Written by Jeff Mackey
As we mentioned recently, the EU has issued a ruling that upholds its ban on products from the bloody annual Canadian seal massacre. Now the only remaining challenge to that ban rests with the World Trade Organization (WTO), which just concluded its hearings—with PETA in attendance—and things didn't go well for Canada.
During the hearings, the EU demonstrated that it is not possible to ensure that the seals are unconscious when they are killed. Canada tried to argue that seals decimate cod populations (which local fishers want for themselves), but the EU pointed out that science has shown that the decline of fish populations can be blamed on reckless overfishing.
In the end, if the hearings weren't so important, they might have seemed like a bad joke: Canada succeeded only in calling attention to its own marine mismanagement. This may finally sound the death knell for Canada's seal slaughter, since even its one-time supporters have acknowledged that it has become untenable. We'll keep you posted here at The PETA Files.
Thanks are due to all the good folks who expressed their concerns to the WTO on behalf of PETA or PETA UK, including Jude Law, Pamela Anderson, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop, and Sarah McLachlan. They asked the organization to uphold the ban and/or urged the WTO to hold open hearings—which it did, making it possible for a PETA representative to be present.
The end is in sight, but we can't slack off now—please tell Canadian officials that it's time to stop the slaughter, and then spread the word to get more people involved today.
As Canada's bloody annual seal massacre approaches again this spring, the at-risk animals can always count on their country's own superhero for animals, Pamela Anderson. The bombshell from British Columbia has submitted an appeal on behalf of PETA urging the World Trade Organization (WTO) to uphold the European Union's (EU) ban on seal-fur imports.
© StarMaxInc.com
The WTO's public hearings on trade arising from the cruel seal slaughter begin in Geneva on February 18. All major markets have banned seal-pelt imports, including the EU, the U.S., Taiwan, Mexico, and most recently Russia, which had been importing 95 percent of the Canadian sealskins, marking one of the biggest victories in the history of animal rights!
Please help Pam and PETA save seals from being bludgeoned and skinned alive for their fur—urge Canada's leaders to support Sen. Mac Harb's bill to end the commercial seal massacre today!
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Are you still trying to cool off from the scorcher that was 2012? Scientists report that it was the hottest year on record for the U.S.—but instead of blaming Mother Nature, we can point the finger at ourselves. "It is abundantly clear that we are seeing [human-caused] climate change in action," according to Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
So PETA sent the greenest gals we know on a jaunt across Canada to show people how easy it is to go green—no bodypaint required. Since carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide together are the biggest contributors to climate change and raising animals for food is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions and the single largest source of both methane and nitrous oxide emissions, going vegan has been called the "single most effective thing you can do" to combat climate change.
People eagerly posed for pictures with the lime ladies, and they took home PETA's "Meat's Not Green" leaflets and copies of legendary animal and environmental advocate Paul McCartney's meat industry exposé, "Glass Walls."
By simply opting for faux meats and dairy products over animal-based ones, we can make 2013 a lucky year for animals and help reduce climate change. And that's pretty cool.
O, Canada! We're always busy, busy, busy during this festive season, but we haven't forgotten our pals in the Great White North—y compris nos amis francophones. Yanks and Canucks have so much in common, and yet there are distinctive differences. For example, while the yuletide finds a disturbing number of friendly, intelligent pigs on this side of the 49th parallel killed for ham, it's the saddest day of the year for abused factory-farmed turkeys in Canada. So PETA is encouraging Canadian kids (since kids haven't yet been taught to suppress their natural compassion for animals) to consider what—and who—they're eating. PETA has placed the attention-grabbing holiday billboard seen below on a highway leading into Victoria, British Columbia.
PETA's also giving U.S. kids something to chew on other than cruelly produced ham with this billboard, just outside Reno, Nevada.
Of course, companion animals need our help, too—and it's not just children who need to reconsider their attitudes. So PETA is also looking to put up a brand-new billboard—promoting spaying and neutering to effectively curb animal overpopulation—in the hope of reaching those kind people for whom this season is more about revering Mary than reveling merrily.
We'd like to thank all the donors whose support of PETA makes it possible to place these billboards, which foster awareness of animal rights.
What You Can Do
To give a holiday gift that keeps on giving to animals year-round, become a PETA member. And please remember to shop PETA for everyone on your list—each purchase funds vital efforts to improve and save animals' lives!
As Canadian Sen. Mac Harb prepared to address the Senate about his bill to phase-out the seal slaughter last week, he got some unexpected support from another well-known Ontario native.
Photo: Don Flood|Hair: Giannandrea for The Wall Group|Makeup: Gloria Noto for Jed Root
The Secret Life of the American Teenager star Megan Park is proud to hail from Canada, and she wrote to each senator in her native Ontario on PETA's behalf expressing her support for Bill S-210 and urging the senators to pass it:
Since I play a teenager on TV, I know that young people everywhere are becoming increasingly aware of issues that affect animals, and like me, they don't want to see baby seals bludgeoned and skinned alive to make fur coats.
The Senate voted unanimously to continue debate on the bill. From American teenagers to Russian prime ministers to Canadian actors to British rockers, the world is sending Canada a message that is loud and clear: It's time to end the seal slaughter. If you haven't already done so, please add your voice to the chorus today.
Last week after Canadian Sen. Mac Harb announced that he would introduce a bill to end the seal slaughter, PETA immediately posted an action alert on our website asking our members to urge Canadian senators to support the bill. You responded in droves: Within two days, some 50,000 of you asked them to pass the bill and end the slaughter. Hollywood jumped in, too, and soon a link to our action alert had reached millions of people via Twitter.
Sam Simon, Stephanie Pratt, Jessica-Jane Clement, Joanna Krupa, Angela Simmons, Laura Vandervoort, Sheneka Adams, Jayde Nicole, Elisabetta Canalis, and Jessica Veronica, also tweeted their support, and before the bill had even been introduced, the worldwide support for it was evident.
With public support for the bill obviously so overwhelming, Sen. Larry Campbell seconded it after it was introduced, and the Senate voted almost unanimously to hear arguments on it. The bill will now be debated, so we still need everyone to continue to e-mail Canada's senators and urge them to support this historic piece of legislation.
Here's some good (but still sad!) news from one front in the fight to stop the annual Canadian seal massacre: Only eight grey seals were killed in Nova Scotia this year. That's down from nearly 1,500 in 2008, which (if my calculator skills don't fail me) means that this year's killings were just over half of 1 percent of the number of animals who died there just four years ago.
(c) Sea Shepard Conservation Society
Of course, grey seals aren't the only ones bludgeoned in the yearly massacre—the larger commercial harp-seal slaughter is expected to start soon. And even though the market is dead now that Russia—which had imported 95 percent of Canadian seal pelts—has joined the U.S. and the E.U. in banning seal fur, Canada's Fisheries Department has set the annual harp seal quota at 400,000 (the same as last year), amid reports that the government is considering buying and stockpiling pelts in the hope of breaking into new markets.
So this is no time to rest. PETA's international year-round vigorous campaigning will continue—we're keeping busy in a major market that Canada's still trying to lure: China. Although you may not be able to read Chinese, you can see from the photo of this popular Chinese TV star, Gao Yuanyuan, in PETA's seal shirt that we are going all out globally to stop this bloody trade. Please take action now to ensure that the slaughter ends.
Written by Alisa Mullins
It's not over yet, but Iggy Pop, Perez Hilton, Kelly Osbourne, Pamela Anderson, Sarah McLachlan, Diane Warren, and all the people who have spoken out, worn the PETA shirts, and appeared in our ads in the last year have brought us closer to the end of the Canadian seal slaughter. Just weeks before the annual slaughter is set to resume, Ryan Cleary, a member of the Canadian Parliament who represents one of the regions in which the seal slaughter takes place, has acknowledged that the tremendous outcry against beating and shooting baby seals has him questioning the future of the bloody massacre. Says Mr. Cleary: "Part of our history is also whaling, for example, and the day came when the whaling industry stopped. Now, is that day coming with the seal hunt? It just may be."
© Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Cleary's statement comes just weeks after Russia announced that it was taking steps to ban the import of Canadian harp-seal fur, a move that came after Pamela Anderson led an international appeal on PETA's behalf.
Polls have consistently shown that most Canadians oppose the seal slaughter, and as Cleary noted, the industry is an increasing liability for Canada that the country is having more and more difficulty defending.
Please click here to tell Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that yes, the time has come to send the seal slaughter the way of whale slaughter and ban it before the next massacre commences this spring.
A bit of good news from the Great White North: After years of pressure from animal rights activists—and after hearing from PETA recently—Air Canada, one of only two major North American airlines that still fly primates to laboratories, is taking steps to end the shipments. The airline has requested permission from the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to enact a ban on transporting primates destined for experiments, a practice that the CTA currently requires Air Canada to engage in. PETA had been in contact with Air Canada about its policy as part of an international campaign to stop airlines from transporting primates to laboratories, where they will be caged, experimented on, and killed.
Recently, PETA exposed appalling cruelty to monkeys at one of the largest importers of primates in the U.S.—Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) in Everett, Washington—after being contacted by a distraught worker there. The photos and video footage recorded by the whistleblower show sick, distressed monkeys suffering after being injected with chemicals and subjected to violent handling.
Please support the growing number of compassionate and progressive airlines—including Delta, American Airlines, and British Airways—that are saying "No" to primate abuse, and click here to ask the Canadian Transport Authority to grant Air Canada's request to ban the shipment of primates to labs.
Click here to ask the Canadian Transport Authority to grant Air Canada’s request to ban the shipment of primates to labs
Written by PETA
To encourage Canadians to celebrate a cruelty-free Thanksgiving, sexy PETA "pilgrims" landed at Toronto's Old City Hall for a festive Tofurky giveaway. Thankful Torontonians gobbled up the demonstration—literally. The pilgrims handed out 50 delicious, meat-free Tofurky roasts in less than five minutes!
Turkeys are intelligent, affectionate animals, so please have the "grace" to leave them off the table. Remember: If you wouldn't eat your dog, don't eat a turkey.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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