Massacre Is a Shameful Waste of Life and Revenues, Group Says
For Immediate Release:
April 27, 2011
Contact:
Ashley Gonzalez 202-483-7382
Toronto -- Holding posters that read, "The $eal $laughter Bleed$ Million$ in Taxe$," PETA members in seal masks will lie on top of a pile of "blood money" outside the Tax Services Office on Thursday, two days before Tax Day. Their point? That while pelts stolen from baby seals during last year's slaughter had a land value of $1.3 million and an export value of $2.1 million, the government has spent a whopping $10 million challenging the E.U.'s ban on seal skins and another $1 million monitoring the massacre. Similar protests will take place in major cities across the country.
When: Thursday, April 28, 12 noon
Where: Tax Services Office, 1 Front St. W. (Southeast corner of intersection of Bay Street and Front Street West)
"While the sealers are digging their hakapiks into the bodies of baby seals, the government is digging into the pockets of taxpayers to sustain the massacre," says PETA protester Emily Lavender, a native of Canada. "As long as the government supports this carnage, the seal slaughter will continue to be a bloody smear on Canada's reputation and a drain on its finances."
A 2010 study by Professor John Livernois at the University of Guelph found that ending the commercial seal slaughter would save Canada at least $7 million each year. Also, while cuts of $84.7 million to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and $31.9 million to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency are being proposed, federal support for the seal slaughter continues to increase. Last year, sealers clubbed, shot, and skinned far fewer baby seals than the government quota allowed for because a lack of demand has caused the price of seal fur to plummet.
For more information, please visit PETA's website CanadasShame.com.