To: The Prime Minister and
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Dear Prime Minister and
Members of Parliament:
Regarding the following CNN
Matthews report on what the Canadian Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn
said about how humane the Canadian seal hunt is, I am writing
to relay something else his department said last year.
During the 2006 seal hunt, we
released to media that independent studies, conducted mostly by
veterinarians, attested that over 10%, in one case up to 42%, of the
300,000+ young seals massacred each year were killed inhumanely,
including being skinned alive. The Department of Fisheries and
Oceans countered that according to their only study, "only" 2% were
killed inhumanely.
Even 2% of 325,000 is 6,500.
At one meter per seal, 6,500
seals in single file would line a road for over 6 km, or over
30 city blocks. All 325,000 seals would line a highway for 325 km.
(Please see the "Terminate the Canadian Seal Massacre" webpage of
www.HOPE-CARE.org for an outrageous quote from ex-minister John
Efford.)
A few years ago, two Canadian
"artists" tortured a cat to death and video-taped the act as art.
This generated a global fire storm of outrage, which put the two men
in jail. If we would not tolerate skinning a single cat alive, why
should we give anything more than zero tolerance to skinning
thousands of baby seals alive?
There is the argument that if
the Canadian seal hunt is banned, then thousands of sealers would
lose their livelihood. Allow me to point out that sealing lasts
only two weeks a year. It is at best a very-part-time job, at worst
a cruel hobby in which they are paid to indulge.
As a Canadian citizen I
welcome any external observer to monitor the "hunt", especially at a
time when the Canadian government is closing its doors to observers
in general. The first question is: What do they have to hide? Even
though it is predictable that the sealers would be on their best
behaviour if forewarned, there would be nothing they could do to
conceal the inherent inhumanity and cowardice in killing baby
animals by the hundreds of thousands, often in front of their
horrified mothers, for nothing more worthy than a fur coat or a seal
penis.
The seals are having enough
trouble as it is when Arctic sea-ice is being drastically reduced by
global warming. The entire polar ice cap may be melted within
decades. They do not need human help to hasten their possible
eventual extinction.
As a Canadian, I humbly ask
the United Kingdom to ban all Canadian seal products, and further,
to take a leading role towards a European-Union-wide ban. I would
consider it a favour on your part to help clean the Canadian
reputation in the long run.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Anthony Marr, founder
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
4118 West 11th Ave.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6R 2L6
1-604-222-1169
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