Fwd: Demo at L.A. Canadian Consulate - Harp Seals March 15th

March 6, 2007

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Concerned citizens in Los Angeles and Orange

County heed Paul and Heather McCartney's plea to pressure Canada

to end the Canadian Baby Harp Seal Slaughter

There will also be international demonstrations. Event March 15, 2007

Time: 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Location: 550 South Hope Street (corner of

W. 6th and S. Hope)

Contact: Robb Mead - Harpseals.org - (949)

230-0430 - robbmead Los Angeles - Concerned citizens in Los Angeles and

Orange County will gather outside the Canadian Consulate, 550

South Hope Street, to protest Canada's annual harp seal

slaughter and promote the boycott of Canadian seafood. Over 30

other protests will take place in cities all around the world.

This year, the Canadian government is ignoring its own mandate

to apply the Precautionary Approach to ecological management as

it stubbornly refuses to cancel the seal "hunt" despite poor ice

conditions that could cause pups to drown in large numbers. Seal

pups require thick, sturdy ice to hold them for weeks until they

learn to swim.

Canada's mismanagement of the oceans has so far led to the

collapse of the cod fishery, the destruction of 95% of the

population of a half dozen deep-water fish off the Newfoundland

coast, including the Greenland halibut, and the imperilment of

the snow crab population. The Canadian government's next victim

will be the harp seal, unless activists around the world succeed

in pressuring the government to ban the seal "hunt."

Citizens will gather at the Canadian Consulate to demand the

cancellation of this year's industrial-scale slaughter of seal

pups and to demand a permanent ban on the industrial slaughter

of harp seals. Citizens will also educate passersby about the

Canadian seafood boycott. This boycott is designed to put direct

economic pressure on the Canadian fishing industry, the industry

behind the largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world.

Each spring in Atlantic Canada, over 300,000 defenseless baby

harp seals (approximately 3 weeks to 3 months old pups) are

massacred on the ice floes. In a matter of weeks, a pristine

white nursery turns crimson, with hundreds of thousands of

lifeless, skinless bodies strewn all over the ice. This

industrial slaughter nets these off-season fishermen only about

$40 a pelt.

The massacre is perpetrated by a few thousand Canadians who

beat and shoot these seals and skin many of them alive. The

money these sealers receive for this is only about 5% of their

yearly income from fishing. If these fishermen only stayed home

for an extra two weeks, they would continue to earn the

Employment Insurance benefits that they earn every year during

the off-season. Since it is the support of the Canadian seafood industry that

perpetuates the slaughter, the Canadian seafood boycott can

pressure this industry to take a stand against this annual

massacre and thus result in legislation in Canada to ban the

slaughter of seals. Since the U.S. is the largest consumer of

Canadian seafood, importing about 70% of Canada's seafood

exports (equating to approximately CAN$3 billion dollars),

American consumers alone can put enough pressure on Canada's

seafood industry to end the massacres once and for all.

For more information, visit www.harpseals.org. Additional resources:

www.seashepherd.org

www.protectseals.org

www.boycottcanadianseafood.org

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In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA's efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi and Cameroon, Africa.

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