The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0A2
ph: 613-992-4211; fax: 613-941-6900
email: pm@pm.gc.ca
URL: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/contact.asp

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

I write with restored hope for an end to the world's most unsustainable slaughter of marine wildlife. As Canada's newly elected Prime Minister, you play a vital role in stopping the massacre of over 300,000 seals each year.

There is no credible rationale to convince an informed public the Canadian seal hunt is humane. In photographic images from 2005, the world viewed whitecoat pups gunned down, pounded in the skull, kicked in the face, and thrashed with hakapiks. In just three years, the hunt has claimed almost one million seals.

Up to 95% of harp seals slaughtered during the last five years were less than three months old. These vulnerable pups cannot even eat or swim on their own. Video footage depicts sealers routinely hauling them over the ice with boathooks.

In 2001 a team of impartial veterinarians determined that 42% of examined seals did not suffer sufficient cranial injury to render them unconscious. They concluded the seals were likely cognizant when skinned alive.

Scientists worldwide have renounced Canada's management policy for harp seals as reckless and unsustainable. The economic basis for the hunt is flimsy as well. In Newfoundland, where 90% of sealers live, seal-related income makes up less than one-tenth of 1% of the province's economy.

In addition, there is no conclusive evidence linking harp seals to depleted fish stocks. The greatest predators of young cod are other fish species. Seals actually consume the very fish that prey on cod! Eliminating harp seals could signify a rise in cod predators. "Certainly, no Department of Fisheries scientist thinks the seal had anything to do with the fishery's collapse," Dr. Jeffrey Hatchlings, a fishery biologist and former DO consultant, has stated. In fact, scientists are concerned that killing seals may hinder the recovery of ground fish stocks.

Convulsing animals amid rivers of blood disgrace your nation. Polls indicate nearly 80% of Americans and Europeans disapprove of the seal hunt, with many prepared to boycott Canadian seafood until it ends. I respectfully ask you to make a viable commitment to halting this scientifically, economically, and ethically indefensible hunt.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this important matter.

Sincerely,