A Seals Story - Help! Tell this Story to the World!
I was born on the ice floes off the east coast of Canada, where the pristine snow-scape stretches out as far as the eye can see. For the first few days, my fluffy coat was as white as the surrounding snow...then after a couple of weeks, it began to turn silvery with black spots.
It was then that this peaceful landscape changed forever.
I heard a rumble off in the distance, and soon I could see a boat pushing through the ice. Then I heard the loud bangs of a rifle, and saw men jumping off the boat and onto the ice with sticks that had spikes on the end of them.
One of the men approached a defenseless seal pup nearby, clubbed him over the head again and again, and then skinned his lifeless body with a long and bloody knife.
Then he saw me.
I think you know how the story ends.
In truth, we can only imagine what the seals are thinking, but we DO know what they are feeling -- many of the seals killed in Canada's commercial seal hunt die in agonizing pain.
As soon as a seal pup begins to lose its white coat, in as little as 12 days, they can be hunted. Too young to fight back or escape, they are easy targets.
Every spring, around a quarter of a million of these gentle creatures are shot, beaten with a crude spiked weapon called a hakapik, and some are even skinned alive. All for the sake of a fur coat or hat. This cruelty is heartbreaking and senseless, and it's up to us to stop it.
The Seals can't tell their own story, so we must speak for them.
Please sign the Petition and share it with your Friends!
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
I am deeply opposed to Canada's annual cruel, wasteful, and unsustainable commercial slaughter of harp seal pups.
Harp seals are facing a new threat - global warming - which is resulting in dramatically reduced ice coverage in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland.
Your government is on record stating it will take 'real action' on global warming. And yet you have ignored the one tangible action your government could take to combat the effects of global warming - dramatically reducing the seal hunt quota.
Apart from these serious conservation concerns shared by many Canadians, the seal hunt targets baby animals, a practice that is unacceptable to the majority of Canadians. In the past two years, 98% of the seals killed have been less than three months old. Severe cruelty has been witnessed and documented at the hunt during the past 30 years and incidents of cruelty are not decreasing.
This hunt only continues to exist because it is propped up by a range of government subsidies and tax-payers money. More and more countries around the world are adopting legislation to ban the import of seal products.
Instead of investing in meaningful employment opportunities for Newfoundlanders, the federal government continues to fund and support a seasonal and wasteful seal hunt which draws national and international criticism to a proud region of Canada trying to build a reputation for high-tech research and first-class environmental tourism.
I urge you to act immediately to end this unnecessary cruelty to seals and to restore Canada's pride as a humane and ecologically responsible society.
Sincerely,
we, the undersigned
