Red Lobster ne boycottera pas les poissons et fruits de mer

[Animal 0]

Orlando Business Journal

EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
From the May 20, 2005 print edition



No Canadian seafood boycott for Red Lobster
Humane Society protesting death of 320,000 baby seals

Bob Mervine
Staff Writer

ORLANDO -- Red Lobster officials plan to keep buying Canada's tasty snow
crabs, despite a Humane Society call for U.S. companies to boycott all
Canadian seafood in protest of the nation's government-sanctioned killing of
baby seals.

This year, the Canadian government allowed about 320,000 young seals to be
killed on March 29 to "ensure the health" of a booming seal population. That
prompted the 8.5 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 Canadian fishing industry exports an estimated $3 billion worth of
seafood to the United States each year. Red Lobster, the world's largest
casual seafood dining company with more than 670 restaurants in the United
States and Canada, buys some seafood from Canada, but declines to reveal how
much.

However, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, parent of the giant Red Lobster
seafood restaurant chain, has no plans to join the boycott. That's because
Darden doesn't want to damage long-term business relationships with Canadian
suppliers who have nothing to do with national policies regarding the annual
killing of baby seals to harvest their fur.

"It's not our issue," says Jim DeSimone, Darden spokesman. "We don't sell
seal products. But we are concerned about the harvesting practices, even
though we are not experts." For example, in a previous similar situation,
DeSimone says the company got involved to stop the sale of endangered turtle
meat, even though it sells no turtle products.

That's why, although Darden won't boycott Canadian seafood, the firm still
plans to address the country's baby seal harvesting policies with the
Canadian government. "We've set the stage for discussion with the right
people in Canada," says DeSimone, declining to elaborate on the level of
discussion or the timing of the talks.

The Humane Society takes issue with Darden's decision to sit out the
boycott. "We think Red Lobster is being pretty disingenuous," says John
Grandy, a senior vice president of the Humane Society.

"They want to have it both ways, and you can't do that," he says. "There's a
lot of interest about this issue with the American public -- we had 88,000
hits to our Web site the day we announced it."

The Humane Society has written letters to Darden, asking the company to
condemn the seal killings and support the boycott. Grandy says the society
has gotten no response.

But Darden's DeSimone says unequivicably, "We have no plans to join in a
boycott."

However, the Humane Society has found some businesses willing to go along.
The largest appears to be Whole Foods Market Inc., an Austin, Texas, chain
of grocery stores that emphasizes its organic and vegetarian food lines.
Whole Foods announced May 10 that it was suspending the purchase of seafood
products from Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island because of the baby seal
harvesting policy.
In addition, Legal Sea Foods Inc., a privately held Boston chain of 31
restaurants, says it's also joining the boycott. Vice President Bill Holler
told The Globe and Mail he put a snow crab promotion on hold, and he thinks
the baby seal harvesting practice is barbaric. Also supporting the boycott
are restaurants such as Tavern on the Green in New York City and other
seafood wholesalers such as Down East Seafood.
But Darden officials say a boycott is an overly broad approach to resolving
the issue. "Why punish 10,000 men and women who have no part in the seal
issue?" asks DeSimone. "We can't put those people in harm's way because of
the actions of those people in Newfoundland."

Ironically, DeSimone says Darden buys no snow crab from Newfoundland at
present, although it does buy the product from other parts of Canada.