AR-News: (CA) Seal-hunt protest aims at tourism

[Barry Kent MacKay]

Seal-hunt protest aims at tourism


By RHÉAL SÉGUIN
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 - Page A5


QUEBEC -- The controversial harp seal hunt in Atlantic Canada has once again

sparked an international campaign that if successful could tarnish Canada's 
image abroad and strike a blow to the country's tourism industry.

Just as the seal hunt has begun to thrive again, animal-rights groups around

the world are beginning to take action, condemning Canada for promoting an 
industry that quietly resurged in recent years with higher profits and 
bigger quotas that call for the killing of close to a million seal pups over

three years.

The Humane Society of the United States has ads coming out in The New York 
Times and Washington Post calling for a boycott of Canadian tourism. In the 
United Kingdom, groups are running cinema commercials urging people not to 
travel to Canada.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare is preparing for another battle 
similar to the one it led in the 1970s. With the help of environmentalists, 
the group successfully won a global campaign against the commercial hunt of 
seal pups and brought the industry to a standstill.

" We are really back at a point where the world is starting to realize that 
the hunt is back," the group's spokeswoman, Rebecca Aldworth, said. "It is 
really gearing up again. And [our campaign] will continue to heat-up as the 
hunt progresses over the next few years."

So far the Canadian tourist industry has been unable to gauge the impact of 
the campaign, which was launched last year.

" We are not worried about it yet but it is something we are keeping a close

eye on," said Isabelle Deshênes of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

A front-page story in yesterday's New York Times on the revival of the 
Canadian seal hunt has given the animal-rights campaign the type of 
visibility in the United States that could stir strong public reaction in 
Canada and Europe.

Since the European ban on importing white pelts in 1983, the Canadian 
government imposed tougher regulations, barring hunters from skinning seal 
pups alive. The hunting of harp seal pups and blueback seals, was banned. 
Hunters must now wait at least 12 days after the birth of a pup when they 
begin shedding their white coats before they can be killed.

The prices for the pelts began to rise in the mid-1990s and reached record 
levels in the past two years, generating more than $20-million in 2002. The 
next year the government adopted new quotas allowing for the killing of 
325,000 seal pups a year, the highest level ever.

_________________________________________________________________
 
Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Representative
ANIMAL PROTECTION INSTITUTE 
www.api4animals.org