Stop the slaughter of Seals!!!

I got a ‘thank you note’ today from ‘Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre in Pieterburen’. A Dutch organization which, among others, engages in the shelter of seals, which got in trouble or had gotten sick. Lenie ’t Hart is the managing director of Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre in Pieterburen, the Netherlands.

At the beginning of this year, the Canadian government decided to kill nearly a million seals over a period of 3 years, for the seals would eat too much cod and thus fishermen could no longer catch enough fish.
So, Pieterburen started an online action to collect the names of people who don’t agree with the killing. And I signed it. For this I got the thank you note. In this e-mail they also asked if I could be so kind to send the e-mail to friends and acquaintances who haven’t yet signed the list.
I don’t know if foreign organizations have done anything to stop the slaughter, i.e. collect names and/or signatures, but if not, I now ask everybody who hasn’t heard anything of this decision of Canada, and who hasn’t supported the stopping of this decision, to go to http://www.stopdezeehondenmoord.nl/en/index.html and sign the action. Via this site (it’s all in English) you can also read more about why this decision of the government is a waste of time and will not help the fishermen to catch more fish. You can also read the letter Lenie sent to the Canadian ambassador in the Netherlands.

When I got the e-mail, I once more took a look at the site. I really don’t do this very often, but hey, I got the note right? So, in the news section (the one from 4th October 2004) I read that Norway (or the minister of fishery) wanted to let visitors who come to Norway, be able to hunt seals in the fjords.
I really don’t get such decisions. Why, I ask myself, would anybody want to hunt down and kill a seal? They are such sweet, adorable creatures. Especially at young age, when they still have a white fur.
I am not a vegetarian, and so I do eat meat, and I do wear leather (if only in my shoes), but I am not an advocate of wearing fur, from whichever animal. It may look ever so beautiful, I will not buy a fur coat. And this is the reason why people still kill seals, is it not? For their fur?

If anybody wants more info on Pieterburen, you can take a look at http://www.zeehondencreche.nl/english/index.htm. This is the English version, which is not as elaborate as the Dutch version, but it contains a lot of information concerning the organization.

I hope you will all sign the petition.