Media Release

Contact: Regina Flores - 514 939 5525 office, 514 582 4670 cellular.

Global Action Network Joins Groups Gathered Across the Globe to Protest Cruel Canadian Seal Hunt

International Boycott of Canadian Seafood to be Launched Once First Seal is Killed

Montreal - 15 March 2005 Global Action Network joined animal protection and environmental groups around the world today holding demonstrations to protest Canada’s annual seal hunt. Events were scheduled in more than 50 cities in Canada, the United States, Mexico, South America, the Middle East and Europe. Many groups gathered in front of Canadian embassies and consulates in 22 countries to protest the cruel and needless slaughter of harp and hooded seals in Canada.

WHEN: Tues, 15 March 2005 at noon

WHERE: Parliament Hill

“Canada’s commercial seal hunt is the largest and cruelest slaughter of marine mammals on earth,” said Regina Flores. “Each year, hundreds of thousands of baby seals are clubbed and shot to death, and many are even skinned alive.” A panel of international veterinarians who studied the commercial seal hunt concluded up to 42 percent of the seals they examined were likely skinned alive while conscious.

Polling shows the majority of Canadians, Americans and Europeans want the commercial seal hunt ended for good, and governments around the world are taking action. On February 2nd, close to one quarter of US Senators cosponsored a resolution urging the Canadian government to end the commercial seal hunt. In the United Kingdom, 130 Members of Parliament signed an Early Day Motion urging the British government to ban the import of all sealskin. The Belgian government recently banned the import and trade in sealskin, and the Italian government has passed a resolution announcing its intention to do the same.

Many organizations highlighted a pending boycott of Canadian seafood during the International Day of Action. “If the hunt is not called off, we will join a powerful network of organizations launching an international boycott of Canadian seafood,” said Regina Flores. Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by commercial fishermen from Canada’s East Coast. They make, on average, one twentieth of their incomes from sealing – the rest from commercial fisheries. Canadian seafood exports to the United States, in particular, are worth over 3 billion dollars annually to the Canadian economy, dwarfing the few million dollars from the seal hunt. While some Canadian fishing industry representatives have attempted to justify the culling of seals by saying they eat too many cod and adversely impact the fish population, sound scientific studies show that the true cause of cod depletion is overfishing.

The hunt kicks into high gear later in March as sealers take to the ice wielding clubs, hakapiks, and guns clubbing and shooting to death seals just days or weeks of age. The quota for 2005 is set at 320 000 animals.

For more information, please visit www.gan.ca