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For centuries, pregnant harp seals have migrated from Greenland down the coast of Canada, stopping each spring to give birth on the ice floes off Newfoundland. And every year, the Canadian government funds a trade in which the baby seals are massacred by club-wielding sealers from the local fishing community while their pelts remain soft enough to sell on the international fur market. The commercial seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples but an off-season fishing industry cash grab, and it accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland's economy.
Over the last few years, the price of seal fur has finally started to plummet as international outrage against the seal slaughter rises. The U.S., the European Union, and Mexico have banned seal imports, and most recently, Russia, Canada's largest market for seal pelts, has taken steps to implement a ban as well. Russia accounts for more than 80 percent of the Canadian seal fur market, which has led Newfoundland and national Canadian officials to seriously examine whether the slaughter should end.
We've got them on the run, but we need your voice now to reach the tipping point. The annual seal slaughter will continue unless people like you speak out and take action to stop it, so please add your voice to the global outcry against Canada's shameful seal massacre. Please write to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian ambassadors around the world and demand that they bring the massacre to an immediate end.
 Very Graphic Video
People say that can't watch this stuff. I don't like to watch it either, but we need to. You need to watch it and get mad. Mad enough to do something about it. Mad enough that you'll remember to tell other people what really goes on. Mad enough to write to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee and demand that it help bring an immediate end to the seal slaughter. A few minutes of your time will make a huge difference for baby seals.
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