Topic: Urge the Olympic Committee to Help End the Canadian Seal Slaughter

[Derek]

In a few short weeks, Canada's ice floes will be the scene of carnage. Hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals will be beaten over the head with primitive clubs, be impaled with metal hooks, and have the skin ripped off their bodies. More than 205,000 seals are estimated to have been barbarically killed in this way in 2008 alone.

At least that many seals are expected to be slaughtered this year.

But we can, and must, do more than simply bear witness to this terrible cruelty and the wanton greed and vanity that drives the demand for fur—all fur.

Just yesterday, the European Union moved one step closer to a complete ban on the trade of skin from seals slaughtered in Canada. And in support of this, protests against the Canadian government, many of them organized by PETA, are now going on all around the globe.

To counter the growing outrage, the Canadian government has introduced pathetic new measures to make this year's grotesque seal massacre appear more humane. It has banned the use of hakapiks—clubs with metal hooks on their ends—on seals who are at least 1 year old. And now sealers must theoretically wait all of 60 seconds before skinning seals in order to "ensure" that they are dead.

But nearly all the animals killed in this year's seal slaughter will be just a few months old—young enough to be bludgeoned to death with the same hakapiks that Canada calls too barbaric for use on older seals. There is nothing at all humane, however, about impaling thousands of baby seals with hooks and leaving them to choke on their own blood before being skinned.

That is why we are now launching a new campaign to stop the government-sanctioned seal massacre—a campaign that targets the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. The Games are a year away, but now is the time to act.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is already well aware of the surging calls from all around the world to stop the seal slaughter. We are pressuring the committee, as well as the Canadian government, to do the right thing today—or face unprecedented demonstrations and economic challenges that could take some of the much-coveted profits away from the Winter Games and leave a long-lasting bloody stain on Canada's global reputation.

With this year's seal massacre fast approaching, I must urgently ask you to help by acting today in the following way:

Speak out for seals by writing to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee and letting it know that it is in its best interest to help end the slaughter.
 

Thank you for doing all that you can to help us rally the world to send a clear message to Canada that this massacre must end.