Giant Toilet to Be Erected at Parliament to Illustrate That Government Is Flushing Millions to Prop Up Dead Seal Trade

Taxpayers Soaked as China Shuns Seal Meat, World Shuns Seal Fur

For Immediate Release:
April 29, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Not only are baby seals killed during Canada’s annual slaughter, the massacre also costs taxpayers a mint. That’s why on Tax Day, April 30, PETA members—standing next to a 15-foot-high inflatable toilet emblazoned with the words “$eal $laughter Flu$hes Million$ in Taxe$”—will descend in front of Parliament Hill. Now that all major markets for seal fur have dried up, the commercial slaughter costs millions more to support than it earns. The government is spending an estimated $10 million challenging the European Union ban on seal products and millions more each year through Coast Guard support and pro-sealing campaigns.

When:   Wednesday, April 30, noon 

Where:  Intersection of Wellington and Metcalfe streets, Ottawa

This month, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea admitted that China had said no to seal meat—despite a marketing blitz that cost Canadian taxpayers millions.

“Taxpayers lose $7 million a year on the commercial seal slaughter,” says PETA campaigner and native Canadian Emily Lavender. “If this were a regular business, it would have closed down years ago.”

The commercial slaughter is merely a tiny off-season cash grab for fishers, accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland’s economy, and has nothing to do with the native hunt.PETA is calling on the government to devise a practical exit strategy: a buyout of the sealing industry.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.