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
PETA U.K. is lambasting the judge who let convicted thief Jack Taylor out of serving jail time so that he would be free to kill baby seals and sheep.
Taylor admitted to stealing a motorcycle because he thought there were drugs under the bike's saddle. But instead of throwing the self-confessed burglar into the slammer to ponder his crime, the judge sentenced Taylor to a mere 100 hours of community service so that he could return to his two jobs: slaughtering sheep in Norway and traveling to North America seasonally to beat baby seals to death.
PETA U.K. blasted the sentence, saying, "Imagining that criminals might reform their deviant, anti-social behaviour by bludgeoning baby seals to death is not only delusional but also downright dangerous."
It is not surprising that a career animal abuser appears to be headed for a life of crime. What is surprising is that the judge apparently ignored the fact that there is a strong link between violence against animals and violence against people and that Taylor's crimes could very well escalate. Only by taking cruelty to animals seriously—reporting it when it is illegal and protesting it when it isn't—can we hope to quell the incidence of crimes against people.
It sounds like the plot of a Disney movie, but this video of a pig and dog who are best buds would warm even Walt's cryogenically frozen heart.
"Don't mind me." After committing the most adorable case of breaking and entering ever, a baby seal curled up on a New Zealand woman's couch for a nap.
Can you do a good "fish face"? These people are spot-on. … Or are the fish doing a spot-on "human face"?
Would you like an awkward conversation about the facts of life with that? A 7-year-old girl and her mother allegedly discovered a condom in the child's McDonald's Happy Meal.
Talk about a return on your investment: Eight years after she went missing, a dog is going home to her family, thanks to a tiny, inexpensive microchip.
And a chicken named Liberty, dubbed Britain's "last battery hen" is headed home too. She will enjoy retirement on a farm with other hens who were formerly confined to battery cages as the U.K.'s ban on the cruel confinement system goes into effect for the new year.
Written by PETA
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.
In just three months, 180 sea lions and seals off the coast of Canada have lost their lives because they had the audacity to eat fish that farmers wanted to kill themselves. Many were shot by Canadian fish farmers, who are allowed to shoot animals who try to scoop a fish or two out of massive ocean-based aquafarms. The rest died from drowning when they became entangled in the aquafarms' nets. We don't even have a guess as to how many birds were killed for daring to try to take a fish.
sly06 | cc by 2.0
The human taste for fish has exhausted the oceans to the point that 90 percent of large fish populations have been exterminated in the past 50 years. Fish farms only exacerbate the problem because it takes several pounds of wild-caught fish (used for feed) to produce 1 pound of farmed fish. Fewer fish in the ocean means fewer fish for seals and sea lions to eat, so is it any wonder that they are attracted to fish farm "all-you-can-eat buffets"?
Our neighbors to the north aren't the only ones who want to keep all the fish for themselves. A bill in Congress would allow the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to shoot any sea lion caught eating endangered salmon from the Columbia River. Ironically, humans, who are the ones responsible for dwindling salmon numbers, can continue to eat all the salmon they want.
The real solution to the depletion of salmon stocks is considerably less violent: Stop eating fish. And ask your representatives not to support any legislation that promotes killing sea lions.
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.
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.
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.
I've seen a lot of vile sights in my days, but few were as dark and twisted as the beating of helpless baby seals for their fur ... If Norway has nothing to hide, there should be no problem with making this process public. —Iggy Pop
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.
Levi Leipheimer is making his country proud in the Tour de France, holding off more than 140 other competitors. Not surprising, since he already has 40 other victories under his pedals.
Levi's a champ for animals, too, boasting two PETA ads and his own animal foundation. And opponents beware: He's a vegetarian.
We're pulling for you, Levi!
The Hawaiian word "aloha" means:
If you answered "F," you're correct—and this week the Aloha State welcomed a new law that embodies peace, mercy, love, and affection for seals. Now anyone who intentionally harasses, harms, or kills a Hawaiian monk seal—or any endangered or threatened Hawaiian species—can be charged with a class C felony and face a fine of up to $50,000 and five years in prison.
So, in Hawaii the sight of a seal waddling up the beach draws volunteers to make sure that beachgoers leave the animal in peace. In Canada, the sight of seals lying on ice floes draws hunters to bash their heads in. I'm pretty sure that this is a no-brainer, but I still have to ask: Which destination would you rather visit?
Written by Karin Bennett
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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