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Danielle Katz 757-622-7382

Group Hopes Ad Will Persuade Canadian Citizens, Government to End Disgraceful Seal Slaughter

As the annual slaughter of more than 330,000 baby seals continues on Canada's ice floes, PETA is escalating its efforts to stop the massacre with plans to wrap a new ad around a US Airways jet. The ad shows a vulnerable seal next to the blood-spattered tagline "Canada's Olympic Shame--End the Seal Slaughter." PETA hopes to feature the ad on the Tempe-based airliner's flights between the U.S. and Canada as part of an international campaign that focuses on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

TEMPE, Ariz.

As the annual slaughter of more than 330,000 baby seals continues on Canada's ice floes, PETA is escalating its efforts to stop the massacre with plans to wrap a new ad around a US Airways jet. The ad shows a vulnerable seal next to the blood-spattered tagline "Canada's Olympic Shame--End the Seal Slaughter." PETA hopes to feature the ad on the Tempe-based airliner's flights between the U.S. and Canada as part of an international campaign that focuses on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Canada's seal massacre is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth. Compassionate people around the world recoil from images of ice floes that are turned red with the blood of baby seals because of a government that allows the massacre to continue. Each year, sealers hook baby seals in the eyes, cheeks, or mouth to avoid damaging their fur. They then drag them across the ice, often while the animals are still conscious. Many are too young to swim away from their attackers and are killed as their wailing mothers helplessly watch.

"With the Vancouver Games approaching, it's high time that citizens on both sides of the border spoke out against the slaughter of baby seals and let compassion 'take flight,'" says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Perhaps a graphic reminder in the sky will convince the Canadian government to put a stop to this disgraceful massacre once and for all."

For more information, please visit PETA's blog.

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.