SEAL-KILLING Canadian DFO Wants/Needs To Hear From YOU!!

March 26, 2008

~ PLEASE CROSSPOST WIDELY! ~Dear Caring Activists:Canada will officially begin the 2008 Harp seal slaughter this coming Friday, March 28th. The Canadian Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans has set up a website with a CONTACT PAGE! : http://www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/contact/Please avail yourself of this rare opportunity to let the DFO know what you think about their continued refusal to listen to member countries of the European Union [9 of which have banned, or are in the process of banning the importation of all seal products] and to the ongoing global protests by compassionate citizens, against this unconscionable atrocity.~~ PLEASE NOTIFY THE DFO THAT YOU / FRIENDS / FAMILY AND OTHERS WILL BE BOYCOTTING EASTERN CANADA UNTIL SEALING IS

PERMANENTLY ENDED AND OUTLAWED IN THE REGION! ~~ Blatant misrepresentations by Canada's DFO are standard, and this website IS NO EXCEPTION: http://www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/sealfactsheet/SEPARATING FACTS FROM FICTION DFO PROPAGANDA: * Seals are a significant source of income for thousands of families in remote coastal communities in Eastern Canada, at a time of year when employment opportunities are extremely limited.TRUTH:Less than 3,000 individuals in all of the Eastern Canadian provinces combined, participate in the slaughter of seals each season. Regardless of what the DFO and special interests are saying, hydro, oil and other technologies are available RIGHT NOW in Newfoundland/Labrador to provide jobs for those who would lose SEASONAL work amounting to less than a few thousand dollars, if sealing were to end tomorrow. Sealers have turned down offers to buy back their sealing licenses and have REFUSED all-expenses paid retraining programs, which would prepare them for professions other than sealing. DFO PROPAGANDA:* Sealers have stated that their income from sealing can represent from 25-35% of their total income.TRUTH: The seal massacre each season, represents less than 3% of fisherman/sealers' yearly incomes. DFO PROPAGANDA:* The sealing industry is worth over $55 million to our provincial economy.TRUTH:The Canadian government historically stockpiles 100s of thousands of seal pelts in warehouses, which are then burned or buried in landfills at taxpayers' expense? Why? To keep the price of pelts

artificially high in an attempt to create a false market for seal products few want. The Canadian government continues to use taxpayer money to subsidize a 'hunt' that less than 3,000 individuals participate in each season, and which represents less than 3% of their yearly income. HOWEVER, THE COST OF THIS BLOODFEST TO CANADIAN TAXPAYERS' [outside of sealing provinces] ANNUALLY, IS IN THE 10s OF MILLIONS. DFO PROPAGANDA: * Since 1970, the harp seal population has tripled and currently stands at 5.4 million animals.TRUTH:The figure consistently quoted by the DFO of a "healthy" population of 5.4 millions seals is

based on outdated, erroneous, unscientific and biased information. The kill quota was dropped from a high of 350,000 seals in 2006, to 280,000 in 2007. Only 70% of the 280,000quota was reached last year. Why? Because seal populations havedramatically declined due to global warming and other negative environmentalfactors. No ice floes were reported in the areas around the Magdalen Islands in 2007, and as a result, adult females who need the ice fornurseries, were instead forced to give birth to their seal pups in theopen sea. Thousands of infants drowned. A scenario which will continue to be repeated as ice floes melt earlier each year. DFO PROPAGANDA: * Harvesting whitecoats and bluebacks is illegal and has been since 1987.TRUTH:"Technically" the DFO is telling the truth. Whitecoats are allowed an extra WEEK OR TWO OF LIFE before

being brutalized and murdered; unlike their predecessors who were slaughtered weeks earlier, before showing signs of shedding their pristine white coats. DFO PROPAGANDA:* Research on the modern sealing industry by veterinary experts has concluded that seals are harvested in a humane manner.TRUTH:These so-called vet "experts" are hired by the DFO. They can hardly be expected to give truthful and unbiased opinions which conflict with their employer. And if the DFO TRULY believed that seals have been killed humanely over the decades, why are they only NOW [2008] implementing a new "technique" requiring the severing of the main arteries behind the seals' flippers, to ensure the animals bleed out prior to being skinned? DFO CONTACT PAGE:http://www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/contact/DFO

WEBSITE:http://www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/sealfactsheet/ The concept of 'animal rights' values the simple premise that ALL living creatures have a "right" to be allowed to live their lives without victimization--free from brutality. It is a right that EVERY being strives for.~Brennan Browne~"Humanely" slaughtered 'meat', is an obscene lie invented and perpetuated by people who are too lazy, selfish and cruel to change their dietary habits. Forcibly denying a creature its right to life, love and companionship can NEVER be humane.~Brennan Browne~

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