Monday 25 May 2009

Thank you all!!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick "THANK YOU!" for all you make possible. We've made some progress on a few campaigns, and we could not have accomplished this without your support for the animals. We've delayed the cormorant slaughter in Presqu'ile Provincial Park and saved thousands through our presence in Point Pelee National Park. We saved the Sifton Bog deer in the city of London from a fall hunt. We worked together in conjunction with other groups to have seal products banned in the European Union and to have a horse slaughterhouse in Saskatchewan closed down after being caught on video violating regulations, negative exposure from the media, and after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was pressured to investigate. And we continue to rescue orphaned dogs and cats through Project Jessie.

During these difficult times, we really cannot thank you enough for being a voice for the animals.

With gratitude,
Lia Laskaris
Donor Relations / Treasurer

Friday 15 May 2009

5th Annual Project Jessie Doggy Fun Day!

Yikes!

The Project Jessie doggy fun day is this Saturday!!!

Are YOU going to be there? Please come!

This year's Project Jessie reunion is going to be held Saturday,May 23rd from 11am to 2pm at the Caledon Community Complex (directions below).

We are REALLY excited about our fifth Project Jessie reunion and doggie fun day - because the others were great!

We are inviting all Project Jessie adopters, drivers, fosters, volunteers and anyone else who even likes dogs, to a day of fun and joy! Well behaved doggies (on leash please!) are very welcome to attend, but you don't have to bring a dog in order to come!

We will have goody bags for the first 50 people to arrive, raffles and silent auctions, demonstrations and displays, and best of all - we hope that YOU will be there!

Please consider attending - we would dearly love to see you! The event is being held at the Caledon Community Complex - 6215 Old Church Road - in Caledon East, ON. It is about an hour north west of Toronto, an hour east of Guelph and an hour north of Mississauga.

To look up directions on Mapquest, you need to use "Get map of [6133-6167] Old Church Rd, Caledon East, ON" (The actual address is Caledon Community Centre, 6215 Old Church Road, Caledon East, ON but Mapquest doesn't seem to recognize that address for some reason!)


From east or west, take Hwy 401 to 427 north. Hwy 427 ends at Hwy 7 (QUEEN Street) in Brampton.
Turn left (west) onto Hwy 7. Turn right (north) onto AIRPORT Road.
You will travel north about 35 minutes. Once you are in the town of Caledon, you will come to a set of stop lights.
(There will be a liquor store on the west side of the street and a large log building on the south-east corner). This is OLD CHURCH ROAD).
Turn right (east) onto OLD CHURCH ROAD. You will pass a fire station on your right, then a police station. JUST past the police station, turn into the driveway. The Community Complex shares the driveway with the police station and is set behind it.

For more information, to volunteer to help at the event, or if you would like to donate something to the raffle or silent auction, please contact me directly - thank you!!!

It should be a great day and we really hope to see YOU there!

Shelly Hawley-Yan
Director, Project Jessie
221 Broadview Avenue, Suite 101
Toronto, ON M4M 2G3

email: shelly@animalalliance.ca
Phone: 519-940-4712 or
Phone: 416-462-9541

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Victory for the Seals!

Victory For Seals! The European Union Bans the Trade in Seal Products

May 5, 2009 by The HSUS: Rebecca Aldworth

I have watched history being made today. The European Union has closed its borders to products of cruel commercial seal slaughters, removing a primary market for Canada’s globally condemned sealing industry. Many believe this ban will deliver a blow from which the Canadian seal slaughter may not recover.

The Canadian government tried every trick in the book to try to derail the ban: sending massive delegations to lobby on behalf of the sealing industry, misinforming decision makers, and even threatening trade reprisals. But the EU acted on behalf of its citizens and, in doing so, has saved millions of defenseless seals from a horrible fate.

We’ve Made History

I grew up in sealing country, and I have observed the commercial hunt for 11 years. In that time, I have witnessed cruelty that no thinking, compassionate person could ever accept. It has been difficult, often heartbreaking. But I have always known that in bearing witness to this slaughter, we can stop it.

Every year, the ProtectSeals team has endured hazardous conditions to document the seal hunt. We are committed to showing the world that the Canadian government is lying when it claims that the hunt is humane.

On our trips to the ice, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International have brought key opinion shapers such as Paul McCartney and Swedish Member of the European Parliament Carl Schlyter. Neither has wavered in speaking out against the hunt. Shortly after seeing the seal hunt, Schlyter introduced a resolution in the European Parliament, calling on the EU to ban trade in seal products. Our footage of the seal slaughter and our testimony were key in convincing the rest of the EU to agree to the ban. It gives me enormous satisfaction to know that we played a central role in making history for seals.

What Does It Mean?

This is the beginning of the end for the Canadian seal slaughter. The EU was a primary market for Canadian seal products, and the Canadian government estimates the loss of the EU market will cost Canada’s sealing industry $6.6 million (CAD) annually. Given that the landed value of the Canadian seal hunt last year was less than $7 million, the implications are enormous.

With this ban, the EU joins the United States (which outlawed seal products in 1972) and Mexico and Croatia, which ended the trade in 2006. Soon there will be nowhere left to trade the products of cruel commercial seal slaughters, and seals will be worth more alive than dead.

Seals' lives have already been saved. Just the promise of an EU ban was enough to drive this year's price for seal fur down to $15 (CAD) per skin—a decline of 86 percent since 2006.

As a result, many sealers stayed home. Out of Canada’s quota of 338,200 seals, fewer than 60,000 have been killed to date. By the regulated closing date of the seal hunt—May 15—it is likely more than a quarter of a million baby seals will have been spared a horrible fate.

Now that the EU has banned its trade in seal products, countless more seals will live their lives in peace from this year forward.

What’s Next?

We must remain vigilant. With generous government subsidies, the Canadian sealing industry may soon develop new markets for seal products. We must ensure that other nations follow the example set by the EU. The ProtectSeals campaign is working in several key countries already to ensure that there is nowhere left for the Canadian sealing industry to market its products.

To provide an economic incentive for the government to act, a global boycott of Canadian seafood products was launched in the U.S. in 2005. Since that boycott began, the Canadian fishing industry has suffered a $750 million (CAD) drop in the value of snow crab exports alone to the United States.

Now we are expanding the campaign to European Union, and I believe the Canadian government will soon take action to protect the fishing industry by ending the seal hunt forever. If you haven't joined the boycott, please sign on now.

The only way to permanently end Canada’s commercial seal slaughter is for the Canadian government to pass a strong law prohibiting commercial seal hunting. Senator Mac Harb has introduced such a ban, but no other senator has been brave enough yet to step forward and support it.

We are working hard in Canada to turn public opposition to the seal hunt into political action. The overwhelming majority of Canadians want the slaughter to stop, and it is time for the government to take action.

There is still much work to do, but we should all take a moment to celebrate this historic achievement. We have won this victory as a movement, and it is one we will remember for decades to come.

I am grateful to the European Union for rejecting cruelty, and I am grateful for everyone who has worked so very hard to make this day possible. The seals could not ask for stronger allies.

Rebecca Aldworth is Director of Humane Society International Canada (HSI Canada). For the past decade, she has been a firsthand observer of Canada's commercial seal hunt, escorting more than 100 scientists, parliamentarians and journalists to the ice floes to witness the slaughter.