Photos: ‘Seal’ at NATO Opening Sends ‘Stop the Slaughter’ Message to Trudeau
For Immediate Release:
May 25, 2017
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
Today, a fed-up “seal” brandishing a sign proclaiming, “Trudeau: End Canada’s Commercial Seal Slaughter,” appeared during a PETA U.K. protest marking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Brussels for the North Atlantic Council meeting and the inauguration of the new NATO headquarters. Photos of the demonstration are available here and here.
“Canada enjoys a reputation as a peaceful nation, but it remains woefully slow to end its ritualistic slaughter of gentle, young seals,” says PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews. “PETA urges Prime Minister Trudeau to take action to ensure that the blood of murdered seal pups no longer stains his country’s international reputation.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that while climate change is already decimating populations of ice-dependent species, the annual massacre kills hundreds of thousands of seals and costs Canadian taxpayers about $7 million in federal subsidies every year. Sealers use wooden clubs, ice picks, and guns to slaughter the animals, often failing to kill them outright and leaving them to endure a slow, agonising death. There’s no market for seal meat, and few major markets for seal fur remain, as the EU, the U.S., and Russia have all banned it.
More information is available at PETA.org.
