Canadian actor and activist Pamela Anderson told a group of people gathered outside Ontario's legislature on Friday that she's ashamed of seal hunting in her home country.
Cuddling a seal mascot, the 42-year-old former star of "Baywatch" said she wanted to save Canada from more embarrassment over the "barbaric massacre" of hunting seals.
"When I travel all over the world, the Canadian seal hunt is a huge issue that people talk to me about," she said. "Being Canadian, I feel I am hopefully a good voice here."
Gail Shea, minister of fisheries and oceans, described Anderson's remarks as disappointing. She suggested that Anderson visit sealers on the East Coast to learn about more about the hunt.
"Hollywood celebrities are not going to dictate policy in Canada because we make decisions that are based on science and consultation with Canadians," Shea told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview.
Anderson made the appearance outside Queen's Park to launch a new ad campaign against the annual seal hunt.
The ads, by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), feature celebrities wearing T-shirts saying "Save the Seals." They will appear in magazines and blogs over the next few weeks.
Celebrities taking part in the campaign include Sarah McLachlan, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Jayde Nicole, a playboy playmate and star of MTV's "The Hills," and singer Kelly Osborne, who currently appears on "Dancing With The Stars."
PETA says it is launching the ad campaign now instead of when the seal hunt begins in the spring in order to keep pressure on the federal government the whole year.
"I'm getting so angry about it because it's such an embarrassment to Canada," Anderson said earlier on Friday in an interview with Canada AM's Beverly Thomson.
"It's so barbaric and cruel and it can't continue," she said.
"For the government to say the seal hunt is something we want to support, it gives Canada a black eye all around the world," PETA Vice-President Dan Mathews told Thomson.
The European Union earlier this year proposed a ban on seal products.
People in Nunavut say a ban would be detrimental to their region, as some community leaders say the seal industry makes up 20 per cent of the local economy.
Sealers in the north say they use guns or harpoons and not hooked instruments to kill the seals, and say they can't understand why their industry is considered less humane than cattle farming.
With files from The Canadian Press
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