PETA boycotts Canadian syrup, over seal harvests

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is taking its campaign against Canadian seal harvesting to America, urging consumers to boycott Canadian-made maple syrup.

Three PETA activists - one dressed as a baby seal - campaigned outside the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, smashing a likeness of a maple syrup bottle until it squirted red "blood" - it was really theatrical makeup - onto the sidewalk.

Passersby didn't need much coaxing, though. Nineteen-year-old Anna Macijeski, of Northfield, said she never buys Canadian maple syrup anyway.

Simon Trepanier, a spokesman for the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, says he doesn't understand what seals have to do with maple syrup. He says maple syrup makers are working with nature, not against it.