The Pawz Cauze

“Marcelo’s online campaign against the commercial seal hunt is truly extraordinary, especially given his youth,” O’Regan said in an e-mail. “His tireless efforts are an inspiration to us all .?.?. helping us create a better world for both animals and people.”

His motivation
Marcelo’s decision to become an animal activist was sparked by Bradley Trevor Greive’s book “Priceless,” which discusses endangered species. Interested in an endangered sun bear kept in Australia’s Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Marcelo decided to raise money for the species.

The timing was right for Marcelo to enter a weekend gifted and talented program, with a focus on zoology, at Montclair State University. His first course, “Our Fascinating World,” opened his eyes to the plight of seals and bears, but he decided to zero in on seals.

Marcelo’s words tumble out as he explains how he first set up a team he called “Hope” through IFAW to raise money to curb seal hunts. By 2003, he had established his own Web site — mypointis.net — which was averaging 1,500 hits each month until he won the award Oct. 4. Since then, the Web site has had 11,000 hits. Initially, he sent a barrage of letters and petitions opposing the hunt to Canadian officials and the U.S. media.

He bristles when talking about hunters who chastise him online. “It’s all about vanity and profit,” says Marcelo. “Sometimes I get told, ‘Stop messing around with our jobs. What are you trying to do, make us go broke?’ The truth is that fishermen get less than 3 percent of their income from killing seals. They sell fur to coat companies. I’ve never seen a person wearing a seal coat, have you?” he asks. Come to think of it, I haven’t.

Home and school
Marcelo switches gears to talk about his own pets. “Lulu (the chihuahua) is buff,” he says. “She thinks she’s big. She loves to be held and loves to run. Patches is different. He doesn’t run. He likes to be scratched, but struggles if you pick him up,” as I observed when he picked up the wriggling Patches.

“He’s my Taco Bell dog and he snorts like a pig,” he says, laughing. His mom explains that in Costa Rica, where she and Marcelo were born, she paid only $60 for each purebred. “We’d probably pay over a thousand here,” she says as daughter Caroline, 10, whizzes by with a big smile and scampers off to meet a pal. (Dad Matthew Hoynowski, nursing a cold, made a polite appearance and retreated.)

Marcelo attends eighth-grade at Carl H. Kumpf Middle School, a block from home. He’s waiting to be accepted at Magnet High School in Scotch Plains, a facility for gifted and talented students. “After that, I want to go to Princeton or MIT,” he says. He is considering pursuing genetics or architecture.

I told the family that if Marcelo can’t get a full scholarship to a major university, then I’m Mary Queen of Scots. Marcelo launched into a fascinating story of the queen’s last days, starting with, “Did you know…” I didn’t, and decided not to use that smart aleck line ever again.

Marcelo’s “Walk for Seals” is planned for March 15, 2008, at Nomehegan Park in Cranford, pending approval — timed to coincide with the start of the annual seal hunt.