Cancel Annual Seal Slaughter

Target: Leona Aglukkaq, Canadian Minister of the Environment and Minister for the Arctic Council

Goal: Save declining seal population by ending unsustainable culls

As the fall months draw closer, so does Canada’s annual seal hunting season, which sees tens of thousands of seals brutally butchered each year. In the past, seal culls have been a sustainable way of feeding and employing entire towns and villages, however, the population has been in decline since 2007, with pregnancy rates experiencing high variability. If the seal hunt keeps up its current pace, populations of Northwest Atlantic harp seals could face a extinction.

The seals are captured in the fall and winter months during their annual migration to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the waters surrounding Labrador and Northern Newfoundland. Here, they give birth to their pups on ice sheets before returning to the sea. Once caught, their skulls are beaten and bashed in efforts to kill them—this infamous and brutal practice is known as “seal clubbing.”

According to an independent council of Canadian veterinarians, 42 percent of the seals they inspected did not show enough signs of head trauma to be dead or even unconscious at the time that they were skinned. Furthermore, over 90 percent of the animals were found to be less than one year old.

Sealers will routinely drag conscious seals across the ice with long hooks, shoot them and leave them to bleed out, or skin them alive. Not only is the practice barbaric, but it is beginning to have a negative effect on Canadian seal populations when paired with other factors such as fewer, thinner ice floes on which pups spend their first weeks. Your signature will demand that the unsustainable Canadian seal hunt be canceled until the population has fully recovered.


Dear Leona Aglukkaq,

Canada’s seal hunt sees tens of thousands of seals killed each year, despite a declining population, irregular pregnancy rates, and fewer ice floes on which to care for pups. Without help from humans, the population is in danger of further decline in the coming years.

Not only is the hunt unsustainable in the long term, but it also promotes the barbaric treatment of young and adult seals. Sealers frequently shoot animals, leaving them to bleed out, or hook them with boat hooks and drag them across the ice before they are clubbed to death and sometimes even skinned alive.

Canada should work to show respect to the animals that have sustained entire indigenous villages for thousands of years, and more recently, entire coastal fishing towns. We, the undersigned, ask that the 2014-2015 seal cull be canceled in order to allow seal populations to fully recover.


[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: Matthieu Godbout via Wikimedia Commons

Sign the Petition

FacebookCare2 NewsTwitterEmailShare


  1. Even after the EU has banned seal products, the Canadian government continues to condone the slaughter of helpless baby seals. This is an atrocity that is unimaginable to anyone with a heart. Canada’s Greatest Shame continues …

  2. Lauren Goldman says:

    I would hope, after all of these decades, that Canada would stop this obscenity, but sadly, it is still just business as usual. And now, since Canada has been moving toward the Right (sic) more and more, the battle is and will be the same as always.

  3. Garth Mills says:

    The people of Canada can do something about this slaughter of innocent animals, that are killed so that dumb two legged animals of the human race can show off their vanity and be noticed, if your government does not want to do any about it then you must can do something about your government, the Canadian Government struts the World Stage showing itself as a humane government and is very ecologically minded but this seal slaughter shows us differently, these seals were put there by God the Creator of all things including Mankind for a reason man has upset the balance of nature, God gave man dominion over the birds, the animals and fishes of the oceans and land and bade man look after it, every persons day of reckoning is coming including the Canadian Government where they will have to give account of their stewardship here on Earth.

  4. In 21 century we don’t need to kill animals for anything, neither for meat nor for clothes. So STOP IT, we don’t need it. All we need is to safe this planet with beautiful creatures who have full rights to live here.

  5. Ravinder singh says:

    Have all the Canadian citizens lost their mind to think what is right and gone insane like their govt. They are dumb and mute spectators even animals protect others and even their human friends but i believe we are worse then them in all the ways.

    • Pandora Wotton says:

      We try as hard as you,
      maybe more to stop this. We protest at parliament, sign petitions, vote to try and put a better prime minister in power, but are, in the end, unsuccessful.

  6. allowing this nightmare on earth to continue is senseless, backward, and evil… simply put it is murder. don’t let them get away with this pointless horror !

  7. Patricia Wicker says:

    Canadians,have you people no heart or soul. STOP THIS HORRIFIC KILLING!!!! How many Decade have we been fighting this. CANADA, Wake Up!!!!!!!

  8. Sonja Talboys says:

    Murdering innocent little babies is just dispickable, m urdering any animal is disgusting but to murder baby seals is just unbelievable these people are SCUM and someone should should do the same to them. WHAT right does the human race have to do these things??????????Shame on Canada you should be ashamed of yourselves. Murdering selas should be banned by law. WHY the hell can’t the human race leave the wild life alone in ALL Countries?????????????????????????????????

  9. This is an extreme shame and Canada should really be blown away from the map as a country for continuing their animal cruelty. My mother fought against this during the 1970’s and now I do the same but it never seems to end. Wake up Canada and leave animals alone ~ both seals and prairie wolfs and any other animal.

  10. Kathy Khoshfahm says:

    It is high time we put an end to this senseless slaughter. The Animal Kingdom has just as much a right as we do to live our lives on this Earth free from torture and murder. As stated above, we have been protesting this horrific act for years now! What in the hell is it going to take to end it?

  11. To the government of Canada.
    Slaughter of seal babies has gone on for years, with tousands og subscriber to beg you to take response and stop this horrible way of killing. What is going on has nothing at all to do with a country that is a member of sivilized world.
    Why do you permit this? Why do you agree to this destructive behavior? Why do you agree to make money from others suffering ?
    Skin from seals are out of date!! those that still wear fur and skin from seals are revealion their stupidity and lack of moral standard.-
    Dont continue to support this! Be brave, be human and a member of modern world.Stop cruelty towards innocent animals.
    Yours sincerely Helga Riekeles, Norway.

  12. Murders on innocent animals are going on in most parts of this world.
    Now; canada, still are active in killing seal babies for no reason than for this skin that no member of sivilized world should dare to wear.
    The small babies are killed in awfull ways, somtimes skinned alive…as those working are turned int monsters for money.How can a country like Canada still permit this horror?
    We can choose to be silent, or take action and protest.
    May be. hopefully so many are protesting against cruelty towards seals and their babies, thtat we can be heard. Int the name of love and a more decent human race.

  13. Silvia Helena Camargo says:

    Essa matança absurda de focas e seus filhotes, deve acabar de vez. O ser que se denomina Humano, tem atitudes tão estúpidas que não merece ser chamado de Humano e sim de monstro.

  14. Barbara Griffith says:

    So far nothing seems to stop this cruelty. Its been going on for over 3 decades ever since the fishery collapsed and the seals were blamed for eating all of the fish. But in reality the seals did not eat the fish the fishermen were catching there was another species of fish these seals ate. The fishery that collapsed still has not recovered after all of this time. From what I understand it may never recover because when you fish out all of your breeding stock which is what must have happened this what you get. Instead of the Canadian government helping to retrain these men for other jobs or help them move to other cities where they could find work they just ignored them. So the cruelty and the killing continues. Another thing is the fact that Canada is storing these seal pelts hoping to eventually sell them.

  15. I will boycott all Canadian products!!!


  17. Debbie Charlesworth says:

    The only possible reason for this to still be going on after all these years has to be money. There must be someone corrupt that is making big money otherwise it makes NO SENSE. It has gone on way too long and is obnoxious to think people can think it is ok to do this. Come on people of Canada find out who is making the money and expose them

  18. satku Murugiah says:

    Have been signing these petitions for years!! No one is paying heed. It will be too late when these animals become extinct……

Leave a Reply



Facebook Comments


29572 Signatures

  • Robin Craft
  • claudia suarez
  • claudia suarez
  • robert joros
  • Mary Johnson
  • Eric von Borstel
  • Anne Pearce
  • Jessica Claudio
  • Janet Delaney
  • Alice Rim
1 of 2957123...2957
Skip to toolbar