An Open Plea To Canada 🍁

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The Silence Is Deafening: The Commercial* Sealing Industry Has No Answers To Our Concerns 🦭🌎

*This is a plea directed solely toward the commercial seal hunt. We do not oppose, criticize or in any other way condemn the vital small-scale substance hunting performed by Inuit communities.


For over a year, we have been writing fact-heavy, source-backed letters to the prominent organizations keeping the commercial* seal hunt alive—including the representative of the Canadian Fur Industry, Doug Chiasson, and to Canadian Seal Products, NaturaL Boutique, the Seals and Sealing Network, and the Canadian Sealers Association (CSA).


We gave NaturaL Boutique a month, and the other organizations almost a full year to respond to my letters. Guess how many of them have agreed to an open, honest dialogue or a hearing?

None. Not a single one. In fact, I was left with nothing but absolute silence...


When an industry investing millions into press releases and promotion of seal products, chooses a strategy that means refusing to engage with a 15-year-old advocate, it isn't just ignoring us — it's a way of silently admitting a defeat.


If they had the data to prove us wrong, they would and should have shown us. But they didn't, because the facts are finally becoming indisputable:


📉 The Biological Collapse: The DFO’s own Research Document 2025/070 states there is a 96% probability that the Northwest Atlantic harp seal population has crashed below healthy levels and is therefore put into the "Cautious Zone".

There is now no sustainable harvest level left.

[1] https://csas-scas.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/publications-publications/730aed64-8feb-4bc6-b3d1-fa37d0adb97b?lang=en, [2] https://greenbalkans.org/files/modules_0/337/123917476253-39189.pdf

In 2017, the Québec early ice breakup caused near-total mortality for the pup colony in the Southern Gulf. This was almost 10 years ago, and the world hasn't cooled down since...

https://youtu.be/BF2TZq-ntRQ?si=znlgGzq5l6yyRX1k&t=352


🚫 The Global Rejection: Platforms and entire continents' markets are shutting their doors to the cruelty. Etsy’s global animal fur ban for example, takes effect this August 11, entirely wiping out the "artisanal" loophole the industry uses to trick conscious consumers. [1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14031-Trade-in-seal-products-fitness-check-of-EU-rules/feedback_en?p_id=18267


💸 The Economic Absurdity: The commercial* seal hunt contributes less than 0.1% to Newfoundland's GDP and is kept alive solely by taxpayer-dollars. In contrast to the commercial* sealing industry being unsustainable, marine ecotourism would be a far more sustainable and ethical way to profit from harp seal populations within rural & coastal communities. Transitioning to a marine ecotourism-driven "Blue Economy" is vastly more beneficial than the commercial seal hunt. It replaces a collapsing, heavily subsidized industry representing a small fraction of hunters' incomes with a multi-billion dollar, high-growth sector that benefits not only seal populations, but also people, local economies and the environment.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308597X09000578, [2] https://www.ecologic.eu/sites/default/files/publication/2022/50002-Case-study-Canada.pdf, [3] https://www.humaneworld.org/sites/default/files/docs/sealing-potential-marine-ecotourism.pdf


🦭 The "Seals eat all the cod" myth: Harp seals have been repeatedly proven not to be the main cause of the collapse of commercially-fished Atlantic cod stocks. We humans were the ones responsible for this. Atlantic cod makes up only 3-6% of a harp seal's diet, and seals in fact also hunt animals that compete with cod. [1] https://www.sciencing.com/foods-do-harp-seals-eat-6747374, [2] https://wildlife.org/are-harp-seals-hampering-cod-recovery, [3] https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/harp-seal


🌎 The IUCN's concerns: In October 2025, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—the most well-trusted organisation on earth monitoring species health—downlisted the harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) from "Least concern" to "Near Threatened" and shared findings that the animal's population is now officially "declining".

https://www.iucnredlist.org/ja/species/41671/280391816



When companies hide behind corporate PR but lock their doors to various source-based facts and concerns shared with them through science, aren't you telling the world that you don't even believe in the faith of your own work???


As a country widely respected for its environmental stewardship and progressive policies, the Canadian government's continued backing of the commercial seal hunt stands out as a stark contradiction. 🇨🇦


The world has moved on, the markets have closed, and the confronting silence is the ultimate proof that the main challenge has already been overcome.

The only ones that still need to realize this, are the ones with the power to make the positive change. Today is July 10, exactly 90 years since the Thylacine was finally granted legal protection. However, it was already too late. Just 59 days later, the last one died. Please don't repeat this mistake. Honourable Right Prime Minister @MarkJCarney and @FisheriesCanada, I hereby ask you again from the bottom of our hearts to finally offer a fair buy-out (just like suggested at this source) to all sealers and stop investing millions of taxpayer-dollars in the long term — before it's too late...


🚩 Please share this post. Only together can we #endthesealhunt. Please help us share & dismantle the dishonesty and cruelty from the commercial* sealing industry... Thank you 🦭


Help us keep the pressure mounting. Head over to the link in our final statement to sign the WildlifeoPedia petition and demand a permanent closure, or personally sign our Open Plea directly at https://forms.gle/Ynot4m63Dbxw1YE16. 🦭🌊



P.S. Anyone wanting to take a look at our emails for transparency reasons? Contact us at seals@wildlifeopedia.org and we'll send you an appropriate screenshot of the requested emails we've sent to these organisations.

Because, in contrast to the commercial* sealing industry, we do believe in transparency and accountability... 🌍


We have nothing to hide, Does the commercial* sealing industry?


👉 Read our full article here.




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(Independent) sources referenced in the emails sent to the commercial* sealing businesses:



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Thank you for reading our plea to the Canadian government to wrap up the commercial* sealing industry!


It's been almost 5 years since. I was barely 11 years old and the first time I stumbled across the footage from the commercial* seal hunt changed me & my life forever. To this day, I feel just as impacted by the footage I've seen hundreds if not thousands of times before, as when I saw it for the very first time.


This is just one of the reasons I founded WildlifeoPedia, years later: to finally give some form of a voice to the animals which don't get to sit and negotiate with policymakers about their fate. Thank you for joining us in this journey.


If you would like to help us in our onward journey to finally end this tax-sponsored cruelty, please consider checking out the following links:


Our Own Petition 🖋️

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdm5XMyf4Ru7qahmYG4WL6i5BRf6c4Hp0oowLEXIZ2dryh9Fg/viewform?usp=dialog


Our Change.org Petition 📝

https://www.change.org/p/urge-mark-carney-to-end-federal-subsidies-for-the-seal-slaughter


E-mail Mark Carney & Department of Fisheries & Oceans Directly 📧

https://seals.wildlifeopedia.org/take-action/sign


Download your Harp Seal THANK YOU-certificate ✊

https://thank-you.wildlifeopedia.org/welcome/sponsor-a-harp-seal

Location: Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A9, Canada

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