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Prince Rupert SPCA cancels crab boil after public outcry
Critics cite painful crab deaths, call for donations instead
David Carrigg, The Province
Published: Friday, August 18, 2006
The SPCA has called off a crab boil to raise money after encountering overwhelming opposition.
"Some people were very vehement in their opposition," said SPCA spokeswoman Lorie Chortyk.
An animal-rights protester yesterday threatened to bomb the SPCA's Prince Rupert shelter, a day after the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society launched an international protest campaign.
The crab boil was scheduled for Aug. 27 at Mariner's Park in Prince Rupert. The Crabbers Association of Prince Rupert had offered live crabs, at $10 each, to be boiled alive and eaten.
Chortyk received so many protest e-mails that her computer crashed.
She said most of the e-mails reasonably expressed why people were opposed to boiling crustaceans alive. But some were "vitriolic and vicious."
Chortyk said she did some research on crustaceans and whether they felt pain.
"There was enough of a doubt that they didn't feel pain for us to ask the Prince Rupert volunteers not to hold the event," she said.
"Prince Rupert is a fishing community and they didn't intend to harm animals, but we needed to respect people's opinions."
Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said the SPCA initially told him that crabs don't have a central nervous system.
"But they do," said Watson, a vegan. "I think they became aware that it was somewhat hypocritical for the B.C. SPCA to raise money by inflicting cruelty on animals.
"If people are willing to accept they inflict pain on an animal to eat it that's fine, but it's not the role of the SPCA to promote that."
Watson said he has put out a call to supporters to donate money to the Prince Rupert shelter to make up for the $3,000 it had hoped to raise with the crab boil. RCMP are investigating the bomb threat.
dcarrigg@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2006
Your Vancouver Sun
SPCA cancels crab cookoff fundraiser after public outcry by animal lovers
Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, August 18, 2006
The Prince Rupert SPCA has decided that by cooking crabs to raise money, it might be cooking its goose with donors.
The agency decided to cancel its controversial fundraising event that involved boiling live crabs following a "public outcry," shelter manager Helen Doucette said Thursday.
"They are the people who keep us going, so we have to do what they want," she said.
Volunteers for the SPCA had planned to organize an Aug. 27 crab cookoff in Prince Rupert's Mariners' Park, whereby for $10 visitors could either eat their crab at the park or have it cooked to take home.
But the plan prompted protests from animal lovers who said it was wrong to hurt one kind of animal to help another.
"How incredibly bizarre," said Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson, who organized an e-mail petition against the event.
"Here we have an organization supposedly dedicated to preventing cruelty actually inflicting cruelty to an animal to raise money to supposedly prevent cruelty to animals."
Hearing that the event had been cancelled, Watson said he planned to make a donation to the SPCA equivalent to the money the crab boil would have brought in, to acknowledge his gratitude.
"Crabs do indeed feel pain and I hope this decision will make people more aware that we must respect all animals, not just the cute and cuddly ones," Watson said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006