Written by Michelle Kretzer
Sen. Mac Harb of Ontario is Canada's first-ever elected official to introduce a bill to end the commercial seal slaughter, and now he is Canada's first-ever elected official to receive a PETA award! Sen. Harb graciously accepted his Humanitarian Award at a ceremony Saturday in New York.
Photo: Kurt Leggard
He also wrote about the award and his bill on The Huffington Post, saying:
Animal advocacy groups such as PETA have played an important role in moving us into the future. When I introduced my bill, PETA rounded up support from prominent Canadians as diverse as Sarah McLachlan and Pamela Anderson and from international figures, including Pink, Bill Maher, and Ellen DeGeneres, all of whom—along with their throngs of fans in Canada and around the world—contacted Canadian senators urging them to support the bill and end the slaughter. As a result of overwhelming support, my bill was seconded, and the Senate recently unanimously consented to continuing this debate in the coming months. This is historic, and every single person who has taken action has made a difference.
This is the closest that we have ever come to ending the barbaric bludgeoning, shooting, and skinning of baby seals for their fur.
© Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Help make Sen. Harb's bill law. E-mail Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Bob Rae, and New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair and ask for their support for Bill S-210.
Written by Jeff Mackey
As PETA pal Bill Maher prepares to perform in Alberta and British Columbia, he's proved that he's a stand-up guy in a different sense by sending a letter to Bob Rae, leader of Canada's Liberal Party, urging him to support Sen. Mac Harb's bill to end the commercial seal slaughter.
Photo courtesy of Bill Maher
Bill joins celebrities, including Pamela Anderson, Pink, Olivia Munn, Russell Simmons, Tommy Lee, Alicia Silverstone, Dave Navarro, Joanna Krupa, Megan Park, and many others, who have voiced their support for the momentous bill and encouraged their fans to do the same.
Bill has been a vocal opponent of the annual seal massacre, and his letter comes just weeks after the Senate agreed to continue the debate. Many appeals have already been made to the conservatives, who hold a majority, so Bill chose to address the Liberal Party, mentioning that he hadn't expected much from the conservatives but that he "had hoped for more" from the liberals.
Be like Bill—compassionate Canadians can contact their senators directly, but no matter where you're from, please urge Canada's leaders to support Sen. Harb's bill today.
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.
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.
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 PETA
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.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Canada's barbaric seal slaughter continues its downward spiral—and it appears to be taking Canada's integrity with it.
Last week, the European Union (E.U.) rejected an attempt by the native Canadian Inuit to challenge the E.U.'s ban on seal products. Interestingly, the Inuit live far away from the area where the mass commercial slaughter takes place and are responsible for only about 3 percent of Canada's annual seal kill. In addition, the E.U. already exempts Inuit seal products from the ban.
So why would the Inuit fight a ban that doesn't even apply to them? We're not saying that Canada is desperately exploiting native peoples to try to keep the dying seal slaughter going, but if a Marion Barry–esque tape surfaces of a shady hotel room dealing, we won't be surprised.
In the meantime, you can tweet Stephen Harper (@pmharper) and tell him to stop allowing hunters to bash in baby seals' skulls and skin them alive.
Seal Enemy Number One, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was seeing double (or rather, quadruple) at a dinner marking the anniversary of his fifth year in office. More than a dozen PETA members, including some wearing masks of Harper spewing blood, joined Sammy the Seal in braving minus-32 temperatures to swarm the Ottawa Hampton Inn, where the dinner took place.
Five years of turning a blind eye to the largest marine-mammal massacre on the planet doesn't really seem like anything to celebrate, does it?
Just when the Canadian government thought it had figured out a way to put the money-losing seal slaughter in the black by selling seal meat to China …
Hmmm … if China doesn't want the spoils of the world's largest marine-mammal massacre, what's Canada to do? How about, um, don't club seals? Just an idea …Written by Michelle Sherrow
The European Union's historic ban on the sale of seal products was set to take effect tomorrow. This ban was poised to end the sale of all fur torn from the bodies of seals who are killed during Canada's commercial seal slaughter. But in the 11th hour the ban was suspended by the European General Court, which was responding to a challenge launched by an Inuit group (The court decided to intervene even though the ban provides exemptions for some of the products that come from traditional Inuit hunts).
Of course, these twists and turns are expected in legal wrangling involving governments—especially the shady ones who are trying to market seal heart valves—but we're confident it'll be upheld in the end.
It's times like these that I like to turn to PETA Senior V.P. Dan Mathews, who said this about the decision:
The European General Court may wish to look more closely at the ban, but the court of public opinion around the world has spoken: The seal slaughter is uniquely cruel, and no market wants the pelts. At the end of the day, this is a consumer issue, and seal skin has a worse public stigma than herpes.
Written by Shawna Flavell
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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