When Russia banned the import of all harp-seal products from Canada, it wasn't because lawmakers thought that they would get flowers from Pamela Anderson if they did so. But that's certainly not a bad perk.

© Taylor Hill

Pamela found herself in a new role as diplomat this week when she joined PETA Vice President Dan Mathews at the Russian Consulate in New York City, where they met with trade officials to bolster Russia's ban on seal fur from Pamela's native Canada.

"We are very proud that our country joined the U.S., the European Union, and Mexico in refusing to support the shooting and bludgeoning of baby harp seals," said Russia's Deputy Trade Representative Timofey S. Borodin, who along with Senior Consul Sergey Logachev, accepted a bouquet of pink roses from Pamela as thanks for their country's legislation.

© Taylor Hill

Pamela had led an international appeal on PETA's behalf to urge the country to stop supporting the barbaric killing of seals in her native Canada, and it took just one year for Russia to pass the ban. And since Russia had been importing 95 percent of the seal pelts that Canada sold, well, it isn't hard to see what that did to the market for seal fur.

The slaughter suffered another blow when Canadian Sen. Mac Harb introduced legislation to end it. You can help seals by e-mailing Canadian lawmakers and asking them to support this momentous bill.

Ever since punk provocateur rock band Pussy Riot was jailed in Russia after holding a cheeky performance art–style protest at a cathedral five months ago, vegan member Maria Alekhina has struggled to keep herself nourished on the minimal vegan options available, even collapsing from hunger in court earlier this month.

Photo: Dave Meyers

Actor and vegan nutrition advocate Alicia Silverstone has jumped to her aid, penning a letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on PETA's behalf:

As musicians such as Madonna, Franz Ferdinand, and Peaches call for the rockers to be freed, hopefully the government will at least agree to free them from having to choose between eating animals and going hungry.

It's not over yet, but Iggy Pop, Perez Hilton, Kelly Osbourne, Pamela Anderson, Sarah McLachlan, Diane Warren, and all the people who have spoken out, worn the PETA shirts, and appeared in our ads in the last year have brought us closer to the end of the Canadian seal slaughter. Just weeks before the annual slaughter is set to resume, Ryan Cleary, a member of the Canadian Parliament who represents one of the regions in which the seal slaughter takes place, has acknowledged that the tremendous outcry against beating and shooting baby seals has him questioning the future of the bloody massacre. Says Mr. Cleary: "Part of our history is also whaling, for example, and the day came when the whaling industry stopped. Now, is that day coming with the seal hunt? It just may be."

© Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Cleary's statement comes just weeks after Russia announced that it was taking steps to ban the import of Canadian harp-seal fur, a move that came after Pamela Anderson led an international appeal on PETA's behalf.

Polls have consistently shown that most Canadians oppose the seal slaughter, and as Cleary noted, the industry is an increasing liability for Canada that the country is having more and more difficulty defending.

What You Can Do to Help Stop the Seal Slaughter

Please click here to tell Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that yes, the time has come to send the seal slaughter the way of whale slaughter and ban it before the next massacre commences this spring.

In a crushing blow to Canada's annual seal slaughter, Russia, formerly Canada's top commercial market for seal fur, has banned the import of all harp-seal products.

After Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ended his country's seal slaughter in 2009, calling it a "bloody industry that should have been banned long ago," Pamela Anderson led an international appeal on PETA's behalf asking him to ban imports of seal pelts from her native country too. Now Russia, as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan, is joining the U.S., the European Union, and Mexico in refusing to support the shooting and bludgeoning of baby harp seals. 

Will this be the death knell for the seal slaughter? The Canadian government is feverishly trying to overturn the ban, so please tell Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to quit postponing the inevitable and end the killing now before the massacre resumes in the spring.

All animal abuse is despicable, but some abuses are so outrageously dumb and mind-blowingly cruel that I can only guess that they were thought up by drunk, heartless buffoons trying to "out-cruel" each other in a bar bet. Case in point:

"Entrepreneurs" in Southern Russia could face two years in jail for animal abuse after allegedly forcing a donkey to parasail over the Sea of Azov. Horrified beachgoers reported that the terrified donkey screamed nonstop—the animal was so high in the air that crying children asked why a "doggie" was tied to a parachute. But as a police spokesperson noted, "No one had the brains to call police."

The donkey's terrifying ordeal didn't end there: After crash-landing in the water, she was dragged behind a boat for several meters before she was finally pulled out of the water, barely alive.

Police are investigating the incident, which has made headlines all over the world and prompted an international outcry. Please make sure that officials at the Russian Embassy hear from you too.

Written by Karin Bennett

Well, you gotta give the guy points for trying. Courageous Canadian Senator Mac Harb introduced a bill on Tuesday to ban Canada's annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals, but he failed to find even one other senator with a backbone (or heartbeat) to support it. Despite the fact that most Canadians—and everyone else on the planet—think that the baby seal massacre is as revolting and indefensible as, well, clubbing a baby human and stealing his or her candy, Canadian government officials, who apparently live in sound-proof igloos, inexplicably continue to defend it.

Senator Harb's bill marks the first—but hopefully not the last—time that a Canadian politician has proposed banning the seal slaughter. It was inspired by a pending EU ban on the importation and sale of most seal products. Even Russia—Russia, people!—is poised to ban its own seal hunt, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has described as "such a bloody hunt, and it is clear that it should have been banned a long time ago." Yes, Vladimir "Tiger Tamer" Putin. That Putin.

Canada, when Russia starts making you look like a big, blustering bully, you know you've got an image problem.

Written by Alisa Mullins

Man, PETA Europe gets around. It seems like every day I’m seeing clips of their demonstrations in some far away land. Check out this coverage of a Burberry protest they held yesterday in Moscow. Admittedly, the article would be much more entertaining and informative if I could read Russian, but I still love it because it’s just so cool to sit here in Virginia and think about all the things people are doing to help animals all over the world. Animal rights has truly gone global, and that, friends, is exciting . . . innit?

Pamela Anderson is truly amazing. Seriously, could the woman do any more for animals? This time, she got wind of KFC’s plans to expand in Russia, and jumped at the chance to write the president of KFC’s partner company there, urging him to use his influence to convince the company to protect the 850,000 chickens it kills from the worst abuses they suffer.

And of course, the Russian press was all over the story.

Here’s a copy of Pam’s letter, and I’ll let you know if we get a response.

Mariah Carey

If you have ever had the experience of losing a $7,500 coat that Mariah Carey gave you, you will sympathize with how difficult this past week has been for us. As with so many things these days, the whole chain of events was started off by a wealthy Russian oligarch. A big fan of Mariah's work, he sent her a pair of ludicrously expensive fur coats in a misguided attempt to impress her. Mariah, understandably peeved about receiving dead animals in the mail from some sketchy Russian tycoon, immediately donated the coats to us.

So we did what any sensible person would do and shipped them off to, respectively, Los Angeles and Mongolia. The Los Angeles coat got there OK, and graffiti artist Marcus Suarez is going to be painting anti-fur slogans on the back of that coat so we can use it in protests. But the other coat—which was going to be given to homeless refugees along with hundreds of other cast-off furs—was lost by the brilliant folks over at UPS somewhere between here and Mongolia. Anyway, the happy ending is that UPS is giving us $7,500 for the coat, so Mariah's generosity won't be wasted, and we've got some devious-ass plans for ways to use the money to remind people (both Russian plutocrats and the general public) that fur is dead. So, yeah. Anyway, I thought that was pretty interesting.

Related Links