THE LARGEST SLAUGHTER OF MARINE ANIMALS ON THE PLANET

In March 0f 2003, the world will witness what has become the largest kill of harp seals in Canada since 1850.

Stating that they were responding to “market conditions”, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set a quota of 350,000 seals to be slaughtered each year for the next three years.

This move towards a market driven quota rather than one set according to conservation principals will have grave consequences for the harp seal population. Certainly, this situation is reminiscent of the circumstances leading to the collapse of the cod stocks in the early 1990s.

In 2002 the quota was 275,000 and the actual kill was officially in excess of 307,000. The government of Canada responded to this overkill by raising the quota to a ridiculous high of 350,000.

The DFO’s refusal to enforce its own quota and Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations (MMRs) signifies a dangerous abdication of its responsibility to manage the seal hunt.

A 2001 study conducted by an international team of veterinarians found that during the hunt, up to 42% of seals are skinned alive while fully conscious.

Furthermore, video evidence gathered each year shows routine violations of the Marine Mammal Regulations and Canada’s Criminal Code, including the skinning and bleeding of live seals, the stockpiling of dead and dying animals, and the dragging of live seals across the ice with sharpened boat hooks.

Despite the submission of more than 660 thoroughly documented violations to the DFO over the past few years, not a single charge has been laid in response.

Today, the Canadian hunt for harp and hooded seals is the largest slaughter of marine mammals anywhere in the world.

Would the World Wildlife Fund Have Supported the Slaughter of the Passenger Pigeon?

You Bet they Would

That's why they Support the Canadian Seal Slaughter Today

If the World Wildlife Fund was established back in the 19th Century, they would have indeed supported both the commercial exploitation and the recreational hunting of the passenger pigeon. After all there were millions of them, and WWF supports both the commercial slaughter of, and the recreational killing of wildlife.
But of course they would have mounted a big fund-raising effort to save the last few survivors during the first decade of the 20th Century.
Yes the pleas would have gone out begging for money to save the passenger pigeon. The World Wildlife Fund would have led the prayer vigil for Martha, the last Passenger pigeon as she lay dying in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.
Today they are doing this with the Harp Seal.
The WWF is supporting the increased kill quotas and has endorsed the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet.
WHY?
The World Wildlife Fund has long been a haven for big game hunters, hunters, trappers, fur farmers, commercial fishing corporations, and other enemies of animals.
Now the World Wildlife Fund has publicly endorsed the largest marine wildlife slaughter in the world.

WWF is not an animal welfare organization. We support the hunting and consumption of wild animals provided the harvesting does not threaten the long-term survival of wildlife populations. WWF has never opposed a sustainable seal hunt in northern or eastern Canada.

"I wish to share with you my profound indignation, deep sadness and disgust concerning the position of World Wildlife Fund Canada supporting the new quota decided by the government, the hunt of one million seals over a period of three years!
How can an organization that you preside over and that has no need to prove its reputation in the domain of the conservation of species anymore, defend such a scandalous position.
I went to the ice pack more than 25 years ago, I saw the massacre of these baby seals, their head smashed by clubs and picks, I saw these bleeding bodies, these babies struggling for life whilst being skinned… I will never forget these pictures, the screams of pain, they still torture me but they have given me the strength to sacrifice my whole life to defend the animal's one.
I have often supported WWF, given my image to some of its programmes, and I feel betrayed, it has attacked my most symbolic battle.
It is easy and unfair to accuse the seals of consuming too much fish when, during the same period of time, floating factories decimate the sea beds, transforming this natural richness into an aquatic desert. Seals are victims of overflowing industrial fishing and definitely not responsible for the deterioration of the populations, they are also victims of the climatic changes and are directly threatened by the melting of the ice.
Our duty is to protect them Before it's too late!

WWF logo with the PANDA...
Sanitarium SOY milk (organic)...for each carton of soy milk that is sold, 10 cents goes to WWF. Sanitarium's Address:
Sanitarium Health Food Co
Locked Bag 7
Cenntral Coast
Mail Centre NSW 2252
or email: marketing@sanitarium.com.au

Unfortunately not all of these tour groups are sincere.

This year, Sea Shepherd undertook an investigation of the tourist operations to the ice. What we found was very disturbing.

Captain Watson had the opportunity to approach a tourist group out of the Magdalens on March 9th, 2003. He found the tour guide for this group to be decidedly unfriendly. He was wearing a wolf skin hat and questioned why the Sea Shepherd crew had approached their group.

Captain Watson questioned two tourists from New Mexico. They were not aware of the escalation in quota and told him of the briefing from their tour guides prior to coming to the ice.

The tour guides guide told them that the seal populations needed to be reduced, and that the seals were responsible for the decline of the codfish populations and the destruction of the cod fishery. Clearly this tourist organization continues to spread propaganda and misinformation about the seal hunt.

Any tour group that originates with the Chateau Madelinot in the Magdalen Islands should be boycotted.

This is a group run by sealers and people sympathetic to the slaughter of seals.

Helicopter pilots and tour guides actually inform the sealers on the Magdalen Islands of the coordinates to find the seals. This means that the money you pay for a tour to the ice actually helps the sealers to find the seals.

In fact, the tourists are given briefings and told blatant lies about the seal kill. They are told that it no longer takes place in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and they are told that it is necessary for the seals to be killed off Newfoundland because the populations need to be controlled and that the seals are responsible for the destruction of the cod fish.

Target - TravelWild
The Travel Wild Website is www.travelwild.com
Their 800 number is 1-800-368-0077

Target - CHATEAU MADELINOT

ADDRESS:
323, route 199
C.P. 265, Cap-aux-Meules
Îles de la Madeleine (Québec) G0B 1B0
TELEPHONE: (418) 986-2211
or 1 (800) 661-4537
FAX: (418) 986-2886
E-MAIL: madeli@duclos.net
WEBSITE: www.ilesdelamadeleine.
com/hotels
CONTACT: Émile Richard or Jean-Yves Thériault

Send an e-mail to both Travel Wild and the Chateau Madelinot and say that you will not patronize any nature tour group that supports the slaughter of the seals.

If you want to see the seals on the ice, Sea Shepherd suggests and endorses Natural Habitat Adventures. This tour group can be reached at

www.naturalhabitatadventures.com

Canadian Member of Parliament Georges Farrah
Canadian Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Member of Parliament for Bonaventure - Gaspe - Iles-de-la-Madeleine - Pabok

Province: Quebec

Telephone (613) 992-6188

Fax: (613) 992 6194

E-Mail Farrah.G@parl.gc.ca

John Efford has led the call for the extermination of the seals. This is reflected in the statement (above) made to the Newfoundland Legislature.

The following are valid targets for sending correspondence to regarding the seal hunt for 2003 and the future:

John Efford
Bio or claim to fame:
*Newfoundland Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Trinity-Conception.
*Former Newfoundland Fisheries Minister

Phone number: 613-992-4133
Fax Number: 613-992-7277
E-mail address: Efford.J@parl.gc.ca

"We need to keep reminding Mr. Efford that people are opposed to the slaughter of seals. E-mail him and e-mail him often to protest his contemptible attitude towards the harp seals. This man is an arrogant politician and I have had quite a few debates with him over the years in the media. We are not going to change his attitude but we certainly can annoy him." -Captain Paul Watson

Robert G. Thibault
Bio or claim to fame:
*HOUSE OF COMMONS -Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada

The Honourable Robert G. Thibault
HOUSE OF COMMONS Minister,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada Parliament Buildings,
Wellington Street Ottawa,
Ontario,
Canada, K1A 0A6,
and/ or
Fisheries and Oceans,
Canada Station 13228,
200 Kent Street, 13th Floor Ottawa,
Ontario K1A 0E6
Phone numbers: (613) 993-0999
and/ or (Toll-free) 1-800-465-7735
Fax Number: (613) 990-1866
E-mail address: Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
(please include your postal and email address), and/or try this one:
info@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Website:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/index.htm

Jean Chrétien
Bio or claim to fame:
*Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Jean Chrétien
Office of the Prime Minister,
80 Wellington Street,
Ottawa Canada K1A 0A2
Phone number: (202)-682-1740 ?
Fax Number: 613-941-6900
E-mail address: pm@pm.gc.ca

Michael Kergin
Bio or claim to fame:
*Office of the Ambassador, (Economic) Canada

Canadian Embassy,
501 Pennsylvania Ave.,
NW Washington, DC 20001,
Fax: 202-682-7701
Phone number: (202)-682-1740,
Fax Number: (202)-682-7678
or (202)-682-7701,
E-mail address: webmaster@canadianembassy.org
(please include your postal and email address), and/or try this one:
info@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Website: http://canadianembassy.org/
homepage/index-en.asp

Bertin Cote
Bio or claim to fame:
*Minister (Economic) and Deputy Head of Mission

Canadian Embassy,
501 Pennsylvania Ave.,
NW Washington, DC 20001
Phone number: (202)-682-1740,
Fax Number: (202)-682-7678
or (202)-682-7701,
E-mail address: webmaster@canadianembassy.org
(please include your postal and email address)
Website: http://canadianembassy.org/
homepage/index-en.asp

 

THE WORLD'S LARGEST WILDLIFE SLAUGHTER

Take a protected species under the protection of the Department of the Environment, call it a resource, increase the killing, and you have the largest wildlife slaughter in the world today.

Government sanctioned cruelty
The Code of Practice says joeys can be ripped from their slain mother's pouch and hit on the head with a water pipe or iron bar until dead; shooters even bash joeys against their vehicle or a tree trunk.
Older, ex-pouch, but still dependent joeys flee in terror when their mothers are killed to die from cold, starvation, predation and maternal depravation. A million or more joeys die in this way every year.

GOVERNMENT 'PRO-KANGAROO INDUSTRY SCIENTISTS PROMOTE THE KILLING, THEY...

• Fail to acknowledge different and specific needs of the four commercially killed species and 'manage' them as one
• Use 'guesstimates' and changing correction factors to estimate populations
  
• Totally disregard the biological and social needs of kangaroos
  
• Ignore natural selection and manipulate kangaroo populations for artificial results to benefit the kangaroo industry
  
• Do not monitor the legal or illegal killing of kangaroos
  
• Ignore studies which prove kangaroos do not compete with cattle and sheep
  
• Removed 'damage mitigation' as the sole reason for killing kangaroos
  
• Ignore the Precautionary Principle
  
• Ignore the $6 billion nature-based tourism industry

The kangaroo killing industry supplies leather for soccer cleats, handbags and baseball mitts, which is fueling the slaughter of millions of kangaroos and their babies every year. 6.9 million kangaroos will be shot this year - it is the biggest wildlife massacre in the world and it must be stopped.

Adidas is far and away the leader in 'premier' soccer cleats, with 70 percent of the market worldwide and by heavily marketing its highly-priced, kangaroo-skin, Predator football boots around the world. Headline stars such as David Beckham encourage the brutality by wearing and promoting Predator boots.

It is vital to the survival of kangaroos that we stop the trade in their skins, especially for the manufacturing of soccer cleats. According to Australia's leading tanners of kangaroo leather, Parker Tanning, manufacturers prefer to use the largest skins to make athletic footwear. These skins come from the large red males who take 10 years to reach alpha status and are being continually massacred so few survive to pass on their superior genes to the next generation. This means that smaller, weaker and younger males are left to breed with the females, producing offspring who are less likely to survive a major drought or other natural disasters. We must reverse this trend before a major disaster strikes and Australian kangaroos are wiped out! It is frightening that leather suppliers are complaining that there are few large red males left in Australia. Skins are getting smaller and smaller as they now shoot juveniles.

 

Myth: Plagues of kangaroos? Australia overrun by kangaroos?
Fact: Kangaroos were widespread and abundant at the time of early settlement. Now they are fugitives in their own country and Skippy is relentlessly pursued.
Myth: Kangaroos degrade and destroy the environment.
Fact: The soft padded feet and long tail of the kangaroo are integral to the ecological health of the land as regenerators of native grasses. It is destructive agricultural practices on marginal land that are proving to be unsustainable.
Myth: We need to kill and eat our wildlife to save it. Wildlife must 'pay its way'.
Fact: It is imperative that we link wildlife corridors throughout Australia to restore kangaroo and wildlife habitat. Tourists want to see tourist icon Skippy... but kangaroos are being decimated and the outback is turning to dust. The ecological and economic value of wildlife nature-based tourism is ignored.