Stop a new grey seal cull!

Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau - Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Jim Kennedy - Owner, Louisbourg Seafoods
Lori Kennedy - Owner, Louisbourg Seafoods
Ashley Sprague - Manager of Seafood, Perennia

Subject:

Dear [Decision Maker]

Message: [Edit below]
I have learned that Canada's Agriculture and Agri-Food Department awarded the Membertou Development Corporation CAN$100,000 in the Food Waste Reduction Challenge. How ironic since their project will generate more food waste rather than reducing it. This project, a cull of grey seals and an attempt to develop a market for their carcasses, ignores the fact that the harp seal hunt is dying because there is almost no market for seal products. Membertou Fisheries Director Hubert Nicholas, the leader of this project, seems to think that he will be able to do what Carino and the sealers of Newfoundland and Quebec cannot: convince people to buy products obtained from marine mammals by brutally shooting and clubbing them to death. Mr. Nicholas thinks that he can somehow get people to eat grey seal flesh though nobody has made much headway in getting people to eat harp seal flesh. But beyond this, he plans to turn seal carcasses into food for pets, pigs, and cows (ignoring the fact that cows are herbivores). He and all companies that work with him should be aware of the liabilities that they incur by dealing in animal feed made from seals. Years ago, such feed made minks on farms ill. Is there any data on its effects on cats, dogs, pigs, and cows? Furthermore, if this product is exported to the United States (alone or mixed with feed made from other species) the parties involved will be violating several laws, including the Lacey Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the False Claims Act. Other countries around the world, including the members of the European Union, have banned seal product imports as well. I urge you to reconsider your promotion of and involvement with this project. It is just a dead end.

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