The federal government is taking a pass on an American businesswoman's offer to pay sealers not to kill any more harp seals.

Cathy Kangas, the founder and chief executive officer of Prai Beauty, has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper with an offer to raise $16 million to replace the money sealers earn from the hunt.

"I do care about protecting the seals, and I don't think it's right," said Kangas, whose Connecticut-based makeup company financially supports the Humane Society of the United States, the animal welfare organization that recruited pop superstar Paul McCartney to oppose the hunt.

Kangas is also a member of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

She said various groups opposed to the hunt could raise money to supplement sealers' incomes.

"I also think it's really not right for the fishermen. I believe that they're at the wrong end of this," she said. "[They're] being used as a pawn, and they're doing the dirty work. I think it's dehumanizing for them to have to go and do that."

Kangas said it's wrong to kill seals for their fur. In an interview with CBC, Kangas said she was not aware that seal meat is also eaten.

Steve Outhouse, communications director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the federal government will not be taking Kangas up on her offer.

"We're not interested," Outhouse told the St. John's Telegram.

"This is another example of someone with lots of money trying to tell people how to live their lives."

Outhouse said while $16 million would replace some sealers' incomes, it is far less than the overall value of the industry.

DFO has set a harp seal quota of 325,000 animals for each of the next three years, in line with quotas of the preceding three years.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has said the hunt is partially needed to maintain a balance in the marine ecology between seals and fish.

The hunt off the Front, on the northeast coast of Newfoundland, opens next week. Sealers have already completed a smaller hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.