Carino CEO sells seal outside Bryan Adams concert

[Peter Emberley]

Singer has supported PETA and other animal rights causes

Seal processing company Carino took a unique approach to promoting the hunt outside the Bryan Adams concert in St. John's on Saturday night.

Adams, who played two shows at Mile One, has previously supported animal rights group PETA, and opposed the seal hunt.

Carino Processing Ltd. CEO Dion Dakins set up a van to sell pelts and other seal products near the stadium on Saturday. Carino is one of the largest seal processing companies in Newfoundland and Labrador, if not Canada.

"It's not a boycott of Bryan Adams or anything else — this is not about Bryan Adams, this is about an industry that's trying to survive," said Dakins.

"We have false information that's going around by parent organizations like PETA … that don't recognize how professional and how necessary our industry is, so we just wanted to offer some product to wanting consumers."

Dakins said he'd welcome an opportunity to discuss the controversial issue with people opposed to the seal hunt to explain the actual process and reasoning behind it.

"I know that PETA has used a lot of false information, I follow their campaigns. We have veterinary inspected protocols that show seals are hunted humanely," he said.

"There's big problems in our fishery, quota cuts, and seals are playing a big part into that. It's the highest [seal population] we've seen since we've been managing fisheries that we've had a seal population this high and we'd just like due respect to have conversations with these people."

Dakins said campaigns by groups like PETA have badly damaged the sealing industry, but the popularity of seal products this year has convinced him the industry still has a future.

It was early in the day when Dakins spoke to CBC News, but he said he had already sold more than he thought he would.

Adams told St. John's newspaper The Telegram he was against the deliberate killing of all animals, not just seals.

CBC NEWS