Today is a day to celebrate. The European Union has slammed shut the door on trade in the products of the commercial seal slaughter.
The Canadian government used every trick in the book to try to derail the ban: massive lobbying, misinformation, and even threats of trade reprisals. But the EU stood its ground and honored its citizens’ opposition to this trade in cruelty. By doing so, the EU has saved millions of seals from a horrible fate.
Every year, the ProtectSeals team has endured hazardous conditions to document the seal hunt. We are committed to showing the world that the Canadian government is lying when it claims that the hunt is humane.
This is the beginning of the end for the Canadian seal hunt. The Canadian government estimates that losing this primary market will cost Canada’s sealing industry $6.6 million (CAD) each year. The hunt brought in less than $7 million last year. It's not hard to do the math.
Just the promise of an EU ban was enough to drive the prices for seal fur down to $15 (CAD) per skin -- a decline of 86 percent since 2006. As a result, many sealers stayed home. Out of this year's quota of 280,000 harp seals, fewer than 60,000 have been killed so far.
Now that the EU has banned its trade in seal products, countless more seals will live their lives in peace from this year forward.
Russia said Wednesday it had banned the hunting of baby seals, weeks after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called it a "bloody industry."
"The bloody sight of the hunting of seals, the slaughter of these defenseless animals which you cannot even call a real hunt, is banned in our country, just as well as in most developed countries, and is a serious step to protect the biodiversity of the Russian Federation," the minister for natural resources, Yuri Trutnev, said in a statement.
Seals inhabit Russia's White Sea region in the Arctic. As in Canada and Norway, hunters target the fluffy baby seals -- also known as "whitecoats" for their highly valued snow-white fur -- in early spring and club thousands to death.
Putin has a reputation as an animal lover, and says killing seals, "should have been banned a long time ago."
Calling the annual "harvesting" of baby seals a "hunt" is grotesque distortion. It's anything but a "hunt." It's slaughter, and has little economic value.
There are an estimated 200,000 harp seals in Russia's White Sea sealing grounds -- down by 90% from when they were first counted 80 years ago. Some 35,000 baby seals are killed each year when they are about six weeks old and their coats a dazzling white.
The ban was imposed by the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency. The documentation has been sent for state registration with the Ministry of Justice.
"We are delighted at the adoption of this decision and would like to separately underline the important role played by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry in this cause. Thanks to their efforts this has finally taken place. Being a state structure, it greatly influenced the advancement of this process," International Fund for Animal Welfare's Anna Filippova said.
First I started scrolling through the list of grocers and seafood suppliers involved in ending the Canadian seal hunt. As I kept scrolling looking for my home state of Delaware I realized it just wasn't listed at all. So then I even tried doing a search and find in the browser, hoping I had missed it somehow...still no Delaware.
The situation is that Canada allows the slaughter of baby white seals. The commercial fishermen who earn a small amount of their living from selling the babies fur truly make most of their income from fishing and selling the fish to the United States. So, if grocers and seafood suppliers refused to buy fish from the fishermen who also slaughter baby seals then we might be able to get them to stop their awfulness.
After hearing about the horrific treatment of seals during Canada's annual seal hunt, more than 5,000 grocery stores, restaurants, and other companies have joined the ProtectSeals campaign. But alas, not one store in Delaware is on the list. Shameful.
What's the connection between your grocery store and the seal hunt? Sealers are actually commercial fishermen who earn only a small fraction of their livelihood from killing baby seals for their fur. The vast majority of the sealers' incomes -- 95% actually -- comes from commercial fishing. About two thirds of Canada's seafood is exported to the United States each year, achieving more than $2.5 billion for the Canadian economy annually. This dwarfs the few million dollars contributed to the Canadian economy by the commercial seal hunt.
By choosing to avoid Canadian seafood, you can give the fishermen who kill seals a clear economic incentive to stop the slaughter. So far, our boycott has resulted in millions of lost revenue for Canadian sealers. But we aren't there yet: As of today Canada still refuses to bow to international pressure, and is readying its sealing vessels for the 2009 slaughter.
So today, ask your local grocery store to step up for seals: Download this customer comment card and/or pledge form and give it to your store manager the next time you go grocery shopping.
I have contacted Acme, Safeway, WalMart, Superfresh, Pathmark, BJs Wholesale, Costso, ShopRite, Trader Joe's and GIANT in my local area. If you live in Delaware please continue my plea. If you live elsewhere please look into contacting your local chains. I will let you all know if I receive a response.
UPDATE:
Alicia from Costco Wholesale Corporation sent a response to my e-mail, it stated: "Dear Christy,
Thank you for your email to Costco Wholesale.
Costco Wholesale is aware of the U.S. Humane Society campaign requesting U.S. retailers to boycott Canadian fisheries in protest of the annual Canadian seal hunt. At this time we have no plans to participate in a boycott of Canadian fisheries.
Thank you for sharing your concerns with us.
Thank you,
Alicia Costco Wholesale Corporation"
UPDATE--
"Hi Christy,
Thank you for taking the time contact us. This has always been Trader Joe's stance on purchasing seafood in the eastern part of Canada.
Thank you for contacting us concerning your issue. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
While we are troubled by the concerns you have risen about the treatment of seals in the Northeast Provinces of Canada, and respect the interests of consumers who elect not to purchase certain products.
We are committed to providing our customers with the products they want and expect.
We respect the right of individuals to support issues that are important to them, but we will continue to provide our customers with the variety and choice that they are looking for when they shop at Albertsons.
SUPERVALU is in compliance with country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements now in effect for seafood. These requirements inform consumers of the origin of the seafood that they are buying, and allow them to make informed seafood choices in our stores.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Center at 1-877-932-7948.
"Please take a few minutes now to tell the EU you support a ban on seal product trade." - Paul McCartney
That's right Paul McCartney is now contributing to the fight in saving the seals.
Twenty-five years ago, the European Union made history when it ended its trade in products from newborn harp seals. Commercial seal hunting in some countries came to a virtual standstill, and countless baby seals were saved. But the hunters began to kill the pups when they were slightly older -- and the products from those seals are legally traded in the EU. Today, some commercial seal hunts are twice as large as they were when the EU first took action.
I've posted about this before, because I have seen the video footage of how seals are brutally killed. I don't believe in killing animals at all, and I certainly don't feel there is anyway to justify clubbing a baby seal to get its fur. There are rules in regards to "humanely slaughtering" an animal and I can tell you beating it to death is NOT on the rule list.
You can take action in standing up against this by going to BanSealTrade.org.
"In a filing submitted yesterday to the Montreal-based CEC, the group also alleges that Ottawa is allowing such high numbers of seals to be killed each year, including regular quota overruns, that it could deplete the population and cause "serious or irreversible damage to the northwest Atlantic ecosystem."
You know, sometimes I think people don't realize the actual cruelty involved in seal hunting. It is very upsetting. I don't care if they are animals, they are still live beings and they do not deserve to be tortured and killed. If you are interested in seeing the brutality, you can watch this video...it immediately turned my stomach.
"The 2006 Canadian seal hunt left more than 350,000 seals dead -- almost all of them were babies as young as 12 days."
You can sign petitions and boycott Canadian seafood. You can also wear "Seal Protection" gear. They have some very cute shirts to support the cause.
