Written by Alisa Mullins
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.
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.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
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.
Written by PETA
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.
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.
Norwegians and kind people everywhere have the opportunity to weigh in on this issue by submitting comments to the WTO panel deciding the case, and I hope that they will join me in demanding that the government not allow Norway to be a partner in the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on the planet ... For a country so compassionate that it would ban fur from fashion shows, supporting Canada's seal massacre just seems ridiculous.
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.
If heavy metal music doesn't conjure up visions of playful puppies and fluffy bunnies, maybe it should. These metalheads are proving that nothing rocks like being kind to animals:
Tragedy Seal, the socially conscious friend of Socially Awkward Penguin, has really gotten people's creative juices flowing. PETA supporters have been flocking … err … swimming(?) to our website to submit their own inspired Tragedy Seal slogans protesting Canada's annual slaughter, during which thousands of baby seals are bludgeoned or shot.
You can see the rest of the Tragedy Seal images and share them, "like" them, and tweet them at CanadasShame.com.
Celebrities took to Twitter yesterday to make a huge splash for seals. We asked compassionate celebrity supporters to tweet a message to their fans telling them that the Canadian commercial seal slaughter had begun and including a link to our "It's Time to End the Seal Slaughter" donation page. So many of them responded that our Twitter page looked like an A-list party.
Supporters who spoke up for seals who are bludgeoned and sometimes skinned alive for their fur include Ellen Degeneres, who also posted it on her blog, Pink, Sophia Bush, Daniella Monet, Jayde Nicole, Lea Michele, Vida Guerra, Alicia Silverstone, Dave Navarro, Stephanie Pratt, The Veronicas, Bill Maher, Ian Somerhalder, Diablo Cody, Sasha Grey, and, of course, Honorary PETA Director Pamela Anderson.
Get in on the action! Tweet this link to your Twitter followers: http://bit.ly/gNMLOJ. Or go to our donation page to help stop Canada's barbaric seal slaughter.
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.
A new viral e-leaflet is urging people to "avenge" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom the leaflet describes as "the prime focus of a global manhunt." We're sure that Mr. Assange has his share of woes, but hey, at least he isn't having his head bashed in. Canada's harp seals are, however, which lead us to launch a similar "infowar" on their behalf.
You can help save baby seals from being hooked, bludgeoned, and skinned alive just by re-posting PETA's new virtual seal slaughter leaflet. It's easy—just use this link to "leak" the image to your blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account. Julian Assange supporters: Feel free to join us in "kicking back" for Canada's seals.
In Canada, you can have your pie—you just can't throw it too. PETA supporter Emily McCoy is saying au revoir to Canada after a certain tofu cream pie left her hand and wound up in the face of Fisheries Minister Gail Shea. McCoy appeared in an Ontario courtroom yesterday to face charges of assault after she pushed the pie into Shea's face as part of a protest against Canada's annual seal slaughter. McCoy was spared jail time, but the judge sentenced her to two years of probation during which time she is banned from Canada, its embassies, and contact with all Canadian officials.
A New York resident, McCoy doesn't generally visit Canada all that often, although she is sorry that she won't be able to protest the seal slaughter on Canadian soil for the next two years. Hopefully, by the end of her probation, Canada's bloody seal massacre will be nothing but a sad memory, and she will be able to visit Canada as a tourist, not a protester.
If you would like to bring attention to the seal slaughter sans pastry, visit CanadasShame.com.
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