Please sign this petition to help stop the needless slaughtering of harp seals in Canada, Iceland, and Norway. It is barbaric and cruel what hunters will do for seal pelts.

Sealing is legal in Canada. The seal hunt is the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on the planet. The Canadian government announced that it would allow 975,000 seals to be killed between 2003 and 2006. 98.5 % of all the harp seals killed are 3 months or younger. These seals are usually beaten to death using clubs or sharp icepick-like “hakapiks”. Others are shot with rifles. Then the seals are taken back to the boats to be skinned. The animals are rarely checked to see if they are dead, so many fishermen literally skin the seals alive while they are still responsive to pain.

This horrific mass slaughter is also extremely wasteful. Once the seals have been skinned, their carcasses are left to rot. Nothing besides their pelts are used. The fisherman do not need to kill these creatures, either. The money they get for seal hunting is less than 5 % of their total income. This mass slaughter of harp seals is simply wrong and should not be continued. All that believe it should be stopped should signed this petition to save the harp seals in Canada and other countries.