International Day of Protest Against the Canadian Seal Hunt

    March 15

    

    

    On March 15th, caring and concerned citizens around the world will be faxing and e-mailing Canadian Government politicians and officials voicing their strong opposition to the slaughter of 350,000 baby harp and hood seals.

    

    This kill takes place off the east coast of Canada and is heavily subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer; the majority of whom are against the brutal killing of these beautiful marine mammals.

    

    The Canadian Harp seal hunt is the largest single mass slaughter of a mammalian wildlife species anywhere in the world. Over one million harp seals are condemned to be cruelly slaughtered over a three year period.

    

    The Seal Hunt methods of kill? Clubs, hakapiks, rifles and shotguns.

    

    It is a grossly inhumane kill that goes mostly unregulated as there are limited fisheries officer to watch and inspect the number of sealers on the ice. Credible witnesses have documented seeing seals skinned alive and tortured.

    

    It is also an incredibly wasteful hunt where it is estimated that for every seal landed, another is shot and lost under the ice, not to be included in the quota.

    

    The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) insists that the seals must die so that cod populations can increase. Their position is that the harp seal is a major predator of the cod, yet there is little scientific justification for this position.

    

    When the first European explorers landed on the East coast of Canada there was no shortage of cod, and there were an estimated 30 million seals. Today, there are under 5 million and numbers continue to decline.

    

    With cod populations at less than 1% of pre-Columbian levels, the seal has become the scapegoat for the excesses of the Canadian and foreign drag trawler fleets that plundered the Grand Banks for decades, and left very little behind.

    

    Now the seals are the target for Canada′s continued mismanagement of marine wildlife! This bureaucratic ordered destruction of the seals has no place in the 21st Century. -  JOIN US ON MARCH 15th!

    

    If you would like to hold a demonstation at a Canadian Embassy or Consulate in your city, - visit our website to download resources: www.seashepherd.org" TARGET="_blank" class="bodytext">www.seashepherd.org.

    

Fax - email and or send your letters of protest to: (Sample letter at end of email.)

    1. Paul Martin has the power to stop the hunt. Let him know he needs to do his job to protect our oceans!

            Office of the Prime Minister   - The Hon. Paul Martin

            80 Wellington Street,

            Ottawa, K1A 0A2

                fax: 613-941-6900

                e-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca

    

    2. Former NFLD Fisheries Minister & now the Minister of Natural Resources Canada. He is more dangerous to the seals than ever!

            John Effordm MP

            House of Commons,

            Parliament Buildings

            Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
                T: 613-992-4133,

                Fax: 613-992-7277,

                email: efford.j@parl.gc.ca

    

    This is what Mr. Efford really  thinks of seals and fisheries management!   “Mr. Speaker, I would like to see the six million… whatever number is out there, killed or sold, or destroyed or burned. I do not care what happens to them. What they (the fishermen) wanted was to have the right to go out and kill the seals. They have that right, and the more they kill the better I will love it.”

    

    3. Ministry responsible for setting seal quotas and inforcing violations of the Marine Mammal Regulations.

            Minister of Fisheries & Oceans Canada  -  

            Mr. Geoff Regan

            Station 13228, 200 Kent St, 13th Floor,

            Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E6

                Fax (613) 990-1866,

                e-mail:  regan.g@parl.gc.ca  min@dfo-mpo.qc.ca

                www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca  

    

    4. Tina Fagan - The spokesperson for seal killing, she will defend any action a sealer takes on the ice.

            The Canadian Sealers Association

            Tina Fagan, Executive Director of CSA
            P.O. Box 8005, St. John′s, NL,

            Canada A1B 3M7

                Tel:(709)722-1721,

                Fax:(709)738-1661

                E-mail address: sealers@canada.com,

                Website: http://www.sealers.nf.ca/

    

    

    5. Send your letters, faxes and e-mails to Canadian Embassies and Consulates.  Canadian Embassies and Consulates must report to the seat of parliament in Ottawa, Canada each month - let them send a report that the citizens of their host country are asking the Canadian government to STOP THE SLAUGHTER OF BABY HARP AND HOOD SEALS!

    http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/world/embassies/cra-en.asp

    

    6. Letters to the Editor are very powerful!  Your letters are important to them and have impact!

    

    The Telegram    
    Columbus Drive - P.O. Box 5970

    St. John′s - Newfoundland

    A1C 5X7  Canada

    jwalsh@thetelegram.com
    rwanger@thetelegram.com

    letters@thetelegram.com

    

    The Globe and Mail
    444 Front Street West,
    Toronto, Ontario,
    M5V 2S9

    Letters@GlobeAndMail.ca

    

    Ottawa Citizen

    1101 Baxter Road

    Box 5020

    Ottawa, ON

    letters@thecitizen.canwest.com

    

    Vancouver Sun
    Letters to the Editor
    #1-200 Granville Street
    Vancouver, BC
    V6C 3N3

    sunletters@png.canwest.com

    

    The Toronto Star

    One Yonge Street

    Toronto,Ontario

    M5E 1E6

    lettertoed@thestar.ca

    

    7. Contact your local, regional or federal representative. Set up a meeting to discuss your opposition to the Canadian Seal Hunt.

    

    8.     Forward this email on to those interested in saving our oceans!

    

    THANK YOU! For Stopping this Bloodshed and FOR STANDING UP FOR THE RIGHTS OF BABY HARP AND HOOD SEALS TO LIVE IN PEACE ON THE ICE FLOES OF EASTERN CANADA.

    

    

    For the Oceans!

    Capt. Paul Watson

    Sea Shepherd/ORCAForce Canada

    

    P.O Box 2616, Friday Harbor WA 98250          t: 360.370.5650

    P.O. Box 48446, Vancouver BC V7X 1A2         t: 604.688.7325

    Email: info@seashepherd.org

    www.seashepherd.org" TARGET="_blank" class="bodytext">www.seashepherd.org

    

SAMPLE LETTER

    

    Dear Prime Minister Paul Martin:

    

    I write to you as a supporter of Sea Shepherd and along with millions of supporters worldwide to call your immediate attention to Stop the Seal Hunt that is currently being conducted on the east coast of Canada primarily off the shores of Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

    

    In this "seal cull", small baby harp and hood seals are hunted down in their nurseries on the ice floes then systematically slaughtered with clubs, hakapiks, rifles and shotguns.  Sanctioned by the government of Canada, and permitted by provincial authorities, up to 350,000 defenseless baby seals are killed annually in this manner. In addition, tens of thousands of these beautiful mammals are killed and not accounted for as they are clubbed or shot and slip into the ice to their deaths by drowning.

    

    I oppose this hunt on both welfare and conservation grounds. The unsustainable slaughter of these newborns will one day leave the coasts of Canada bereft of the beauty these animals bring to your people. It is unclear whether these migrating populations of harp and hood seals can survive the intensity of this hunt that is poorly regulated, unsustainable and breathtakingly cruel.

    

    The killing floes where the slaughter occurs are a devastating trail of endless red as sealers slaughter babies in front of their nursing mothers. Whether they bleed to death from a hakapik, club, or are shot with rifles and shotguns, the seals suffer an agonizing and terrifying death through these methods.

    

    Although the hunt occurs largely out of public sight on the ice floes, crewmembers of Sea Shepherd have witnessed first hand the inhumanity of the killing methods used in Canada on these sentient marine mammals.

    

    As you will be aware, seal watching on the ice floes is growing in eastern Canada, where it is not only a popular activity for locals and tourists alike, but is also a financially viable alternative to butchering baby seals. No public relations campaign within Canada can hide what is occurring on the killing floes, even if the public rarely sees what happens.

    

    The ‘Seal Hunt’ turns Canada’s pristine wilderness into a bloodbath, and as such, are a direct threat to a real and valuable seal watching industry that is growing worldwide, along with a growing respect and care for marine life.

    

    This hunt is an archaic and traditional practice that has to be heavily subsidized by the federal Canadian government in order to be sustained. In some communities, the seal hunt is maintained merely to satisfy the needs of a few fishermen who supplement their incomes from this brutal practice.

    

    Your Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) insists that the seals must die so that cod populations can increase. The DFO’s position is that the harp seal is a major predator of the cod, yet there is little scientific justification for this position.

    

    When the first European explorers landed on the East coast of Canada there was no shortage of cod, and there were an estimated 30 million seals. Today, there are under 5 million and numbers continue to decline.

    

    With cod populations at less than 1% of pre-Columbian levels, and with the collapse of the cod industry, the seal has become the scapegoat for the excesses of the Canadian and foreign drag trawler fleets that plundered the Grand Banks for decades, and left very little behind.

    

    This bureaucratic ordered destruction of the seals has no place in the 21st Century.

    

    We are calling for an end to the baby harp and hood seal hunt. The public outcry that occurs worldwide whenever the images from this slaughtering of seals are publicized will not go away.

    

    The dedication of individuals committed to ending this barbaric practice will not go away.

    

    Sea Shepherd is working to raise the awareness of the people of the world and in particular in Canada, most of whom do not realize that this hunt still takes place within their country.  And, who are outraged when they learn their tax dollar is supporting this hunt.

    

    I appreciate your immediate attention to my concerns.

    

    Yours truly,

Welcome to the Forum Menkit and thank you for all the information which, hopefully will bring this grisly, barbaric hunt to an end.

can we use the sample letter word for word, and as a basis for a petition? It′s just written so well.