Friday, August 18, 2006

SPCA finds itself in hot, some say boiling water!

Ooops, from the good idea gone bad department. The Prince Rupert SPCA finds itself the topic of conversation with word that it's plan to have a crab boil has resulted in a boiling mad bit of opposition.

Spurred on by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society the backlash even went so far as to include a bomb threat and enough e mails to crash the computer mail system at the SPCA.

With that much opposition to the idea, the Crab boil has been called off.

First reported in the Vancouver Sun (sub required), the story has now crossed the rockies into Alberta.

Full details on the simmering dispute can be found below.

Protests cause cancellation of crab feast
Grande Prarie Herald Tribune
Friday, August 18, 2006

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C. (CP) - The Prince Rupert SPCA has called off a crab boil to raise money after encountering overwhelming opposition.

Spokeswoman Lorie Chortyk said some people were very vehement in their opposition to the feast.

An animal-rights protester on Thursday threatened to bomb the SPCA's Prince Rupert shelter.

A day earlier, 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.

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