Written by Michelle Kretzer
Following a meeting with PETA just weeks ago, Canadian Sen. Mac Harb introduced historic legislation today to end Canada's seal slaughter, stating that the "end of the commercial sealing industry is now inevitable." Sen. Larry Campbell seconded the motion, and it received an overwhelmingly positive response from other senators who want to see it debated.
© Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Sen. Harb's bill comes on the heels of Russia's decision to ban seal-fur imports—a move that came after Pamela Anderson led an international appeal on PETA's behalf. Russia (which had been importing 95 percent of Canadian seal pelts), the U.S., E.U. countries, and many other nations have banned seal-product imports following years of intensive international campaigns by PETA and our affiliates.
Celebrities such as Pamela Anderson, Pink, Olivia Munn, Russell Simmons, Tommy Lee, Alicia Silverstone, Dave Navarro, Joanna Krupa, and many others have set the Twitterverse on fire by pushing PETA’s action alert calling on support for the historic bill.
We have an opportunity to end the barbaric annual bludgeoning and shooting of baby harp seals for good, and we cannot let it pass us by.
If you are Canadian, contact your senator.
Canadian-born Pamela Anderson got a warm reception when she met with a representative from Germany's Trade Ministry to deliver PETA's seal appeal. She asked him to encourage the European Commission and the World Trade Organization to dismiss Canada's challenge of Europe's ban on seal products.
Pam explained that most Canadians stand firmly with Germany and support the ban on seal products and the inevitable end of the seal slaughter.
"As the vast majority of Germans want the seal slaughter to end," her hand-delivered letter read, "including the more than 40,000 people in Germany who have urged Canada's prime minister to put a stop to it, I'm writing to ask that you please do all in your power to ensure that the E.U. ban on seal products remains in place."
Knowing Germany's progressive stance on the seal slaughter and the representative's positive visit with Pam, we're confident that the Trade Ministry will do exactly that.
Written by PETA
Fur-free party animals gathered en masse at Stella McCartney's West Hollywood boutique on Friday for the release of Sir Paul McCartney's music video for "My Valentine," starring Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp.
Woody Harrelson undoubtedly enjoyed the vegetarian food, while Joan Jett rocked vegan boots, as did Gwyneth Paltrow, who has shunned fur for PETA.
Photo: Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic
PETA Vice President Dan Mathews and Honorary PETA Director Pamela Anderson made quite the striking pair, as always. They were greeted by Stella, who playfully scolded Pam, "How dare you wear clothes in my shop!" (Pam famously posed nude in the designer's London store window beneath a banner reading, "I'd rather bare skin than wear skin," to draw attention to Stella's fur- and leather-free fashions.)
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Dan and Pam thanked Gwen Stefani for keeping fur out of her fashion lines and were invited by Jane Fonda to sit at her table to discuss activism. The hot topic with Sir Paul was this year's Canadian seal slaughter—or what's left of it following sealskin bans by the U.S., the E.U., and Russia. Both Pam and Paul have helped lead this campaign for more than a decade, and their work is finally paying off. We can't think of a better "Valentine" for Sir Paul than to have thousands of baby seals' lives spared.
It's time for the Canadian government to face it: The seal slaughter is dead in the water. As Grammy Award–winning Canadian icon Sarah McLachlan wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the logical next step is for Canada to buy out the sealers rather than continuing to waste millions of dollars fighting seal-product bans.
It seems that the only reason the Canadian government is still supporting the slaughter is that both parties desperately want control of the parliamentary swing seats in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the slaughter takes place. Sarah encouraged the prime minister to lead the way in ending the massacre:
The sealers—like tobacco farmers and asbestos miners—need leaders to devise a practical exit strategy for them, not waste millions more in hopeless World Trade Organization challenges or paying to stockpile pelts when buyers already have seal pelts going back several years. Won't you lead the way?
Sarah, who penned the letter on behalf of PETA, has publicly criticized the seal slaughter for years, as have world leaders such as President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, globally known celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney and Martin Sheen, and even Canadian politicians such as Sen. Mac Harb.
During PETA's intense campaign against the seal slaughter, the U.S., the E.U., and now Russia, which had been importing 95 percent of Canada's seal fur, have all banned seal products. The time has come for Canada to accept the inevitable and end the slaughter.
Tweet Prime Minister Stephen Harper and ask him to give sealers an exit strategy that they—and seals—can live with.
Today, Canada is allowing sealers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to stalk baby seals across the ice, smash their heads in with clubs, ram hooks into their eyes or mouths, and drag them back to the boats, despite the fact that there's no market for the seal fur. They will also rip the skin off the seals' bodies while some of the animals are still alive. But you can help stop it—and it can be as simple as taking to Twitter.
(c) Sea Shepard Conservation Society
The market for Canada's seal pelts continues its downward spiral as more and more nations, including the U.S., countries in the E.U., and most recently Russia—which had imported 95 percent of Canadian seal pelts—ban seal products. Even some of Canada's own members of Parliament are publicly questioning whether the annual massacre should continue. Tell them "No" emphatically by choosing one (or more) of the messages below to tweet to all your friends and followers, asking them to help spread the word as well:
And while you're at it, send a polite tweet to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (@pmharper) urging him to call off the slaughter immediately!
Written by Jeff Mackey
Here's some good (but still sad!) news from one front in the fight to stop the annual Canadian seal massacre: Only eight grey seals were killed in Nova Scotia this year. That's down from nearly 1,500 in 2008, which (if my calculator skills don't fail me) means that this year's killings were just over half of 1 percent of the number of animals who died there just four years ago.
Of course, grey seals aren't the only ones bludgeoned in the yearly massacre—the larger commercial harp-seal slaughter is expected to start soon. And even though the market is dead now that Russia—which had imported 95 percent of Canadian seal pelts—has joined the U.S. and the E.U. in banning seal fur, Canada's Fisheries Department has set the annual harp seal quota at 400,000 (the same as last year), amid reports that the government is considering buying and stockpiling pelts in the hope of breaking into new markets.
So this is no time to rest. PETA's international year-round vigorous campaigning will continue—we're keeping busy in a major market that Canada's still trying to lure: China. Although you may not be able to read Chinese, you can see from the photo of this popular Chinese TV star, Gao Yuanyuan, in PETA's seal shirt that we are going all out globally to stop this bloody trade. Please take action now to ensure that the slaughter ends.
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Megan Park, the star of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, has great fashion sense both on- and off-screen. So, of course, she never wears fur, as she makes crystal clear in a new anti-fur ad for PETA.
Before she was an American teenager, Megan was growing up in Canada and was appalled by the Canadian seal slaughter. With her beau, musician Tyler Hilton, by her side, she chose to reveal her stunning new ad in her native country so that she could encourage fans on both sides of the border to keep fur where it belongs—on animals.
"These animals are skinned alive and kept in small little cages. It's just awful, awful treatment, and there's no reason for it," she says.
Megan and an adorable rescued pup named Tyson remind people that Chinese fur farms often sell dog and cat fur labeled as something else, so if you buy fur, there's no way to know whose skin you're really wearing.
Click here to see the behind-the-scenes video from Megan's photo shoot and join her in getting the secret out: If you wouldn't wear your dog, you shouldn't wear any fur.
Tired of going through racks of Halloween costumes and seeing the same old hockey masks and sexy nurse uniforms? Here are six scary DIY costumes guaranteed to make the most fearless revelers do a double-take—and then think twice about eating meat, wearing fur, or going to the circus.
Steal an idea from PETA Vice President Dan Mathews and go as KFC's purveyor of live-chicken scalding, Colonel Sanders.
Instantly transform into bunny butcher Donna Karan by carrying some plush rabbits drenched in red paint. To complete the ensemble, lie all night about how you don't really use fur even while you're holding the evidence.
Clowns are scary to a lot of people, and Ronald McDonald is one of the scariest of all. Follow in Andy Dick's footsteps and wave around a bloody knife as you illustrate how a chicken becomes a McNugget. (Hint: It's a lot more cruel than it has to be because McDonald's refuses to implement a less cruel slaughter method for chickens.)
If you want the theme to your outfit to be "cold as ice," be a Canadian seal clubber. A plush seal, a club, and a red-stained shirt will have anyone with a heartbeat running and screaming for points south of the Great White North.
If splashy is more your style, don a top hat and tails or a tight Lycra jumpsuit and you can be a Ringling Bros. animal trainer abuser. It works best if accessorized with a bullhook and paired with a partner dressed as a helpless baby elephant.
For women who want to show that fur is a bad asset, pair a Sasquatch suit with two strategically placed pillows and a diva attitude to become Jennifer Lopez. Be sure to brag about how you burn through animals like you burn through husbands.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Update: The Blenheim District Court has sentenced Jason Godsiff to two years in jail for beating seals to death, including some animals who were just a few days old. Jamaal Large, who denies the charges, has not yet been tried.
Originally posted July 20, 2011
A New Zealand teenager has pleaded guilty to beating 23 seals to death with a metal pipe. Jason Godsiff said he killed the seals, including newborn pups, because he considered them "pests." Another man, Jamaal Large, has also been charged in the deaths, but has not submitted his plea. If convicted, both men face heavy fines and jail time for killing protected animals.
As appalling as their actions are, even more disturbing is the fact that had these men been in Canada, they would not face any charges. In fact, they would have been encouraged. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper can't seem to understand what people in New Zealand and all over the world already know: Bludgeoning seals to death is wrong. Despite international outcry and bans on seal products, the Canadian government continues to spend millions of dollars a year to fund their barbaric seal slaughter.
You can help by e-mailing Stephen Harper and letting him know that seals deserve protection everywhere that they are abused.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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