Dast2Dast

In just days, The Humane Society of the United States will again be on the front lines in Canada, fighting to stop the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on the planet: the annual seal hunt.

Thanks to people like you and more than 340,000 others, the boycott of Canadian seafood is working. Since the beginning the boycott, Canada's fishing industry has experienced a $350 million (Canadian) decline in the value of snow crab exports to the United States.

But today, the news from Canada remains bleak, as Canadian fishermen prepare to club and shoot hundreds of thousands of baby seals over the next few months. That's why I ask you to take the next steps toward saving the seals from slaughter:

• Urge Canada's Minister of International Trade to heed international outrage. Tell Canada's Minister of International Trade, David Emerson, that the seal hunt damages Canada's international reputation, and remind him that it has resulted in ongoing global boycotts of Canadian seafood and tourism. Tell him it's time to end the commercial seal hunt for good and that a hunt opposed by most Canadian citizens shouldn't be allowed to harm Canada's economy.




• Help save seals with your cell phone. This year, HSUS offers you a way to stay connected to their ProtectSeals team while they are on the ice: text messages sent to your cell phone!

Your involvement is critical to ending the hunt.

On Sept. 6, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling upon the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, to ban all trade in harp and hooded seal products. This is a crucial step towards the passage of legislation that will save millions of seals from a horrible fate.

An unprecidented 425 members of the European Parliament have signed the resolution—now officially a Written Declaration—calling for an EU ban on harp and hooded seal products. This is the largest number of members ever to approve any Written Declaration in the history of the European Parliament.

The news of this resolution has spread across the Canadian media, and from here in Strasbourg, the future looks good for the seals.