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.

Thanks to Vancouver native and actor Emmanuelle Vaugier, the Canadian government's shady backroom financial support of the barbaric annual seal slaughter is being exposed. The Covert Affairs star visited PETA's L.A. office to narrate a new video exposé on the seal slaughter, and Entertainment Tonight Canada camera crews were there to document why Vaugier, like so many Canadians, including William Shatner and Sarah McLachlan, are disgusted by the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth.

Watch the Canadian ET Exclusive now.

In the soon-to-be-released video, Vaugier says that while the beating and skinning of baby seals "is obviously cruel," it's also a waste of money. "Canada spends more than C$7 million in taxpayer funds each year subsidizing this massacre. Millions more are spent propping up this dying industry ...."

Why should the Canadian government continue to waste millions on an industry that most Canadians abhor? Let the government know that you stand with the majority of the country and oppose the senseless killing of baby seals.  

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Iggy Pop had a few choice words for Norway's minister of foreign affairs before his performance in Bodø this week, expressing his disgust at the government's support of the Canadian seal slaughter.

A single company in Norway—which has received funding from the Norwegian government for years—buys a whopping 80 percent of Canada's seal pelts. Norway is also joining Canada in contesting the European Union's ban on seal product imports, and both countries want the hearings on the issue to be held behind closed doors.

Iggy Pop, along with Joan Jett, Sarah McLachlan, Pamela Anderson, and many others, has called for an end to Canada's seal slaughter, and you can too.

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow

As Norway and Canada prepare for a World Trade Organization hearing on their appeal of the European Union's ban on seal imports, rocker Joan Jett personally delivered an urgent letter on PETA's behalf to the Norwegian minister of foreign affairs calling on Norway to make the hearings and submissions public. Just one Norwegian company purchases 80 percent of the pelts from Canada's seal massacre, and this company has received funding from the Norwegian government for years.

After leading a protest, hand-delivering her letter, and giving interviews to a slew of reporters, Jett gave each protestor an autographed CD.

 
Jett joins Canadians Pamela Anderson and Sarah McLachlan in requesting that the hearing and submissions be made public. If you have a heart for seals, jet on over to CanadasShame.com to help stop the slaughter.
 

Written by Michelle Sherrow

 
In an effort to further delay the phase out of the commercial seal slaughter, Canada has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to hold a hearing about the ban on seal products by E.U. member countries. As usual, Canada is expected to argue that its annual massacre of baby seals (who are tortured by being hooked in the eye or mouth and dragged them across the ice, where they are then bludgeoned and skinned, sometimes while still alive), is "humane." And as usual, Canada will want to keep the hearings behind closed doors.

Canadian-born singer Sarah McLachlan, who sported PETA’s seal tee on Canada Day last year, penned a private letter to Canada's minister of international trade, Peter Van Loan, urging him to make the hearings open to the public and make the materials submitted to the WTO publicly available when filed. 
  

It could take several months for the WTO panel to issue a ruling, but there is no doubt the E.U. will hold firm to its right not to buy the skins of tortured seals. You can exercise your rights by sharing a pro-seal message with your friends on Facebook or posting it to your MySpace page. 

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Halifax native Sarah McLachlan, who is in Ottawa today to perform a concert in celebration of Canada Day, has wasted no time in letting her native land know how upset she is about the government's refusal to stop the annual seal slaughter. In an interview today with Canada's CTV News—during which she wore PETA's "Hug Me, Don't Club Me" tee—Sarah said, "The commercial sealing industry in Canada is perverse and sick. … They club these seals as early as 12 days old, and half the time they hook them and they drag them across the ice. … It's archaic, and it's horrible, and I want it to stop."

Check out all the other great things that she had to say:

Written by Shawna Flavell