SAVE THE SEALS

Some folks, including the Humane Society of the United States, are pretty upset with the Red Lobster restaurant chain and its Orlando-based parent company Darden Restaurants. They’re saying the Canadian fishermen who provide their food club baby seals to death.

Last spring, the Canadian government allowed about 320,000 young seals to be killed on March 29 to "ensure the health" of its booming seal population. The killing, an annual event in Newfoundland, prompted the 8 million-member Humane Society of the United States, a Washington, D.C.-based group dedicated to animal protection, to call for the boycott of all Canadian seafood by U.S. companies.

The Humane Society's latest initiative centers on Darden Restaurants Inc.'s Sept. 21 shareholders meeting. It is designed to focus attention on the fact that Darden refuses to boycott Canadian seafood, even though the restaurant company says it isn't involved in the hunt, doesn't sell seal meat or products and has no plans to ever sell seal products.

While a spokesperson for Darden, Jim DeSimone says representatives of his company have met with Canadian officials to express their opposition to the hunt, animal rights groups say that is hardly enough. They contend Darden should follow the example of other companies such as Legal Sea Foods, Down East Seafood, Whole Foods Markets, Wild Oats Markets, Original Fish and Spectrum Organics and boycott all Canadian seafood. The Canadian fishing industry exports an estimated $3 billion worth of seafood to the United States each year.

Protests have occurred this week in Orlando at Red Lobster.

On Sept. 21, the day of Darden's shareholder meeting at the Gaylord Palms hotel, the Humane Society plans for a supportive Darden shareholder to speak about the issue.

Orlando-base Darden is the largest casual dining company in the world and its Red Lobster concept operates 670 restaurants in North America and employs more than 63,000 people. The chain served more than 141 million guests in fiscal 2005 (ending May 29, 2005) and enjoyed total sales of $2.4 billion.

Red Lobster's not the only target of the protest. Costco, Long John Silver, Outback, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods are also included on the list of companies.


The Humane Society provides these Fast Facts about Canada's Seal Hunt:

It's a cruel slaughter.

• Fully 95% of the harp seals killed over the past five years have been under three months of age. At the time of slaughter, many of these defenseless pups had not yet eaten their first solid food or taken their first swim—they literally had no escape from the "hunters."

• Video evidence clearly shows sealers routinely dragging conscious pups across the ice with boathooks, shooting seals and leaving them to suffer in agony, and even skinning seals alive.

• In 2001, an independent team of veterinary experts studied Canada's commercial seal hunt. Their report concluded that in 42% of the cases they examined, the seal did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning.


It's a reckless cull.

• Over the past three years, nearly a million seal pups have been slaughtered for their fur.

• The last time sealers killed this many seals—in the 1950s and '60s—close to two-thirds of the harp seal population was wiped out.

• Scientists around the world have condemned the Canadian government's management plan for harp seals as reckless, unsustainable, and irresponsible.


The seal hunt brings in very little money.

• Even in Newfoundland, where 90% of sealers live, income from sealing accounts for less than one-tenth of 1% of the province's economy.

• Sealers are fishermen who engage in several fisheries throughout the year, and sealing revenues account for only about one twentieth of their total incomes.


Killing seals may harm fish stocks.

• About 3% of a harp seal's diet consists of commercially fished cod. However, harp seals also consume many significant predators of cod, including squid. Removing harp seals may mean an increase in cod predators.

• The Canadian government clearly states there is no evidence that killing harp seals will help fish stocks recover, and scientists have expressed concerns that culling seals may in fact impede the recovery of ground fish stocks.


If you oppose the seal hunt, you're in good company.

• Polling shows 85% of Canadians believe seals under one year of age should be protected from hunting (Angus-Reid, 1997).

• In European Union countries where polling has been conducted—the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands—close to 80% of people who are aware of the Canadian seal hunt oppose it (MORI, 2002).

• Polling shows 79% of American voters oppose the Canadian seal hunt (Penn, Schoen & Berland, 2002).

Take Action HERE https://community.hsus.org/campaign/redlobster
Sources: The Humane Society of the United States, Orlando Business Journal, WKMG (Florida)