An American businesswoman is offering what she calls a $5,000 ‘bounty’ for film footage or photographs ‘depicting the cruelty of the 2007 Canadian seal hunt.’ The footage is to be used in advocacy campaigns.

Cathy Kangas, founder and CEO of PRAI Beauty, made her announcement Tuesday in a news release claiming that the government banned journalists and observers from this year’s hunt.

‘What is the government hiding from the Canadian people as well as the rest of the world?’ Kangas asked in the release. ‘Why were legitimate news organizations banned from observing the hunt?’

But the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the media was kept back only on one day in late March, mostly due to dangerous ice conditions. The hunt continues well into May.

‘The contention that we did not allow observers for the entire seal hunt, which is what most people would assume from that news release, is inaccurate,’ says spokesperson Phil Jenkins. ‘There already is footage available on the websites of the usual people who observe the seal hunt every year.’

Indeed, the Humane Society of the United States (www.hsus.org) features video images on its website under the heading ‘Canada’s Cruel 2007 Seal Hunt.’

Kangas was not available for an interview Tuesday, the day her provocative offer was made public. Last year she made similar news by publicly offering the Canadian government $16 million to shut down the hunt. Her publicity contact, Mary Francis Duffy, says she got her information on the media ban from the Humane Society of the United States.

Kangas’ announcement stipulates that any identifiable person in the footage or photographs must sign a release allowing their image to be used in media awareness campaigns. That would alleviate any ethical problem in providing the footage, says Andrea Nemtin, a member of the Documentary Organisation of Canada board and president of PTV Productions.

‘You can’t film someone and say this is for a Disney movie and then put it on 60 Minutes,’ she notes.

Otherwise, Nemtin said she’d have no qualms supplying such footage. As for the $5,000 fee, she says ‘archival fees are always on a case-by-case basis.’