tagged w/ The Fur Industry
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Please follow linked page for a view of the letter from then, Senator Obama.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is very hopeful that President Barack Obama will act strongly as President to oppose and condemn the annual slaughter of baby seals by Canadian sealers. We have every reason to believe that he will do so, considering this letter that President Obama sent to a constituent in 2006 when he was a Senator and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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The Canadian government has promised (AGAIN) the slaughter or "harvest" will be more "humane" this year. How? After a hunter shoots or clubs a seal, he now must "check its eyes to ensure it is dead, and if not, the animal's main arteries must be cut".
Am I missing something here? That does not qualify as "humane". To term the mass slaughter of any creature as a "harvest" seems wrong. However, for the commercial sealers and fisherman, it is an effective way to easily manipulate the masses. Using descriptive terminology that creates detachment. Eerily similar to calling a cow "beef" or a pig "pork".
The Canadian commercial seal hunt is the largest mass slaughter of marine mammals on Earth. Canada is even going to break it's own world record this year. The 'quota' for 2009 for the Canadian Seal Slaughter is more than 338,000. This 'quota' does not include all of the seals that will die. The 338,000, does not include the baby seals that are fatally wounded and manage to get away. Or, the seals that DROWN because they have not learned to swim yet. This record breaking quota, also, does not include the seals that die trying to protect their baby...
But what can the seals do? They can't run. They can't hide. They can't fight. The baby seals do even know that they need to be afraid of humans until it's too late... bearing witness to their fellow playmates being butchered only to find they are next. So, they sit on the bloody ice and wait.
Just what are they doing with all those dead baby seals? The furs are made into coats, bags and other clothes. Some furs end up as novelties or 'trinkets' like key-chain charms. And there's a growing market for seal oil, high in omega-3 fatty acid… and PCBs . . .
Canada's annual seal slaughter, is a barbaric display of just how spiritually void and ethically bankrupt the human species has become.Please follow linked page for a view of the letter from then, Senator Obama.
The... more
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With the approach of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the eyes of the world will soon be turning toward Canada.
Killing sentient animals for something as selfish as fur can never be justified. But the very least that we can do is end the sickening spectacle of the seal slaughter once and for all. It should have been banned long ago.
Public outcry forced Canada to ban the killing of "whitecoats" in 1987, and the seal slaughter essentially collapsed. But in 1996, all that changed when the Canadian government began subsidizing the massacre in an effort to rebuild it. It has since grown almost every year and is now the largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world. This year alone, hunters will be allowed to kill more than 338,000 seals.
Canadian officials should have let the seal slaughter die a natural death.
While hunters are no longer allowed to kill "whitecoats," they can club and shoot baby seals as soon as the animals begin to molt their white natal fur — about 12 days after they’re born. Yes, seals can legally be killed before they are even 2 weeks old — before they have eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim.
The difference between bashing in the head of a 12-day-old seal and bashing in the head of a 13-day-old seal is lost on most people.
Not surprisingly, opposition to the seal slaughter is once again growing. In the United States, the sale of seal fur has been banned since 1972. Belgium and the Netherlands have passed laws banning the importation of seal fur, and the European Union is considering similar legislation.
In early March, a European Parliament committee voted in favor of a bill that would ban the importation of all seal products (with an exception made for Canada’s Inuit hunters). The full parliament is expected to vote on the bill soon.
Canada isn’t taking this lying down, of course. In an effort to make the slaughter seem more palatable, they’ve implemented new "humane standards," including a requirement that sealers wait 60 seconds before skinning seals in order to "ensure" that they are dead.
I’m sorry, but bludgeoning defenseless animals, impaling them on boat hooks, dragging them across the ice and ripping off their skins after a 60-second pulse check — assuming anyone is actually watching — does not fit any reasonable definition of "humane."
And, the new regulations don’t require a speck of oversight.With the approach of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the eyes of the world... more
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WARNING: Graphic Footage - IFAW Hunt Watch - Seals Killed on the Ice
Canada has set a record for 2009. The quota given to sealers is over 320,000!
The International Fund for Animal Welfare's senior researcher Sheryl Fink was on the ice in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence while these photos of sealers working were captured. Her quotes are included in this slide show.
For more information please visit http://www.stopthesealhunt.orgWARNING: Graphic Footage - IFAW Hunt Watch - Seals Killed on the Ice
Canada has... more
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Section #1 of Canada's Hunt:
Observers with IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare – www.ifaw.org) have just returned after witnessing the slaughter of harp seal pups during this year’s commercial seal hunt.
Canada’s commercial seal hunt comes just weeks before the EU considers banning the trade in seal products throughout its member states.
Recent economic evaluations have indicated that the market for seal fur is saturated, causing prices to drop by almost half. Processors report that sales of seal pelts all but stopped at the end of 2007, and in early 2009, still do not appear to have recovered.
This hunt for harp seal pups is the largest hunt for a marine mammal in the world, with this year’s commercial total allowable catch limit set at an unsustainable 280,000 seals.
To learn more about IFAW’s efforts to end the Canadian commercial seal hunt, visit http://www.stopthesealhunt.org today.Section #1 of Canada's Hunt:
Observers with IFAW (International Fund for... more
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The end of Russia's harp seal hunt was applauded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has been working in Canada and throughout the world to put an end to commercial seal hunts.
"We are overwhelmingly pleased that the Russian government has finally completed its pledge to protect harp seals," said Masha Vorontsova, director of IFAW Russia.
"The time has now come for the Canadian government to follow suit and end their cruel hunt for harp seals once and for all," said Vorontsova. "These hunts are unnecessary. They are merely supporting the trade in fur used for non-essential fashion items."
The Seal Conservation Society, based in Northern Ireland, says the main product of the Russian hunt has been the white fur pelts of very young seals which are dyed black for sale as hats "for which there is little demand."
Although the European Union currently maintains a ban on the importation of harp seal whitecoat products, an environmental group has found evidence that the ban is not being enforced and that whitecoat products have been entering the European Union from Russia through Norway.
"It has been reported that many people participating in the Russian hunt work in conditions of virtual slavery and are forced by their employer to take part in the hunt or lose their jobs, no alternative jobs being available," the Seal Conservation Society says. "There are two sealing concessions for the Russian hunt, sealers using helicopters to reach the seals on the ice and killing the pups by clubbing them. The number of pups killed by Russian sealers in 1999 was 34,850, all whitecoats."
Environmental groups have been trying to promote ecotourism and small business as alternatives to the Russian seal hunt.
Later this week, the world's largest seal hunt will begin off the east coast of Canada. Last year, more than 217,000 harp seals were killed, 99.8 percent of which were under three months of age. Canada does not allow the clubbing of whitecoats. Sealers must wait until the animals get their darker gray coats at about six weeks of age.
But around the world, opposition is mounting to annual seal hunts in Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, as well as Greenland, Namibia and Norway.
On March 2, a European Parliamentary committee voted to ban products derived from seals from being imported into the European Union, exported from it, or even transported through EU territory.
Seals are hunted mainly for their pelts, but also for meat and fat, which is used in beauty products.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and LUSH Cosmetics, which makes only plant-based products, today announced a new partnership to oppose Canada's commercial hunt.The end of Russia's harp seal hunt was applauded by the International Fund for... more
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