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.
As a youngster I loved hanging onto Mom's sealskin coat. Softest thing in the world. (or so I thought at the time)
It's like the parable:
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.
This wench is just offering the fish.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA - good one - you get my vote for THE FUNNIEST FREEPER ONE-LINER OF THE DAY.
Steven just doesn't go with Outhouse, sounds odd.
I named one of my sons Steven but his last name is not Outhouse, you may notice that with this reply that I have pinged "smaagee", that's my son Steven.
Now that's a name that goes together, Steven "smaagee"
Sexually abuse children for several years and get probation. Kill a goldfish by stomping on it and get two years in prison. Where else but in America can you expect this kind of justice?
Ohio Judge John Connor recently saw fit to put a man on probation for sexually abusing two boys, now 5 and 12, over a three-year period. The judge has come under sharp criticism before for being lenient with criminals. The fact that he himself has been charged with driving under the influence eight times, and convicted three times, throws a further cloud over his qualification for the bench.
In New York City, a state appeals court upheld the conviction of Michael Garcia for killing a goldfish and on charges of assaulting Emelie Martinez, with whom he shared an apartment, and her son, Juan.
According to Ms. Martinez, Garcia grabbed the fishbowl and hurled it at a television set, demolishing it. As the fish flapped on the floor, he said to Juan, "You want to see something awesome?" and then stomped on it. This brought him a conviction on felony animal cruelty and the two-year sentence.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1609872/posts
LOL!
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