Baby Seal

William, a cute seal playing in the sun, is likely to become a victim of the Canadian Seal Hunt this year. Help spread the word about this cruelty and donate.

Filed under: seal hunt

A Quick Brief

I’ve been busy, so haven’t had a chance to address issues of late. Here is a few quick things:

1) Japan Tsumani /Earthquake – this sad event that occurred nearly two months ago is still having an enormous effect in the country and beyond. While thousands of human lives are lost and without homes and shelter, animals are also neglected, homeless and suffering. Please donate to the Red Cross to help with their efforts to help those in need, and go to American Humane Association’s Red Star Animal Rescue and give.

2) 2011 Canadian Seal Hunt – Another year, another heartache. I revisit this issue every year, and hopefully the number of seals to be hunted during this season has gone down. But it’s still happening—baby harp seals await teams of Canadian Seal hunters to bludgeon, shot, stabbed, and killed for their pelts. It’s unspeakable – please continue to spread the word and boycott Canadian products. For more information, visit www.IFAW.org.

Filed under: animal cruelty, Fur, hunting, seal hunt, American Humane Associate Red Star, canadian seal hunt, japan tsunami

The Bond: Our Kinship to Animals, Our Call to Defend Them

I’m looking forward to reading the new book, The Bond: Our Kinship to Animals, Our Call to Defend Them, by Wayne Parcelle, the President of the Humane Society of United States. Whether you’re a fan of the organization or not, there will be things here that you can learn about the general state of animal welfare and cruelty, and how we can contribute to make it a kinder world for animals and humans alike.  See except below:

“As harsh as nature is for animals, cruelty comes only from human hands. We are the creature of conscience, aware of the wrongs we do and fully capable of making things right. Our best instincts will always tend in that direction, because there is a bond with animals that’s built into every one of us. That bond of kinship and fellow-feeling has been with us through the entire arc of human experience—from our first bare-footed steps on the planet through the era of the domestication of animals and into the modern age. For all that sets humanity apart, animals remain “our companions in Creation,” to borrow a phrase from Pope Benedict XVI, bound up with us in the story of life on earth. Every act of callousness toward an animal is a betrayal of that bond. In every act of kindness we keep faith with the bond. And broadly speaking, the whole mission of the animal welfare cause is to repair the bond—for their sake and for our own.

In our day, there are stresses and fractures of the human-animal bond, and some forces at work that would sever it once and for all. They pull us in the wrong direction and away from the decent and honorable code that makes us care for creatures who are entirely at our mercy. Especially within the last 200 years, we’ve come to apply an industrial mindset to the use of animals, too often viewing them as if they were nothing but articles of commerce, the raw material of science, or mere obstacles in the path of our own progress. Here, as in other pursuits, human ingenuity has a way of outrunning human conscience, and some things we do only because we can—forgetting to ask whether we should.”

Pre-Order at Amazon.com

Filed under: animal cruelty, circus, environment, farm animals, humane farming, humane organizations, hunting, international issues, local issues, puppy mills, seal hunt, Take Action

Canadian Seal Hunt 2010

I’ve requested a cause to be created on Social Vibe. Please visit and join the discussion.

The Canadian Seal Hunt will soon begin again this winter. Each year, Canadian sealers charge their boats into the snowy territories in Northern Canada with clubs and shotguns in hand, ready for blood. Canada claims that this is necessary as it brings jobs and economical prosperity to the regions, yet many believe this explanation is unfounded. Each year, over 250,000 baby harp seals are slaughtered on the ice, for their skin and white fur. Barely 3 weeks old, they will be torn from their mothers, shot or clubbed on the head to death, while many, still alive and screaming in agony, skinned for their furs, a horrific murder scene on the pristine, beautiful snow tainted in red.There has been a public outcry against such unspeakable acts of cruelty. European countries have already banned Canadian food from import in 2009, and this will get even more attention this year. Please boycott Canadian goods and learn more about this issue and spread the word, sign as many petitions to help legislators bring an end to this. Thank you.

To learn more, please visit http://www.hsus.org/protectseal.html

Filed under: animal cruelty, environment, international issues, ocean, seal hunt, Take Action, canadian seal hunt, Take Action

A Small Victory For Seals

On May 8, 2009, we won a small victory for seals – The European Parliament voted to outlaw buying or selling products of cruel commercial seal slaughter in all 27 nations of the EU. This was made possible because of all of your support. The EU was one of the world’s top market for seal product, and with this now banned, we can only hope that the seal hunt’s end is imminently possible in the near future. Watch the video at the bottom of the Humane Society homepage where Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues, Rebecca Aldworth, takes us on a brief journey into the seal hunt story and tells how we can all do something about it.

Rebecca Aldworth, Direction of Canadian Wildlife Issues, HSUS.

Filed under: animal cruelty, humane organizations, seal hunt, canadian seal hunt, EU Seal Product ban, Humane Society of the United States, rebecca aldworth

Canada’s Seal Hunt – Bloody Business

If you happen to come upon this blog, you already know the seal hunt is WRONG. Here are some pictures from Rebecca Aldworth (HSI/Canada) who has been writing and documenting the atrocity on the ice. It is simply heartbreaking. Read her full entries here.

An excerpt:

“So often the suffering of the seals during this slaughter is viewed at a distance.

	“It takes a special kind of person to club and shoot helpless baby seals.” © HSI/Sanchez, 04-03-09

From the air, from thousands of feet, somehow the pain of the animals does not transmit properly.

You see them wriggling across the ice, blood trailing behind them. You see their mouths open in a silent scream through the camera lens.

But from the ice it is different. You hear their cries, you see them try to escape, you smell the blood and you feel their terror.

Yesterday, the ProtectSeals team travelled to the seal killing area by our boat (a small, rigid, inflatable vessel), documenting the slaughter from 30 meters away. We witnessed so many seals dying a horrible death, as sealers shot at the terrified babies, and then descended on the wounded, struggling animals with wooden bats.

I will never be able to forget the agonizing assault on one seal. The pup was in front of our boat, and a nearby sealing vessel approached. The pup sniffed the air as if sensing danger.

He looked around, and then the first bullet slammed into him. His scream could be heard all across the water. He tried to crawl away but another bullet ripped through his flesh.

His outraged cries echoed as a third and fourth and fifth bullet hit him. Finally, he dove into the water. He did not come back up. The sealers shrugged nonchalantly and moved on.

We looked around frantically for him but he did not surface. Likely, this baby seal would have bled to death slowly and painfully under the water, like tens of thousands of other seals that are “struck and lost” each year in this cruel slaughter.

I want the world to remember this brave seal. His cries of protest are echoing in my mind and I want them to sound across the world. I want everyone to hear as I did the mortal cries of a wounded baby seal who doesn’t understand why he is being hurt.

And hearing those cries, know as I do that this slaughter simply has to stop.”

Images of the bloody business (via Humane Society of the United States):

Filed under: animal cruelty, hunting, international issues, ocean, seal hunt, animal cruelty, canada, canadian seal hunt, harp seals, Humane Society of the United States, rebecca aldworth, seal slaughter

Clubbed, Shot, Skinned for Fur – Seal Hunt

A mother seal looks on her dead seal pups. A sea of blood cover the pristine ice.

I can’t blog about this enough – it is of utmost concern to me. Over 280,000 baby harp seals are being killed at this very moment.Please donate to the International Fund For Animals – the premiere animal welfare group in the U.S. fighting to preserve and save seals all over the world.

I just donated $100 now – who’s with me?

Charities such as Humane Society, PETA, and Mammal Mammal Center among many other organizations are in this fight!

Filed under: animal cruelty, humane organizations, hunting, international issues, ocean, seal hunt, Take Action

Stop Canada’s Cruel Seal Hunt

via Humane Society of the United States

It started yesterday – the first little baby seal killed, just a few weeks old, helpless, crying for his mother, slowly bleeding out on the ice while hunters ripped his skin off his back.

Please spread the word, and if you prefer to help quietly, sign the pledge or donate a little money, as little as you wish, to help humane organizations bring this barbaric slaughter to an end. Millions are doing it!!!!

TAKE ACTION NOW – thanks so much!

How can anyone harm such a face?

A great post by a fellow blogger with more indepth information on the seal hunt here.

Filed under: animal cruelty, hunting, international issues, seal hunt, Take Action, canada, canadian seal hunt, fur, hunting

Russia Bans Harp Seal Hunting

Excerpt to the previous post – A small victory for Harp Seals. On March 18, 2009, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology announced a complete ban on the hunting of all harp seals less than one year of age. Hopefully this victory will spread throughout the world and encourage the commercial seal hunt to end.

Read the article here

Filed under: animal cruelty, international issues, seal hunt, canadian seal hunt, russia, seal hunt ban

Seal Hunt 2008 Begins

This week, the very controversial seal hunt begins again in Canada. We don’t need to make trinkets and fur trims- it’s so horrible to think that more than 275,000 baby harp seals will be slaughtered, shot and clubbed to death while their skins are ripped off from their bodies. Each year, the outrage grows exponetially all over the world and one day this will stop. Please spread the word and make a donation and help in the fight to end this unnecessary cruelty. Watch this video (no cruel images) and appreciate the beauty of this lovely species and learn why we need to take action.

Make a donation here

Help pass the Harb Seal Bill here – For the first time in history, a Canadian politician is proposing a law to end the suffering of baby seals. Senator Harb consulted with International Fund For Animals on this critical legislation and with our help to reach 200,000 emails and letters in the next few weeks, this is our chance to end the hunt forever.

Filed under: animal cruelty, humane organizations, international issues, seal hunt, baby harp seals, canada, fur, seal hunt