This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

Despite the pandemic, the notoriously brutal Canadian seal hunt is still happening, and the bloodiest months are coming. Hundreds of thousands of harp seals and their babies will be beaten with barbed clubs, shot, and many will be skinned alive for their fur. Please act now to stop this senseless bloodbath!

Canada's annual seal hunt runs from mid-November to mid-May, with the highest number of animals killed—as many as 300,000 individuals—in April and May. Harp seals give birth and are still nursing their young on the ice floes off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, during this time. In just a few weeks, the serene scene of the harp seal nursery will be shattered by violent, off-season fishermen who will mercilessly beat and shoot seals and their babies for their fur, all the while inaccurately blaming seals for the irresponsible decline in fish which the fishermen cause themselves... The mass slaughter of seals and their babies is not only sanctioned by the Canadian government, but it is also financially supported by the government to the tune of millions of Canadian taxpayer dollars.

Tragically, the hunt continues despite public pressure to stop it, polls showing that a majority of Canadians oppose the killing, as well as expert and veterinarian reviews of the hunt showing its inherent cruelty. A 2001 study conducted by veterinarians found that as many as 42% of the slaughtered seals they examined had been skinned while conscious. In 2007, veterinarian Dr. Mary Richardson concluded that the seal hunt is inherently inhumane because of the environment in which it operates, and the speed at which the killing takes place. Yet another 2007 review of the hunt by veterinary and zoological experts concluded that the methods used to kill or render the seals unconscious (clubbing and shooting) are inhumane. Even if one animal is subjected to being skinned while fully conscious, it's too many, and the hunt must permanently be shut down.

To make matters worse for the seals, a recent Good Morning America TV segment highlighted how climate change is now heavily impacting their breeding grounds. Increasing temperatures are causing winter ice to melt, which means smaller and smaller breeding grounds for animals, including harp seals. In as little as 75 years, there may be no ice left for them at all. With all the controversy, cruelty, and climate impacts on harp seals, the time to end the hunt is now. 

What You Can Do

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.