Group Urges Consumers to Buy American Maple Syrup in Hopes of Stopping the Canadian Seal Massacre

For Immediate Release:
May 26, 2009

Contact:
Jena Hunt 757-622-7382

Montpelier, Vt. -- PETA will launch an international boycott of Canadian maple syrup on Tuesday to protest Canada's annual seal massacre. On the steps of the Vermont State House (Vermont is America's top producer of maple syrup), a PETA member will whack a 6-foot bottle of gooey "maple syrup" with a hakapik (the weapon that sealers use to kill baby seals), releasing the bottle's blood-red contents. The bottle's label features a maple leaf dripping blood next to the tagline "Stop the Seal Slaughter." Other PETA members, including one in a seal costume, will hold signs that read, "Buy American: Boycott Canadian Maple Syrup."

When:   Tuesday, May 26, 12 noon

Where:  Steps of the Vermont State House, 115 State St., Montpelier

The boycott will include calls to consumers asking them not to purchase or use Canadian maple syrup and will feature similar demonstrations in the capitals of New York, Maine, and other leading maple syrup-producing states. Demonstrations will also be held in front of Canadian embassies around the world.

During the annual seal slaughter -- which will take the lives of more than 330,000 baby seals this year -- sealers shoot these gentle animals or bash their heads in. Baby seals are often skinned alive while their wailing mothers helplessly watch.

"Canada has ignored calls from around the world to stop the seal slaughter, but we're hoping that a plunge in maple syrup sales might get the government's attention," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "We want consumers to buy only American maple syrup because there's nothing 'sweet' about a country that condones the largest annual massacre of marine mammals on the planet."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.