Huile de phoques et Costco...

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Je mets mes sources ici, mais je ne les donnerai pas si facilement à gll...

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From: Sinikka Crosland <tracs@...>
Date: Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:30 pm
Subject: Retail giant Costco pulls seal oil capsules off shelves (CP) tracs7
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Retail giant Costco pulls seal oil capsules off shelves


Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said on its website that Costco decided to
remove 'the despicable product' on March 1.
Photograph by : Getty
Canadian Press
Published: Friday, March 31, 2006

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- Retail giant Costco has pulled seal oil capsules from its
stores across Canada, according to an animal rights group and the oil's
manufacturer.

Costco officials declined comment Thursday, but the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society said on its website that the big box retailer decided to remove "the
despicable product" on March 1.

"Costco has sent a message that they will not participate in the promotion of
products obtained through the world's largest slaughter of marine wildlife," the
society said.

The Barry Group of Corner Brook, N.L., the company that manufacturers the
capsules, confirmed the decision.

Dion Dakins, a Barry Group spokesman, said the company was disappointed with
Costco's decision.

"We just know Newfoundlanders support the seal hunt," he said. "It's unfortunate
that a product that has so many benefits health-wise is removed from sales at
Costco."

Seal oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which is said to be effective in
preventing heart disease, arthritis and diabetes.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said Richard F. Duffey, vice-president of
Costco's eastern U.S. and Canadian division, informed the group of the ban in an
e-mail it quoted in a release.

"Costco has made a decision today, March 1, at the highest levels of Costco
management, that it will no longer carry any seal-oil capsules in St. John's,
N.L., or any other Costco location in Canada," the e-mail said.

Capt. Paul Watson, a Sea Shepherd spokesman, was thrilled "the vile product" has
been banned by Costco.

"It is a product from an industry that has brought Canada nothing but shame and
disgrace," he said, adding the products are obtained through "ruthless and
cruelty and slaughter."



Canada's annual East Coast seal hunt began last weekend in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence with a quota of 91,000 animals. Another 234,000 can be taken in a
second hunt that begins in April off Newfoundland and Labrador.

Canadian Press 2006
---------------------
From: Deb Ozarko
Date: Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:49 pm
Subject: Costco Decides to Help the Seals with Urging From Sea Shepherd woofeywalkers
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Sea Shepherd News
News Releases

After discussions with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Costco has decided to
remove seal oil capsules from the shelves of all of their Canadian stores.

By removing this vile product, Costco has sent a message that they will not
participate in the promotion of products obtained through the worldâ€s largest
slaughter of marine wildlife: the annual Canadian seal hunt where more than
325,000 seal pups between the ages of 2 weeks to 3 months are killed each year.

Canada has spent millions of dollars searching for and creating new products and
markets for seals. Some of these products have been perverse and some have been
ridiculous. Most have been impractical and all have involved the inflicting of
incredible cruelty and death to hundreds of thousands of young seal pups every
year.

Canada has been desperate to justify the annual slaughter of seals ever since
1984 when the European Union banned whitecoat pelts on the grounds that the
product was obscene. A decade later, Canada revived the practice of viciously
clubbing seals with a newly improved, and according to the Canadian government,
“morally acceptable seal hunt.”

Canada announced that only adult seals would be killed. The trick was in
redefining what it means to be adult. By allowing the seal pups to grow for an
extra week or two until losing their white coat, the still defenseless baby
seals now dressed-out in a mottled coat could be slain “more acceptably.”

Turning a three-week old baby seal into an adult requires some suspension of
disbelief but Canadian bureaucrats apparently have no problem in convincing
themselves that the slaughter is now justified because only “adult” seals
are slain.

This disbelief is even more incredulous when they parrot the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans unsubstantiated and ridiculous claim that the slaughter of
the seals is “humane.” Sea Shepherd and other groups have filmed repeated
violations of regulations illustrating blatant abuse and cruelty.

To create markets, Canadian diplomats actually traveled to places like China to
convince them that baby seal penises, if severed and dried, could be powdered
and made into a tea that could cure impotence.

Not content with pushing voodoo snake oil remedies for Chinese erectile
"disfunctionates," Canada recommenced the marketing of sealskin coats to Russia
and Japan.

With seal products banned in the United States, the only product they could
develop for the Canadian market was Omega-3 seal oil capsules to sell as some
sort of health benefit. Still posing as snake oil salesmen, Canadian government
civil servants working as seal product promotional salesmen began pushing
Omega-3 as a cure for everything from warts to a remedy to prevent heart
attacks. They conveniently failed to inform consumers of the mercury content of
their product. And so, bottles of seal oil capsules began to be produced and
marketed.


Costco inadvertently provided some credibility to this product by stocking the
shelves of their Eastern Canadian outlets with Omega-3 baby seal oil capsules.
But, thanks to the efforts of Sea Shepherd volunteer Stephen Thompson of
Vancouver, they have removed this product and will not offer it again. He has
been tirelessly tracking and opposing the baby seal oil capsule market in
Canada.

With Costco, his efforts have paid off and as of March 1st, 2006, Costco cleared
their shelves in all of their Canadian stores of this product.

In an e-mail message to Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society Captain Paul Watson, Richard F. Duffy, the Vice President of Costco
Eastern U.S. and Canadian division wrote, “Costco has made a decision today,
March 1st, at the highest levels of Costco management, that it will no longer
carry any seal oil capsules in St. Johnâ€s, Newfoundland or any other Costco
location in Canada.”

On March 11th, Richard Duffy wrote another letter stating, “As requested by
Stephen Thompson I am enclosing a personally signed copy of my e-mail of March
1st, 2006, indicating that Costco has removed all seal oil capsules from its
Newfoundland warehouse and that Costco will no longer sell seal oil capsules in
any of its warehouses. I am confident that with this additional assurance from
Costco that you will be both pleased and satisfied.”

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is indeed pleased and satisfied.

Captain Paul Watson responded by saying, “I have been an executive member of
Costco for over fifteen years and Sea Shepherd has utilized Costco to supply our
ships on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. We are happy that we can
continue to do business with Costco and we are very happy that this despicable
and vile product has been removed from Costco shelves. It is a product from an
industry that has brought Canada nothing but shame and disgrace. Costco has made
a decision that will benefit the seals and that will ultimately benefit
Canada.”

An Alternative Solution

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has endeavored to create alternative
employment for sealers.

In 1995, Captain Paul Watson developed the idea of a cruelty-free non-lethal
form of sealing. This would have involved the collecting of the naturally-molted
hairs from whitecoated baby seals. These hairs, which are transparent and
hollow, have qualities similar to eiderdown. Sea Shepherd was able to convince a
German bedding and fabric company to market the hairs for the production of bed
comforters.

The Canadian government refused to issue permits for the development of this
alternative after sealers objected to the idea saying, “This is a faggoty
idea. Seals are meant to be clubbed not coddled.”

In 1995, when Captain Watson and Sea Shepherd Advisory Board member Martin Sheen
traveled to the Magdalen Islands to promote this alternative, they and their
crew were violently attacked by sealers. Captain Watson was severely beaten and
Martin Sheen had his life threatened. Reporters were beaten and had their
cameras broken. Canada responded with Minister of Fisheries Brian Tobin
declaring that he could understand the frustrations of the sealers.

Were they frustrated that Sea Shepherd was offering them jobs that did not
involve slaughter and cruelty? The answer, unfortunately, is yes.

As one Magdalen Island sealer said after the incident, “The seal hunt is about
more then making money. It is the one opportunity we have each year to get out
of the house and onto the ice with the guys, to drink some beers, and to club us
some seals. This is a tradition for us. Weâ€re not going to trade this
tradition for a f**king hair brush.”

Costco is one company that has publicly declared that they want no part of this
“tradition” and will not support it through the sale of products obtained
through ruthless cruelty and slaughter.

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

On 31-Mar-06, at 5:59 PM, Nadine Saunders wrote:

> http://www.cbc.ca/nl/story/nf_costco_williams_20060331.html
>
> Williams takes aim at Costco over seal oil fuss
> Last updated Mar 31 2006 07:13 PM NST
> CBC News
>
> Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams encouraged people in
> his province to consider boycotting Costco, in light of the big-box
> retailer's decision to stop carrying seal oil capsules.
>
> Costco no longer sells seal oil capsules at its store in St. John's,
> but company officials will not say when the product was removed from
> shelves or why.
>
>
> Danny Williams
>
> In a news release, the Sea Shepherd Society, a prominent opponent of
> the hunt, applauded Costco for heeding anti-sealing advocates.
>
> Costco officials would not agree to repeated interview requests
> from CBC News.
>
> Williams issued a statement late Friday afternoon saying he was
> "extremely disappointed" that Costco removed seal oil capsules from
> its lone store in St. John's.
>
> "I find it incredible that an international company of Costco's
> reputation would make such a serious decision without giving us the
> courtesy of hearing our views, or those of the industry," Williams
> said.
>
> "The premier encourages shoppers to seriously consider whether they
> will support a company that does not support Newfoundland and
> Labrador," a statement from Williams' office said.
>
>
> Bill Barry
>
> Fish processor Bill Barry, whose Barry Group of Companies produced the
> capsules sold to Costco, confirmed his company's products had been
> removed from shelves.
>
> Barry said if the company pulled the product because of pressure from
> animal rights groups, it should have first obtained more information.
>
> Barry blamed "propaganda, lies and distortion" for creating confusion
> in the marketplace.
>
> "I would only encourage these corporations that decide to take action
> against Canadian seafood or Canadian items in any way [to] really take
> time to get out and get the facts," said Barry.
>
> Complaints about Costco flooded open-line shows in St. John's Friday,
> with some customers saying they were ripping up their membership
> cards.
>
> Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said Friday he wants to meet
> with Costco management.
>
> Hearn, who represents the riding of St. John's South-Mount Pearl, said
> he understood why Newfoundlanders would be tempted to turn their backs
> on the company.
>
> "If it gets to the point where they say they say, 'Well, we don't
> care, we're going to stick with the Pamela Andersons,' well, there are
> other places to shop rather than Costco," Hearn said.
>
>
=========================


From: Deb Ozarko <deb.o@...>
Date: Sun Apr 2, 2006 12:07 am
Subject: Costco says decision to pull seal oil capsules from shelves not political woofeywalkers
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Ottawa Citizen
Canadian Press
Published: Saturday, April 01, 2006
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - Retail giant Costco says its decision to
remove seal oil capsules from store shelves wasn't meant as a protest
of the controversial East Coast seal hunt.

The company issued a release late Friday confirming it had removed
the capsules from its store in St. John's, but it denied any
connection to anti-sealing protests.

"The decision to place or pull a product from our shelves is never
based on politics," Costco spokesman Pierre Riel said in the release.
"Each product must stand on its own commercial merits."

Costco had declined comment a day earlier, leading animal rights
group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to claim victory and
prompting a strong rebuke from Newfoundland and Labrador Premier
Danny Williams.

Williams had urged Newfoundlanders to reconsider shopping at Costco
until the decision was reversed, and chastised the retailer for not
first meeting with the province or sealers.

Riel said in the release that the company planned to meet with the
province about the issue.

The Costco release only mentioned the store in St. John's, but
earlier reports have suggested the seal oil capsules were pulled
across Canada.

Seal oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are said to be
effective in preventing several health conditions including diabetes,
heart disease and arthritis.

Canada's East Coast seal hunt began last weekend in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence with a quota of 91,000 animals.

Another 234,000 seals can be taken in a second hunt that begins in
April off Newfoundland and Labrador.

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Ne donnes pas les sources d'Animals Canada mais tu peux en donner une des journeaux. Tu px lui dire que la nouvelle est parue dans les journaux locaux de la région de l'ouest du Canada mais que ces journaux ne sont pas sur internet. Tu px aussi lui donner celle de CBC mais si tu le veux seulement, car je ne sais pas s'il s'agit bien de lui.

[Animal 0]

ok Cé