KATHY KANGAS
Posted on 04/05/2006 12:27:07 PM PDT by presidio9
A Connecticut businesswoman offered Canada 16 million US dollars to immediately end a controversial seal hunt, she wrote in an open letter to the prime minister, but Canada is not biting.
"Your government has repeatedly stated that the 16 million dollars realized from the slaughter of Canadian baby seals is vital to the fishing communities of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Newfoundland," Cathy Kangas said in her letter.
"If you stop this year's hunt immediately, we will provide you with this 16 million dollars to be distributed at your discretion."
But, Steven Outhouse, a spokesman for Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, told AFP: "The short answer is no. We're not interested in the offer and would prefer she put the money in another worthwhile cause."
Despite protests by countless animal rights groups and celebrities including Canadian-born actress Pamela Anderson, French film legend Brigitte Bardot and former Beatle Paul McCartney, Ottawa authorized the cull of 325,000 seals this year.
So far, some 20,000 seals have been slaughtered this season. Wednesday, the hunt moved from ice floes on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the shores of Newfoundland province in eastern Canada.
Kangas is chief executive and founder of cosmetics firm Prai Beauty.
A longtime animal activist with ties to the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the US Humane Society, which has lobbied vigorously against the hunt, she also proposed buying back hunting licenses and nurturing an eco-tourism program to replace the annual seal cull.
"This could be a whole new source of revenue for the region and fishermen could serve as park rangers showing the seals and protecting them," she said.
The money would be raised from animal protection groups worldwide including the US Humane Society, which has more than nine million members, Kangas noted.
Outhouse said the hunt is legal and regulated and there is "no resource crunch" so Kangas' offer does "not make sense from a conservation point of view."
"Also, is she going to offer 16 million dollars over the next 10 years? This is an ongoing form of income for people (in the region)," Outhouse said.
"It's just another example of people with money trying to tell other people how to live their lives and most people don't respond positively to that."
The annual seal hunt earns about 16.5 million Canadian dollars (14.2 million dollars) in commercial meat and pelts for thousands of local fisherman, plus another four million dollars for related industries, officials said.
Canada banned the killing of the youngest seals, less than 12 days old, in 1987 amid criticisms and threats of European boycotts that pushed the industry to the brink of collapse.
Since then, the protests largely disappeared. But Canada awoke the wrath of activists in 2003 by approving a three-year cull of some 975,000 seals after estimating their population had ballooned -- now at 5.8 million, nearly triple the number in the 1970s.
This coincided with the opening of new markets in China and Russia.
The Dalai Lama, singer Charles Aznavour, actors Kim Bassinger, Juliette Binoche and Richard Dean Anderson, among many others, have campaigned against the hunt over the years.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last month Canada had become the "victim of an international propaganda campaign."
In the past, Kangas has also lobbied against the slaughter of cats and dogs in China for food, to save whales, chimps once used by the US Air Force, elephants, retired race horses, and wolves.
Wonder what she would pay me to promise not to hunt seals?
And will you do this every year, ma'am?
KATHY KANGAS
Why hasn't anyone offered me $16 million to stop my nightly cockroach hunt?
It's pretty rare that a liberal would put her money where her mouth is.
Good now throw that treehugger in prison for attempting to bribe an elected official.
I do believe I would change my name if I were Steven
Canadians to Kangas: We LIKE hunting seals.
why can't the beeetch adopt (financially) a bunch of under privileged AMERICAN kids and put them through good schools
It seems to me that giving 16 million to someone named Steven Outhouse is a lot like throwing your money down the toilet.
I'm sorry, call me a wuss. Clubbing an animal to death for its potential as a fashion accessory is cruel and sick. This women was willing to put her money where her mouth is; good for her.
It irks me when the little, highly developed Connecticut busybodies want to prevent development elsewhere be it Alaska or Newfoundland. MYOB!
It would seem the "Connecticut business woman" is intent on disturbing the balance of nature by protecting seals and sea lions, therefore destroying the fisheries in both countries. Today it is "politically correct" to destroy all that is good, for good is a danger to evil, and evil is bent on having it's own way!
This women was willing to put her money where her mouth is; good for her.
All she said was words. She hasn't put her money anywhere. If she puts it in a escrow account, then I might believe her.
"The annual seal hunt earns about 16.5 million Canadian dollars (14.2 million dollars) in commercial meat and pelts for thousands of local fisherman, plus another four million dollars for related industries, officials said."
As usual these people just don't get it. Its not JUST the money. These people are out there doing something to make a living. We've done enough to create a "welfare" society; farmers that get paid not to farm, natives that get nothing but handouts from the "white man's" guilt, welfare for single girls pumping out babies and on and on. I applaud these people for not jumping for the money to sit around and get fat and angry.
Nobody wants a coat made from THOSE skins.
"Clubbing an animal to death for its potential as a fashion accessory is cruel and sick."
I didn't see anything in the article about "clubbing" but short of that method of death, how is it any different than any other animals we humans use as resources?
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