FoA to Tourists: Don't Wait. Boycott Canada Now.

"Don't Wait for the Olympics!" Friends of Animals Tells Tourists,
"Boycott Canada Now, 'Til Seal Hunt Stops"

DARIEN, Conn. U.S. - With Canada preparing to go full-speed ahead on
its annual seal hunt, Friends of Animals today unveiled an
international tourism boycott to press the Canadian government to stop
the kill.

Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral states:

"We ask people everywhere to avoid travel to Canada until its
government stops this miserable seal slaughter. The government sets the
kill quotas. Government funds assist the kill. These resources must be
redirected to build a real economic foundation for Canada's coastal
residents.

"Don't wait for the Olympics: Stay away and end this now."

The Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment reports that
over $20 million in Canadian federal dollars supported seal processing
between 1995 and 2001. The funds also maintain plants, cover
ice-breaking support, and sustain research and marketing for seal
products. In short, the seal-killing industry is propped up.

The World Tourism Organization ranks Canada among the world's top
dozen travel destinations. It attracted 20 million tourists in 2002,
but by 2004 was down to about 19 million.[1] To boost the industry,
Ottawa spent $78 million last year on the Canadian Tourism Bureau.[2]
"Obviously," Pricilla Feral stated, "Tourism, which generates
tens of billions each year, is vital in a way the heavily subsidized,
$16.5 million seal-pelt business is not."

Adds Feral, "Effects on the Royal Canadian Pacific Railroad, cruise
lines stopping in Canada, and hotels and attractions from Niagara Falls
to Calgary will ripple throughout the economy."

The boycott will place emphasis on Canada's top visitor markets --
people from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Australia.
As hundreds of thousands work in the travel sector, the boycott will
impact the Canadian people. But Canada's populace, after all, must be
moved to hold its own government accountable.

Friends of Animals called on environmentalists, students, animal
advocacy groups, and people on the streets to support the boycott.
Says Feral: "Groups have documented and monitored the kill for too
long. Forget marine mammal regulations and pretending that enforcement
can make it humane. No matter how many seals are killed, it's
immoral. Dying is one by one."

Once this killing ends, the group will avidly support ecologically
sound travel.

"Seal watching and ecotours, launched in the 1980s through businesses
such as Habitat Adventures and Travel Wild Expeditions, are a much
better bet to address the province's 15% jobless rate," said Feral.


"That was proven when the whale- killing communities adjusted their
economy. We have and will support careful, prudent ecotourism."

Likewise, the Green Party of Canada believes seal watching excursions
would be better for the economy and the ecology of the East coast.[3]

The Green Party notes that Europeans arrived on the continent to find
about 24 million harp seals living in balance with so many fish that
their abundance could impede the passage of ships. Today, less than
five million harp seals remain, and the cod are gone.

The Green Party has called for an end to federal support for the kill
in no uncertain terms. Its leader, Jim Harris, stated it's high time
to "develop sustainable jobs that will bring Newfoundland and
Labrador international praise."

Friends of Animals, headquartered in Darien, Connecticut, has been a
global leader in animal rights advocacy since 1957.
www.friendsofanimals.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Recent (2005) data available: http://tinyurl.com/hxabm

[2] Catherine Porter, "Big-Spending Tourists Shun Toronto," Toronto
Star (2 Feb. 2006); available: http://tinyurl.com/ff8ac

[3] Information on the Green Party of Canada and its opposition to the
seal kill is available through: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Daniel Hammer
Staff Writer

Friends of Animals
777 Post Road
Darien, Connecticut 06820

phone: 203-656-1522
fax: 203-656-0267

email: hammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
web site: http://www.friendsofanimals.org

.

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