News Releases

'BABY SEAL' TO BE BEATEN BY 'GRIM REAPER' OUTSIDE CANADIAN EMBASSY

PETA Action Will Expose Canada's Universally Condemned Seal Massacre

For Immediate Release:

August 21, 2012

Tokyo — Beating a baby seal prop until "blood" spurts from its head, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia's "Grim Reaper" will lead a protest outside the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo on Wednesday. Other PETA supporters will hold signs that read, "Stop the Bloody Seal Slaughter." The action is the latest salvo in PETA's worldwide campaign to focus attention on Canada's shame:

When:       Wednesday, August 22, 12 noon sharp

Where:     Outside the Canadian Embassy, 7-3-38 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo (A map is available at http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/japan-japon/assets/images/map_tokyo.gif.)

"The universally condemned harp seal slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation," says PETA Asia Vice President Jason Baker. "Tourists seeking to travel abroad will say, 'No, thanks!' to a country whose government promotes the clubbing and live skinning of baby animals."

Sealers shoot animals or bash their heads in, and baby seals are often skinned alive while their wailing mothers watch helplessly. For the past few years, only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of harp seals permitted to be killed actually were—in part, because the price of seal fur has plummeted as the international outrage against the seal slaughter rises. The European Union and the U.S. have banned seal products. The commercial seal slaughter is an off-season profit venture for the fishing industry, and it accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland's economy. The seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples—Inuit sealing accounts for only about 3 percent of the slaughter.

For more information, please visit PETAAsiaPacific.com.

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