|
End the Canadian Seal Hunt Presentation
with author Anthony Marr Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE)
Saturday, May 28, 5:00 – 7:00, Free Event at Healing Earth
Terminate-the-Seal-Hunt Campaign Tour West
Strategy and Tactics
Anthony Marr's 90-day Terminate-the-Seal-Hunt Campaign Tour West will be launched on May 13, 2005, Friday. (He is anti-superstition and a champion of the underdog, including the number 13.) His state-by-state itinerary is as follows: AB, SK, MB, MN, WI, IL, MO, AR, LA, TX, OK, NM, CO, UT, AZ, NV, CA, OR and WA.
He has almost single-handedly and without financial aid organized the tour up to this point, and has been successful in booking over 30 events for the first half of his 90-day itinerary from May 15 to August 15. But once on the road, he will need an anchor-person or two to continue developing the latter half of the tour to bring out its full potential, and some financial infusion to fill his gas tank
The major cities with events firmly set so far include Edmonton, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth,
Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, some with more than one event - 35 events in all to date. There are about 20 events still in the works, and Anthony would like to see a total of at least 60 events for the entire tour, in addition to the AR2005 National Conference in Los Angeles, July 7-11, in which. he will be a major speaker. California, especially, is a state with huge potential, that has yet to be even a quarter realized.
His strategy differs markedly from those currently being employed. He believes that just as the Canadian government needs more than
demonstrations and letter-writing, but an overwhelming economic boycott, to be brought to its knees, so do the seafood merchants need more than talks of cruelty and compassion to be brought onboard the boycott. He believes that the seafood merchants too, being by and large
profit-motivated, would respond most readily to economic impetus as well, both positive and negative. In other words, consumer favoritism for those merchants that join the boycott against Canadian seafood, and a consumer boycott against those merchants who do not. The carrot-and-stick approach, as it were.
Anthony tactics is as follows:
1. He will work with the AR groups of at least ten major cities to vigorously petition seafood consumers to boycott Canadian seafood. The
target is 5% of the population within 6 months. For a city of 1 million population, we will aim for 50,000 signatures. The petition period will
span July 1 through December 31, 2005. This is about the same as petitioning to kick start a referendum initiative. With due diligence, it
is achievable.
2. The signers will be urged to patronize only those seafood outlets that have joined the Canadian seafood boycott, and to shun those that have not.
3. While on tour, Anthony will hold meetings with the leading seafood outlets and restaurants of these cities to inform them of this fact, and
to have them each sign a declaration pledging to not stock, sell or serve Canadian seafood. After his departure, the hosting AR group(s) will
continue with this effort, untill all the significant seafood outlets have been contacted. It will be impressed upon these merchants that 50,000
potential customers (for a city of 1 million) will patronize them if they sign the declaration, or shun them if they don not. Anthony believes that
this is the most powerful motivation for them to join the boycott against Canada.
4. Carmen Crosland (age 14), President of Youth Against Animal Abuse (YAAA), will establish and display a webpage on her website
www.YAAAonline.org (pending) of all the seafood merchants that have signed the declaration. This database will likewise appear on Anthony's website www.HOPE-CARE.org.
5. Both www.HOPE-CARE.org and www.YAAAonline.org will provide E-petitions to aid this drive. Anthony will also help other groups to establish an E-petition page on their own websites.
6. Come the new year, Anthony and Carmen, together with all the AR groups participating in this project, will jointly present the consumer petitions and merchant declarations to the Canadian government, as well as to Canadian, American and world media.
7. Come the new year, Anthony will launch his Terminate-the-Seal-Hunt Campaign Tour East, with the same aim. If the petition targets are met, the ten cities (or more), each averaging, say, 1 million population, will have accumulated 500,000 signatures in total, and dozens of mechant declarations, each worth thousands of consumer signatures. If each consumer foregoes $50 of Canadian seafood a year, the economic loss to the Canadian seafood industry would be $25 million, exceeding the $15 million revenue from the seal hunt industry by $10 million.
The ten cities will serve only as a demonstration of the power of the boycott. If the Canadian government still does not succumb, we will
proceed with more cities. In a full scale assault involving, say, 100 cities of 1 million population each, there will be 5 million consumers
pledging to not purchase or consume Canadian seafood, causing an economic loss of $250 million to the Canadian economy. This will make the word "overwhelming" seem like the understatement of the century.
Anthony has tried hard with major anti-sealing groups for some financial assistance for this project. Many have shown interest, but none have been forth-coming with the first campaign dollar, so now he is appealing to grassroots support, in both volunteer and financial terms. Please contact him at Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org and/or phone 604-222-1169 or toll-free 1-866-822-1169. He is driving out on a near-empty gas tank, but he is committed to the project, and will start driving as of May 13, Friday.
The Chinese have a saying. "Let those with the effort come up with the effort, and those with the funds come out with the funds, and the project
shall be successful."
So let's get together and get it done!
Contact: Anthony Marr
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE) http://www.HOPE-CARE.org
Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE) http://www.Omni-Science.org
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
604-222-1169, toll free 1-866-822-1169
|
