Canada's shameful seal hunt continues - Pls send letter

[Guest guest]

Source: The Animals' Agenda

www.animalsagenda.org

 

Blood Flows on the Ice Floes

 

The image is gruesome: A harp seal struggling on the

ice, prone before the deadly blow of a hakapik that

shatters her skull and spills her blood. It's an image

that will be repeated 275,000 times off the east coast

of Canada, and inflame an ongoing debate about

cruelty, sustainability, cod stocks, and economics.

It's the Canadian commercial seal hunt, the largest

slaughter of marine mammals in the world.

 

In March, the International Fund for Animal Welfare

(IFAW) will once again be among the observers of the

seal hunt on the ice floes of the Gulf of St.

Lawrence. Witnesses will film and photograph the scene

and inspect the remains, consigned to the role of

coroner. Ironically, officers of the Canadian Coast

Guard—the official watchdog in this orchestrated

slaughter—will passively watch nearby as they provide

free ice-breaking services to the sealers. That's

because the seal hunt is subsidized by the Canadian

government. In December, the Department of Fisheries

and Oceans (DFO) announced that it would retain a seal

hunt quota of 275,000 animals despite the best

scientific evidence pointing toward an imperiled

population. A wealth of evidence, including a new

study to be published in the peer-reviewed scientific

journal Conservation Biology, indicates that Canada's

management plan for the Northwest Atlantic harp seal

is threatening the population's long-term stability.

 

The government's decision to ignore the best available

science has groups such as IFAW outraged. “The

government repeatedly promised to set the year 2000

quota based on the results of a census of the seal

population taken earlier this year,“ said Rick Smith,

Ph.D., national director of IFAW-Canada. “Work on the

census was completed in March [1999]. Why have the

results not been made public?“ The argument that seals

are impeding the recovery of fishery-diminished cod

stocks fails any scrutiny as a case for the seal hunt.

Besides a scientific consensus to the contrary, it is

overly simplistic to think that in a complex marine

ecosystem containing hundreds of species, the

reduction of harp seals would result in the increase

of cod. In fact, it might do more harm than good,

since harp seals also eat cod predators such as squid

and skates.

 

In 1999, many sealers discovered that the limited

market for seal oil and pelts could not support the

current seal quota levels. Pelt prices dropped by as

much as 50 percent, and sealers refused to return to

the ice because their already slim profit margins were

almost nonexistent.

 

With the seal market near collapse and many seals

killed solely for their genitalia for sale in Asian

markets, and when year after year sealers are

videotaped illegally skinning seals alive and killing

pups just days or weeks old, the time has come for the

Canadian government to stop the seal hunt.

 

Please write to the Canadian government demanding an

end to this useless, wasteful, and cruel hunt.

Contact:

 

Hon. Herb Dhaliwal

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans

121 East Block

House of Commons

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

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Sample Letter - Pls include name, address, country,

and send by regular mail / postage $0.60 Airmail stamp

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Dear Mr. Dhaliwal,

 

I am writing to express my disgust at the continued

slaughter of harp seals in your country. The world has

been repulsed by the sight of bloody bodies for

decades now, and it's time for Canada to enter the

next millennium with a more enlightened approach to

commerce. The sealers can be trained for other

professions; this one is archaic and cruel. I will

strongly consider boycotting Canadian tourism and

products until the seal slaughter stops for good.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Humans are a disease, a cancer of this planet, and we are the cure... GO VEGAN!

 

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