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U.S. Humane Society Calls Consumer Freedom Group "A Front for The Tobacco Industry" EXCLUSIVE |
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Written by D.L. McCracken
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Tuesday, 28 March 2006 |
As the annual seal hunt continues in the waters and ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, accusations began to surface in at least one Canadian national newspaper regarding assertions made by the U.S. Humane Society that the American boycott on Canadian seafood was working well and is seriously impacting this country's seafood export business.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, some 220,000 individuals and over 400 restaurant and seafood businesses have joined the Humane Society's 'ProtectSeals' campaign and have pledged to boycott Canadian seafood. The Society goes on to claim that the year-old boycott has been extremely successful explaining that the value of snow crab imports to the U.S. from Canada has decreased dramatically by up to 160 million dollars. But the "major effect" of the boycott does not stop at the U.S./Canadian border according to the Humane Society who claim that Canadian export of snow crab to the rest of the world has decreased by 19 million dollars.
A report by the CBC last week brought into question the credibility of the Humane Society's claim that 400 American establishments are refusing to sell Canadian seafood. The report quoted a U.S.-based "food industry lobby group" as calling the Society's claim "bogus". The Center for Consumer Freedon based in Washington DC says the Humane Society boycott is "phoney" and is fooling the public. The Center's research director David Martosko told reporters that his organization canvassed one third of the establishments listed on the Humane Society's webpage and a staggering 62 per cent were completely unaware that they were on a boycott list.
The Humane Society however is discounting the statements made by the food lobby group. HalifaxLive has obtained exclusive access to a statement from Humane Society spokesperson Kathleen Kessler who accuses The Center for Consumer Freedon of being in reality a "front group for the tobacco, alcohol, and hospitality industries". Kessler stated that the Center has in the past targeted such high profile groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the American Medical Association and Harvard School of Public Health.
Kessler added, "The Center for Consumer Freedom is not a center and it’s not for consumers or freedom. The CCF [Center for Consumer Freedom] has history of launching error-ridden and rhetoric-laden attacks against these organizations."
The Humane Society spokesperson also addressed the specific criticism by the CCF that most of the listed boycotting establishments were unaware of being on the Society's list. Kessler stated, "The boycott is now well known, and many companies have signed on, and some of these companies have not sold seafood products. We welcome their support, even if their announcement does not immediately affect demand for seafood." Kessler added, "We can state unequivocally that virtually all companies are at the least, boycotting Canadian snow crabs from Newfoundland."
Kessler called into question the accuracy of CCF's "methodology" calling their attempt to substantiate the boycott statistics as "flawed in multiple ways".
The U.S. Humane Society garnered the support of Sir Paul and Heather McCartney to bring to the world's attention what the Society refers to as "the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on the planet". Despite the protests, the seal hunt will continue as planned. |
