The Humane Society of the United States has campaigned for years against the annual Canadian seal slaughter. This year I plan to continue my efforts to help the HSUS ProtectSeals team. Last Spring I participated in their protests by writing letters to Stephen Harper (Canada’s Prime Minister) and Loyola Hearn (Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans), blogging, boycotting Canadian seafood, and commenting (in discussions tied to news articles) to try to stop the atrocities which eventually occurred anyway.
The callous attitude of Loyola Hearn toward animals (evidenced by his comments and actions regarding the seal hunts and bottom trawling) angers and disgusts me. Nevertheless, people of conscience must keep fighting against the brutal seal slaughter or it will continue uncontested. The Canadian government obviously will not respond to pleas of empathy or ethics, but caring people will if they are made aware of the atrocities and stirred to act. I know that many, many more Canadians are opposed to the seal hunts than speak out. It is to these good people that I plan to appeal for action, requesting that they write letters to their MPs (Minister of Parliament), letters to newspaper editors, post in their blogs, and take other actions that may help. I also plan to continue to bring attention to the seal hunts in the ways that I did last year, hoping to induce people outside of Canada to join the efforts to ban the slaughter.
The good news from last year’s HSUS ProtectSeals campaign was that after Paul and Heather McCartney joined the campaign efforts the European Union called for a ban on harp and hooded seal products. This greatly annoyed the Canadian seal hunters, but it gave me hope that continued economic tactics, combined with pressure from the Canadian public, the voters, will cause the Canadian government to ban future seal hunts.
I look forward to your thoughts on, and help with, this goal.
