Olympics to begin soon--Canada's seals need your voice now

February 12, 2010

Dear Jill,The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will begin just a few days from now—and PETA is working very hard to mobilize global opposition to the gruesome harp seal slaughter that the host nation allows to continue. Please help us call as much attention as possible to the plight of these gentle animals:

Sign PETA's petition to Prime Minister Harper, and add your voice to the international outcry against the Canadian government. Make a generous donation online to help us make a highly visible display of opposition to the seal massacre during the Olympics—and to fight hard for these and other animals for as long as it takes to keep them safe. Give now and you can receive PETA's exclusive Olympic pin in time for the first week of the Games!

The annual seal bloodbath, the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth, is scheduled to begin just after the Olympics end. Tens of thousands of harp seals, most of whom are in their very first weeks of life, will be bludgeoned and shot to death and then skinned for coats that no one (except the babies themselves!) wants or needs. Their mothers, who are spared because fur traders don't want their pelts, will mourn and wail as their babies are killed right in front of them and their pups' bodies are left to rot on the ice. Now, as the Winter Olympics put Canada in the international spotlight, we need your support to help us up the ante and bring an end to the slaughter of baby harp seals and, indeed, the whole bloody fur trade.PETA's global anti-fur campaign has put the Canadian seal massacre squarely on the international map as never before in history. Wherever Prime Minister Harper appears—including the G-20 summit, the North American Leaders' Summit, and Washington, D.C., to meet with President Obama—PETA members are there to call attention to Canada's shame. PETA protesters have demonstrated in the U.S., Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and many other countries. The seal slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation, and we're making sure that the prime minister knows this, no matter where he shows up. Through PETA's Web site OlympicShame2010.com, we've also mobilized tens of thousands of people to send letters of protest against the killing. More than 530,000 compassionate people have signed our Facebook petition calling for an end to the massacre, and hundreds of thousands more have watched graphic videos on YouTube of baby seals being clubbed to death. The Canadian government has received so much negative publicity online that for the second year in a row, it has had to hire a spin doctor solely to counter online activists who are trying to stop the slaughter.Thanks to our high-profile activism, the public outrage against the ghastly seal massacre is growing. The call to stop this mass killing is getting louder, more insistent, and harder for the Canadian government to ignore. But despite our progress, this campaign is far from over. We must continue to keep the fight strong. Even as compassionate people everywhere raise their voices against the seal slaughter, the Canadian government callously digs in its heels. The government is challenging the European Union's recent ban on the importation of Canadian seal fur and is aggressively looking for new markets for seal products—which are abhorred in the Western world—in places such as China. So with the Olympics approaching and the world watching, we need your help to ratchet up the pressure. Please take a moment to help animals who face suffering and death by signing the petition and making your most generous contribution right now. Thank you for doing everything that you can to help spare these and all animals from suffering and death. It may not be a quick fight, but this is worth an all-out battle. Very truly yours, Ingrid E. NewkirkPresident P.S. The world's best athletes will compete in Vancouver next month, and shortly after the final ceremony, tens of thousands of harp seals will face a violent, bloody death. We need your support right now to help us call attention to this horror and work toward shutting down the fur industry.