TORONTO — Rod Stewart remains wrapped in controversy after slipping into a seal skin coat in Canada last week.
The 70-year-old British rocker posed for a photo on July 10 while wearing a seal skin coat inside Always in Vogue in St. John’s, NL.
The next day, the photo was posted on the store’s Facebook page — and quickly went viral.
In a province that largely embraces the annual hunt, some saw Stewart in seal skin as an endorsement.
“Thank you 4 supporting the NL Sealing Industry. U were made 4 seal,” tweeted Labrador MP Yvonne Jones.
MP Ryan Cleary tweeted: “Do you think Rod Stewart is sexy? Absolutely in his seal fur coat.”
Sheldon Peddle tweeted: “Thanks for not believing the lies about this sustainable industry Rod!”
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Many others, though, slammed Stewart.
“Really @RodStewart, are you so unaware/uncaring that you think wearing a sealskin coat is acceptable?,” read a tweet from Blue Planet Society.
“Have you lost your mind? You must know the horrors of what happens to that animal before its (sic) skinned,” Pamela Casselman opined on the singer’s Facebook page.
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“Lost my respect and I’m trashing your records,” wrote Roxanne Sutton.
Aria Spenser shared: “I used to listen to your music but now when I hear it, all I can picture is you standing over a baby seal smashing him in the head over and over so you can steal his coat.”
Stewart responded to the backlash with a tweet of his own on Tuesday.
“I am enraged to learn that an image of me has been misused for something I do not support,” he wrote.
A message on his Facebook page explained that the singer went to the store to pick out warm clothing for members of his band ahead of an evening concert at the Confederation Hill Music Festival.
“On their way out, the store clerk wanted to take a photo with Rod and asked if he would pose in one the store’s jackets and Rod obliged,” the statement read. “He was not being fitted for it as has been alleged and had no intention of buying it.”
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The statement claimed Stewart did not know what the jacket was made of.
“Rod has since been very upset to learn that the shop has been using this image as an advertisement for an industry that he does not know much about and certainly does not support.”
But few are buying Stewart’s seal spin.
“From everyone in Newfoundland, ‘Grow a set, and man up!’,” commented Kenny Richardson.
“Is Rod Stewart that naive that he didn’t even ask what the coat was made of?,” asked Teresa Caines Cox. “Come on even I would have asked that question.”
Always in Vogue owner Darren Halloran told CBC News that Stewart was well aware what kind of coat he was putting on. “Whether he knew the extent of what comes with putting on a sealskin jacket I don’t know,” he said. “But he knew what he was putting on.”
Anti-sealing activist Paul Watson also doubts Stewart was in the dark.
“It is a little hard to believe that a man who owns 21 fur coats would not recognize that a jacket he is trying on and being photographed in, is made of seal skin,” Watson wrote on Facebook.
“But whether or not he said he supported the seal slaughter when he was recently in Newfoundland is unimportant. What is important is that he now states that he does not support it.”
Still, some are supporting Stewart.
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