Harpseals.org
is an all volunteer, non-profit organization with one goal: to permanently end the annual Canadian Harp Seal slaughter.We freely cross all political barriers and philosophical differences as we strive to implement and coordinate the many strategies and efforts of like minded seal "hunt" opponents...
If you want to be part of the monumental effort needed to change the situation for the seals, please get involved. CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION OR FIND OUT MORE DETAILS.
THE CANADIAN DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS POSES THIS INTRIGUING SCIENCE QUESTION:
ARE SEALS FISH? (Click here for the fascinating answer.)
July 5, 2008:
Canadian Fishermen Killed about 80% of the 275,000 Harp Seal Pup Quota in Atlantic Canada
Sealer running
to strike seal pup, April 2008. Photo by Paul Darrow (c) Reuters
The Canadian seal hunt (or more accurately, massacre) took the lives of over 220,000 seal pups this year. It also led to the deaths of 4 sealers and the destruction of four sealing vessels. This annual ritual offers so little economic value to the sealers, and even to the sealing boat captains (whose take is usually 50%), that many stayed home this year.
Now, a great advance in the efforts to end the seal 'hunt' is upon us. The European Commission is set to vote on ending imports of seal products (including pelts and other products from Canadian and Namibian seals) during an upcoming meeting in July.
The slaughter for longliners on the Front ended on April 19th, with their kill quota reached in just two days. Small boats on the Front continued killing seals, but the killing is now over, with about 80% of the quota officially killed. As usual, this does not include seals who were 'struck and lost' (i.e., seals who were shot or otherwise injured but escaped, possibly dying over the next hours or days).
Read the latest news and opinions on the seal hunt here.
This year, Minister Loyola Hearn of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) introduced new regulations to make what he and his predecessors have long called a 'humane hunt' more humane. The Canadian government's new policies for killing seals include severing their arterties before skinning them.
"As we passed one large red vessel, we saw sealers jump off the side onto the ice. They ran towards a single live seal pup, hakapiks in hand.
The pup, sensing danger, tried desperately to crawl towards the edge of the water. But the two men bearing down on her were faster. One sealer struck her on the side, then twice again on the head. He grabbed her hind flippers and pulled her back across the ice, stopping to club her twice more. He grabbed her front flipper and turned her over.
But then the second sealer kicked the wounded pup with his boot. Seeing a reaction, he motioned to the first sealer, who clubbed her four more times on the head. Not to be outdone, the second sealer grabbed his hakapik and clubbed the baby seal once more. He flipped her over and began to cut her open -- only to roll her back over so the first sealer could club her three more times. This poor baby seal was clubbed thirteen times in total."
The sealers of Newfoundland usually kill seal pups by shooting and then hooking and dragging them into boats. Aiming for the head and reluctant to shoot twice (prices for 'damaged pelts' are worth too little to bother. Even full price pelts were not worth the cost of being there this year.), many seal pups were injured and dragged into boats conscious. In addition, many seals were clubbed with the 'hakapik,' until the sealers were ready to skin them.
Aside from the 'humane' question, the harp seal hunt is one of the most glaring displays of Canadian mismanagement of the oceans. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has regulated the cod fishery into oblivion and is working hard to wipe out the seals now, in this cruel, wasteful massacre they call the 'seal hunt'. Last year, the sealers managed to kill over 215,000 seal pups after at least a quarter million drowned because of the historically poor formation of sea ice. Weather and these drownings prevented them from killing the rest of the 270,000 seal quota. Read more about the quotas and kill rates here.
Read daily journals from the organizations that had observers on the ice:
Please also take a moment to tell Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn to stop this slaughter, once and for all.
DON'T PEEL SEALS
NEW POSTERS - Put them up in your classrooms, offices, and businesses. Order one today! (Send your mailing address and the number of posters that you would like.)
Killed seal pup, about 2 weeks old. Photo (c) HSUS 2007
2007 Recap: After killing about 2/3 of the quota of seals, almost 100 sealing boats became trapped in the ice pack that formed off Newfoundland and Labrador from a low pressure system that moved through the area in mid-April.
The Canadian Coast Guard brought in ice breaker boats to rescue the sealers, but some of their own boats became stuck as well. They then began flying in supplies by helicopter. All this amounts to more taxpayer funding of the senseless cruelty known as the 'seal hunt.' Read more about the sealers' woes here.
As the year's seal victims got clubbed, shot, and skinned alive for their furs, you can rest assured that this shameful waste of life continues year after year for the same reasons it has for decades: fashion, vanity, greed, and politics... (fur coats and frivolous seal trinkets = mass death for vanity.)
Once again, a small group of ignorant and violent thugs mostly from Newfoundland and Quebec have cast shame on Canada as they have smashed in the heads of hundreds of thousands more baby animals this year.
Keep in mind, this year's quota of 270,000 seals is IN ADDITION to the ecological disaster that took the lives of as many as a quarter million seal pups too young to swim. The massive drownings are the result of the abysmal ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence - the worst conditions in recorded history. (Say "hello" to global warming.)
Rebecca Aldworth, leading HSUS observation team. (c) HSUS 2007
See the video reports by Rebecca Aldworth and HSUS from the killing fields of the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Front. HSUS reported from the second and third phases of the slaughter. No observers were allowed to witness the first phase, in the southern Gulf, which began April 2nd and resulted in the deaths of over 800 pups, far fewer than usual. Most had already drowned.
It was NO SURPRISE to us that the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) ignored their own scientists' warnings of a potentially devasting and irreversable population crash of the harp and hooded seal herds in the coming years and announced another extremely irresponsible kill quota...
Sparse ice with 2 lone seals. (c) HSUS 2007
In fact, they continue promoting this shameful slaughter with a "business as usual" attitude despite mounting world opposition and evidence that the seal population, like the polar bear population, is in jeopardy. This year, they are attempting to sway the European Commission delegation to their favor, but given their flaunting of the "Precautionary Approach" to ecosystem management, they may be hard-pressed to earn the delegation's rubber stamp.
Meanwhile, the taxpayers of Canada are also
victims of this tragedy as they unwittingly fund the "hunt" by way of Coast Guard seal spotter planes and ice cutting services for the killers, government services designed to facilitate the slaughter in the seal nurseries- at no cost at all to the "industry" or to the small group of profiteers from this massacre.
And so, any hopes for "responsible resource management" or "sustainable ecological practices" (promised by the DFO) can be officially thrown out the window and abandoned.
Skinned seal carcasses, left to rot. Photo (c) HSUS 2007
Let's be clear: the DFO continues to promote the shameful act of systematically decimating a marine species and will continue to do so until the seals are gone or WE (YOU!) stop it.
"If not you, who? ; If not now, when?"
Please take action now to tell Canada's politicians that the seal slaughter is unacceptable- and to voice your opposition to the world's largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet. And please continue to read below and on our other web pages to find out what else you can do to stop the slaughter.
The European Commission is finally ready to vote on banning seal imports
A bill to ban products made from the inhumane slaughter of seals will be put to a vote of the 27 member nations of the European community by July 23rd.
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has confirmed that inhumane killing will be applied to death by clubbing.
Mr. Dimas was near Paris yesterday for an informal meeting with European environment ministers. They agreed that the proposed ban would be presented to the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, on either July 16 or 23.
The 27 member countries will then decide collectively whether to approve or reject the ban, his spokeswoman said by telephone.
Mr. Dimas appeared confident it will pass. "We have strong support from the French presidency," he told the wire service Agence France-Presse.
This action by Europe will go a long way toward ending the seal hunt; but to put the final nail in the coffin of this anachronistic atrocity, Americans should continue to join and promote the boycott of Canadian seafood.
Another massacre of baby seals takes place in Namibia each year
at the beginning of July!
Over 85,000 nursing seal pups were stabbed to death in 2006. In 2007, the government allowed another 80,000 pups and 6,000 adults to be killed.
The government is expected to announce another massacre very soon.
Help stop this atrocity. Take action today!
We thank all who joined the opposition to the seal slaughter on the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR THE SEALS!
See the reports on the recent International Day of Action to End the Seal Massacre on March 15th, 2007!
The 2006 Week of Action was the largest ever assemblage of protests for the seals in the history of the seal hunt! Between March 13th and 15th, 2005, less than 2 weeks before the mass killing started, WORLDWIDE SEAL HUNT PROTESTS were simultaneously staged in over 50 cities and 23 countries around the world... Read about the 2005 International Day of Action events
KEEP UP THE PRESSURE! WE NEED YOU TO CONTINUE TO LEAFLET AND PROTEST AT YOUR LOCAL RED LOBSTER AND OTHER CANADIAN SEAFOOD VENDORS AND AT CANADIAN CONSULATES. LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR EVENT SO WE CAN PUBLICIZE IT FOR YOU.
Harpseals.org is running many campaigns to end the seal slaughter. Read about them here.
Our newest campaign is Project Easy Switch, a project designed to facilitate the Canadian seafood boycott and simultaneously increase the competitiveness of American seafood vendors as the Canadian seafood boycott grows stronger.
Also check out our Kids4Seals project and website for kids who want to save the seals.
TAKE ACTION, seal defenders. Here's a quick list of things you can do to help. Read more here.
Show your disgust at the seal "hunt". Keep organizing and attending protests, set up info tables,speak to groups, distribute leaflets. Targets: Canadian consulates, Red Lobster restaurants, other stores/restaurants that refuse polite requests to boycott Canadian seafood.
DONATE to our seal campaign. We are the ONLY organization mounting a (piecemeal) nationwide ad campaign for the seals. We use your donations to fund billboards, radio commercials, print ads, TV commercials, etc. to promote the boycott of Canadian seafood to American seafood consumers.
Exposing the deception at Publix
Tell Publix to Boycott Canadian seafood today!
Publix has the buying power to make a huge difference in the campaign to end the annual massacre of harp seals in Canada. But instead of actually switching from Canadian sources of seafood, to seafood from any other country, Publix has decided to claim that they are participating in the boycott while continuing to buy large amounts of seafood from Canada, including from the sealing provinces.
See for yourself. See their response to our letters. Tell Publix that you won't be fooled. Give them a piece of your mind today! It's fast and easy. And while your there, please email other major seafood retailers who are dealing in Canadian seafood.
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Censored! Harpseals.org's two TV commercials are not easy to get on the air.
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Over 335,000 harp seals were killed in Canada in 2006. Read a summary here.
(AP Photo/ IFAW, Stewart Cook, HO, March 25, 2006.)
One of the first victims of this senseless slaughter: a raggedy-jacket harp seal shot by sealer appears to still be conscious.
Harp seal pups start with white fur and molt over a period of a few weeks. This seal is so young, he/she is just beginning to molt. Yet the DFO allows seals just starting to molt to be killed.
In 2005, over 319,000 baby seals were killed in Canada The "official" report from the Canadian government declaring the final "harvest numbers" for the 2005 season indicates the ridiculous quota of 319,000 baby seals was reached, but this doesn't account for those seals who were "struck and lost."
Read more about the 2005 slaughter, including the bloody adventure experienced by Harpseals.org founder Ian Robichaud as he went to the ice to defend the seals with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
In 2004, over 365,971 baby seals were killed in Canada
In just 2 days, more than 145,000 seals were killed.
Harpseals.org held our Second Benefit Concert for the Seals in Los Angeles, in January, 2007, to raise funds for our campaigns to end the seal slaughter.
Supreme Master TV also aired their report and interviews from the concert on Friday, Feb. 2.
If you'd like to organize an fundraising event for Harpseals.org, please let us know.
THE STORY OF THE FAMOUS WHITE BABIES:
Harp seals are undoubtedly some of the most beautiful and gentle creatures on earth.
So why are they the victims of the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet? Read about their plight here.
Join or monitor the ORGANIZED OPPOSITION to the seal "hunt" as it continues to grow!
Organizations all over the world are coordinating efforts to end the bloody seal hunt once and for all. Harpseals.org spearheads this effort as it is our only focus.
Getting the Word out to Millions
See what Harpseals.org is doing to spread the word about the seal hunt and the creative ways in which we can work with our volunteers.
In the spirit of journalistic fairness, it should be noted here that the Canadian government's yearly propaganda efforts regarding this so called "hunt" suggest information and "facts" contrary to many statements you can find in this website...
The interesting thing to note is how easily much of this information is debunked and DISPROVED if researched by those willing to expend the effort. (WE HAVE, and will continue to do so.) Therefore, we stand by our conclusions.
But clearly there is much information to decipher regarding the seal hunt and we ask that you take us not for our word but instead go forth and seek the truth for yourselves.
This website should be used as a platform from which interested parties can dig deeper into the real facts surrounding this slaughter and come up with their own conclusions and motivations for helping to end the hunt.
In other words: if you're unclear on who or what to believe, we urge you to pick a topic in this website and research it yourself.
Just one word of caution: Don't be surprised if you unearth some fairly unbelievable and/ or horrific discoveries- because THAT IS the true nature of the Canadian seal hunt tragedy.
Content of Harpseals.org copyright 2000- 2007. All rights reserved.
HOWEVER, we highly encourage creative forms of copying, plagiarizing, downloading of text, cutting, pasting, distributing, and utilizing the content on this site for any ANTI-sealing purposes, or projects you can think of.
We only ask for a link to this site in return.
The "official" report from the Canadian government declaring the final "harvest numbers" for the 2005 season indicates the ridiculous quota of 319,000 baby seals was reached, but this doesn't account for those seals who were "struck and lost." 
A plea to end the killing...
Martin Sheen speaks out!
Here's an example of how it works, as reported in 
The sealers of Newfoundland usually kill seal pups by shooting and then hooking and dragging them into boats. Aiming for the head and reluctant to shoot twice (prices for 'damaged pelts' are worth too little to bother. Even full price pelts were not worth the cost of being there this year.), many seal pups were injured and dragged into boats conscious. In addition, many seals were clubbed with the 'hakapik,' until the sealers were ready to skin them.
