May, 19 2009, 01:02pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Colleen Higgins 757-622-7382
Canadians Need to Confront Their National Shame, Says PETA
QUEBEC CITY
Holding signs that read, "Stop the Bloody Seal Slaughter," while showing footage of Canada's annual seal massacre, PETA members will hold a "die-in" at a busy downtown Quebec intersection on Tuesday. "Blood"-covered "baby seals" will lie lifelessly on the ground in order to illustrate what happens to hundreds of thousands of harp seals -- most of whom are babies -- on the ice floes off Newfoundland and Labrador every year. The die-in is the latest salvo in PETA's campaign, which will continue up to and through the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
When: Wednesday, May 20, 12 noon
Where: Corner of Rue Sainte-Anne and Rue des Jardins, Quebec
As the annual slaughter -- which will take the lives of more than 330,000 baby seals this year -- continues, PETA is escalating its efforts to stop it. Sealers shoot these gentle animals or bash their heads in, and the baby seals are often skinned alive while their wailing mothers helplessly watch.
"As the world turns its attention to the Vancouver Games, millions will also focus on Canada's shame," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "If Canada wants to clean up its world image for the Olympics, the first thing it should do is call off the universally condemned seal slaughter."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 2.0 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.
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