The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will begin just a few days from now—and
PETA is working very hard to mobilize global opposition to the gruesome
harp seal slaughter that the host nation allows to continue.
The annual seal bloodbath, the largest slaughter of marine mammals on
Earth, is scheduled to begin just after the Olympics end. Tens of thousands
of harp seals, most of whom are in their very first weeks of life, will be
bludgeoned and shot to death and then skinned for coats that no one (except
the babies themselves!) wants or needs. Their mothers, who are spared
because fur traders don't want their pelts, will mourn and wail as their
babies are killed right in front of them and their pups' bodies are left to
rot on the ice.
Now, as the Winter Olympics put Canada in the international spotlight, we
need your support to help us up the ante and bring an end to the slaughter
of baby harp seals and, indeed, the whole bloody fur trade.
PETA's global anti-fur campaign has put the Canadian seal massacre squarely
on the international map as never before in history. Wherever Prime
Minister Harper appears—including the G-20 summit, the North American
Leaders' Summit, and Washington, D.C., to meet with President Obama—PETA
members are there to call attention to Canada's shame. Supporters of PETA
and our international affiliates have demonstrated in the U.S., Canada,
France, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and many other countries. The seal
slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation, and we're making sure
that the prime minister knows this, no matter where he shows up.
Through PETA's Web site OlympicShame2010.com, we've also mobilized tens of
thousands of people to send letters of protest against the killing. More
than 530,000 compassionate people have signed our Facebook petition calling
for an end to the massacre, and hundreds of thousands more have watched
graphic videos on YouTube of baby seals being clubbed to death. The
Canadian government has received so much negative publicity online that for
the second year in a row, it has had to hire a spin doctor solely to
counter online activists who are trying to stop the slaughter.
Thanks to our high-profile activism, the public outrage against the ghastly
seal massacre is growing. The call to stop this mass killing is getting
louder, more insistent, and harder for the Canadian government to ignore.
But despite our progress, this campaign is far from over. We must continue
to keep the fight strong.
Even as compassionate people everywhere raise their voices against the seal
slaughter, the Canadian government callously digs in its heels. The
government is challenging the European Union's recent ban on the
importation of Canadian seal fur and is aggressively looking for new
markets for seal products—which are abhorred in the Western world—in places
such as China.
So with the Olympics approaching and the world watching, we need your help
to ratchet up the pressure. Please take a moment to help animals who face
suffering and death by making your most generous contribution right now.
Thank you for doing everything that you can to help spare these and all
animals from suffering and death. It may not be a quick fight, but this is
worth an all-out battle.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
President
P.S. The world's best athletes will compete in Vancouver next month, and
shortly after the final ceremony, tens of thousands of harp seals will face
a violent, bloody death. We need your support right now to help us call
attention to this horror and work toward shutting down the fur industry.