cent of the
participants were not actively involved in the boycott. Some of them had
never even served Canadian products in the first place.