Video Available Through CBCT-TV; Photos Available From PETA 

For Immediate Release:
October 28, 2009

Contact:
Ashley Byrne 757-622-7382

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island -- A pair of PETA protesters--one dressed in a seal costume--were arrested for barging into and disrupting the Fisheries Council of Canada Fall Conference in Prince Edward Island today. Waving signs reading, "Canada's Shame: End the Seal Slaughter" and chanting, "Ban the hunt," the pair climbed on top of a table during a lunch meeting that was attended by government officials from across Canada. The protesters toppled glasses and bottles and halted the meeting for 20 minutes before police arrived and carried them out. The duo--Emily Lavender, 21, of Ottawa, and Emily McCoy, 37, of New York City--were taken to a local precinct and formally charged with trespassing. 

PETA protested the national conference because the Fisheries Department oversees the controversial annual East Coast seal slaughter. Before her arrest, Lavender said, "The seal massacre accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland's economy, yet it gives Canada a grisly image all around the world." World leaders--including Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and His Holiness The Dalai Lama--have condemned the slaughter, and seal skins have been banned by the European Union and the U.S.

The protest follows last week's launch in Toronto of a celebrity campaign targeting the slaughter. The campaign features several prominent Canadians, including Pamela Anderson, Sarah McLachlan, Jayde Nicole of The Hills, and Battlestar Gallactica stars Tricia Helfer and Grace Park.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.