PETA Uses Bluetooth to Send Students Ad Showing Seal Slaughter

Group to Launch Campaign at Three Kelowna Secondary Schools

For Immediate Release:
February 12, 2010

Contact:
Virginia Fort 757-622-7382

Kelowna, British Columbia -- The cell phones of students at three Kelowna secondary schools will light up today with a message from PETA. That's because PETA members, using Bluetooth technology, will transmit--from directly outside the schools--a 15-second public service announcement (PSA) that shows graphic footage from Canada's annual seal massacre. View the PSA here. The action marks the launch of the latest campaign in PETA's efforts to stop the universally condemned slaughter. Additional broadcasts will take place at high schools in other cities as well as at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. PETA--which tried unsuccessfully to have the PSA aired on prime time TV--wants the Vancouver Organizing Committee to use its clout to help stop the slaughter. The schedule for the broadcasts on Friday, February 12, is as follows:

Rutland Senior Secondary School, 705 Rutland Rd., 8–9 a.m.
Mount Boucherie Secondary School, 2751 Cameron Rd, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Kelowna Secondary School, 1079 Raymer Ave., 2:45–3:45 p.m.

"The seal slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation, and we're asking students and all Canadians to demand that it be stopped," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Canadians deserve to know what the government is doing in their name, and we're determined to get this potentially lifesaving message out--even if we have to broadcast it ourselves."

During the slaughter, tens of thousands of baby seals have their heads bashed in or are shot. The young seals are killed as their wailing mothers watch and mourn. The commercial seal slaughter is an off-season profit venture for the fishing industry--Inuit sealing accounts for only about 3 percent of the slaughter. The European Union and the U.S. have banned seal products, and world leaders as diverse as President Barack Obama, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and His Holiness The Dalai Lama have spoken out against the carnage.

Broadcast-quality video footage of the seal slaughter is available. For more information, please visit PETA's blog.