SPCA crab feast led to bomb threat, says RCMP
Outrage has prompted society to do more research into crustaceans

Sarah Fox, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, August 19, 2006

PRINCE RUPERT I A call of protest over the Prince Rupert SPCA's fundraising crab feast prompted emotional complaints, a possible bomb threat and now a closer look at crustaceans by the society.

Prince Rupert RCMP said the crab cook-off triggered unexpected controversy that led to the SPCA receiving a number of complaints, as well as one phone call suggesting their facility would be blown up if the event were allowed to take place on Aug. 27.

The SPCA officially cancelled their fundraiser Thursday.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson said that he e-mailed his "international network of 18,000 people" asking them to e-mail and telephone both the local shelter and the B.C. SPCA headquarters in Vancouver to express their outrage that the society would choose to boil live crabs for a fundraising event.

Lorie Chortyk, spokeswoman for the B.C. SPCA, said it was due to this public protest that the Prince Rupert branch of the society decided to cancel the fundraiser.

"We were just inundated with protests from the public, real concerns about the event, so in the end our view was if the public felt that strongly, holding that fundraiser wouldn't be helpful for the Prince Rupert branch," she said.

"I mean they were getting people calling up, threatening to blow up their shelter and it just became a very emotional and almost dangerous situation, so we felt that really we needed to take this seriously."

Watson, who co-founded Greenpeace and who now works with the activist group Sea Shepherd Society based out of Washington State, says he played no role in the threats the SPCA received.

"I can't control what people do," he said.

Watson believes that crabs feel a tremendous amount of pain when they are thrown into a pot of boiling water to cook.

Chortyk, meanwhile, says the incident has caused the SPCA to consider new issues.

"We don't usually deal with crustaceans; it's not something that comes up. but certainly we have had people call up and say they don't like seeing live lobsters in their grocery store. We've actually been trying to do more and more of our own research trying to get some facts on the issue," Chortyk said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006