Join the protest against the seal hunt in Ottawa

This spring, the ice floes off the east coast of Canada will once again run red with the blood of harp seals, many of them only 12 days old. Canada's annual seal slaughter is the largest hunt of marine mammals anywhere in the world, and more than 300,000 seals will be clubbed and shot to death this spring.

To make our protests heard by the Canadian government, Global Action Network, along with a coalition of other concerned organizations will be holding our first International Day of Action on March 15, 2005. We will be joining protesters in over 40 other cities around the world.

If you live in Montreal:
When: The bus leaves at 9:30 am on Tues, March 15 and will return to Montreal by 3:30pm.
Where: 372 St Catherine W. suite 308

The bus is free!

There is a limited amount of space on the bus, so please reserve your seat by contacting us at regina@gan.ca or 514 939 5525.

If you live in Ottawa:
When: Tues, 15 March at noon
Where: Parliament Hill

Fast facts on Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt

It's a cruel slaughter

• Fully 95 percent of the harp seals killed over the past five years have been under just three months of age. At the time of slaughter, many of these defenceless pups had not yet eaten their first solid food or taken their first swim - they literally had no escape from the "hunters".
• Video evidence clearly shows sealers routinely drag conscious pups across the ice with boathooks, shoot seals and leave them to suffer in agony, and even skin seals alive.
• In 2001, an independent team of veterinary experts studied Canada's commercial seal hunt. Their report concluded that in 42% of the cases they examined, the seal did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning.

It's a reckless cull.

• In 2003, the Canadian government authorized the highest quota for harp seals in history, allowing nearly a million to be slaughtered over three years.
• In 2004, more than 353,000 harp seals were killed for their fur - the largest slaughter witnessed in half a century.
• The last time sealers killed this many seals - in the 1950s and 60s - close to two thirds of the harp seal population was wiped out.

The seal hunt brings in very little money for the few people involved.

• Even in Newfoundland, where 90% of sealers live, income from sealing accounts for less than one-tenth of one percent of the province's economy.
• Sealers are fishermen who engage in several fisheries throughout the year, and sealing revenues account for only about one twentieth of their total incomes.

Killing seals may harm fish stocks.

• About 3 percent of a harp seal's diet consists of commercially fished cod. However, harp seals also consume many significant predators of cod, including squid. Removing harp seals may mean an increase in cod predators.
• The Canadian government clearly states there is no evidence killing harp seals will help fish stocks recover, and scientists have expressed concerns that culling seals may in fact impede the recovery of ground fish stocks.

If you oppose the seal hunt, you're in good company.

• Polling shows 71% of Canadians - including 60% of Atlantic Canadians - support banning the seal hunt outright, or limiting the hunt to seals over one year of age. (Ipsos-Reid, 2004).
• In EU countries where polling has been conducted - the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands - close to 80% of people who are aware of the Canadian seal hunt oppose it (MORI, 2002).
• Polling shows 79% of American voters oppose the Canadian seal hunt (Penn, Schoen & Berland, 2002).