Photos: PM Trudeau Trailed by PETA’s Protesting ‘Seal’

From the White House to the Mayflower Hotel, Group Calls for End to Canada’s Cruel and Wasteful Commercial Seal Slaughter

For Immediate Release:
March 10, 2016

Contact:
Lakisha Ridley 202-483-7382

Holding a sign proclaiming, “Trudeau: End Canada’s Commercial Seal Slaughter,” a PETA member wearing a seal costume is following Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as he visits Washington, D.C., to meet with President Barack Obama about the environment and climate change.

PETA’s “spokeseal,” who was outside Blair House as Trudeau left for the White House, shadowed the prime minister at his official welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House (download photos here) and to the U.S. State Department and will continue to follow him to Capitol Hill this afternoon and to the Mayflower Hotel on Friday.

Photo Credit: Leigh Vogel/PETA

“For years, the Canadian government has poured taxpayer dollars into a failing industry that beats, shoots, and skins baby seals who haven’t even had their first solid meal yet,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the prime minister to do what the last administration wouldn’t and end subsidies to the cruel commercial seal slaughter for good.”

The U.S., the European Union, and Russia have all banned seal products, and President Obama has spoken out against the slaughter, in which seals have their heads bashed in or are shot. Sealers hook seals in the eyes, cheeks, or mouth and drag them across the ice, often while they’re still conscious. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—further notes that poor ice conditions will likely result in a high seal mortality rate this spring.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.