Does humanity have a price tag?

Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

I'm starting to get pretty sick and tired of debating the nonsensical economics of the Atlantic Canadian seal slaughter.

Yes, it's true the seal hunters make a miniscule amount of money on the pelts they cut off the baby seals, who are still alive when they do it half the time.

And it's true that the Canadian government spends many millions of your taxpayer dollars to keep this money-losing industry propped up, while the world grows increasingly intolerant of the cruel annual ritual of smashing in 300,000 baby seal heads.

But despite all the economic arguments that spell out how much we spend -- not make -- to hold the title for the largest slaughter of marine mammals on earth, I'm left wondering about something.

Does it even matter whether this sadistic blood sport earns us any money or not?

If Canadians could make $15 a head beating cats and dogs to death with spiked clubs, we wouldn't embrace the activity as a creative way to make money. Just like our family pets, seals are sentient beings capable of feeling pain and anguish. They are animals deserving of our compassion and humanity.

When I was at an information event for saving the seals recently, I asked senior researcher Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare about the mentality of the fishermen who kill them. Fink has been out on the ice viewing the slaughter every spring for about eight years. By law, observers are allowed to get within 10 meters of the sealers. It's a grisly scene she likened to an "open-air abattoir."

"You can hear the men singing, whistling and joking," Fink said. "Last time I went they were singing Jingle Bell Rock. You can hear the wet thud of the hakapik as it hits the seals' skulls. The smell out there is unique. It's a mix of blood, diesel fuel from the boats, and cigarette smoke."

Fink described the breathtaking sight of the newborn seals moving about the ice as they learn their way in the world, wriggling right up to the human beings who are there to slaughter them.

"They're like puppies sitting there chewing on pieces of snow. I've asked the men -- don't you ever enjoy just watching this? They say no, that all they see lying there is a $20 bill."

DO YOU WANT TO HELP SAVE BABY SEALS?

Click on these links to get involved.

International Fund for Animal Welfare

www.stopthesealhunt.ca

www.protectseals.org

You can also send an email of support to Mac Harb, the only Canadian parliamentarian courageous enough to put forward a bill to stop this atrocity that is a global embarassment to our kind and peaceful nation. Mac is taking the letters, emails and petitions -- all 518,000 of them -- to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office by the wheelbarrow load.

Email the Senator at harbsealbill@sen.parl.gc.ca

Canadian politicians want their pet blood sport represented at Olympics

Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker

Unwanted pelts are piling up in dumpsters and getting tossed onto burn piles as markets around the world are closing to the trafficking of slaughtered baby seals.

On Tuesday, the European Union's 27 member countries voted to ban the import and sale of seal products. It was a landslide -- 550 were for the ban and 49 went against. There were 41 abstentions. Add these EU countries to a long list of others including Slovenia, Croatia, Mexico and Russia.

But instead of finally hearing the voice of the world -- and its own citizens -- who are speaking out against subsidized cruelty, Canada's Members of Parliament have come up with their own bizarre response to the ban. Just when I thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, MPs from all parties voted unanimously yesterday in favor of a Bloc Quebecois motion to integrate seal pelts into uniforms for the Canadian athletes.

Just picture it: our Olympic athletes out there draped in sealskin, leaping around the parallel bars and rounding the race tracks with fur flying. Not exactly the moment of patriotic pride we should be striving for.

"With the upcoming Winter Olympics that will be in Vancouver in 2010, the government has a chance to offer some concrete action to promote seal products," Bloc Quebecois MP Raynald Blais said.

That will allow them to use up a few of those unwanted pelts while thumbing their noses at the European Union, a block of countries we are currently negotiating with to increase free trade. The trade dealings are potentially worth billions in wealth to Canadians.

All that to save a dying industry that costs taxpayers millions annually.

Still, Canadian Olympic Committee president Mike Chambers said the idea of sealskin uniforms isn't going to take flight. It will hinder the performance of the athletes and politicize the event.

"I'm used to those in the political arena wishing to attach their issues to the Olympic arena," he said. "But this is one...that will not and cannot be allowed to occur. It's our intent for our athletes to remain free of the politics that arises in and around the Olympic Games. The seal issue, while important, is an issue that has become politicized."

Clearly it's political, because it isn't economical.

And at a time of celebration when our athletes are serving as role models for our nation, we shouldn't be branding them with this badge of cruelty.

Even if it is made of sealskin.

Mac fights to keep Harb Seal Bill from being iced

Mingling after his speech in Vancouver, Mac Harb stops to talk to Jason Windtalker, an aboriginal who is appalled by the reckless slaughter of innocent marine mammals.

If they are to survive public life, career politicians must grow a hard shell.

But even 25 years in politics didn't prepare Senator Mac Harb for the backlash he endured from his peers when he introduced a private members' bill on March 3. It proposed to end the massive annual slaughter of baby seals on Atlantic Canada's ice floes.

"I've never been abused so much in my life as when I introduced this bill," said Harb, who spoke to citizens this past Sunday at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

One senator -- former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell -- has even taken to giving Harb a hand signal when they cross paths on Parliament Hill.

And it isn't exactly a thumbs-up.

Campbell twirls his finger around in a circle near his ear, inferring that Harb is crazy.

In an unprecedented show of disrespect, not one of Canada's 105 senators would second the Harb Seal Bill. A second motion is all that's required to allow Harb to speak about his bill in Parliament.

"If I couldn't find one [senator] with the courage to do that, then I had to take it back to the public," he said.

Harb is the first Canadian politician in history to officially propose an end to the annual seal slaughter. He first became interested in the issue from his experience traveling on trade delegations. He faced people around the world who viewed the killing of baby harp seals with repulsion and horror. And he watched millions being spent by the Canadian government to promote and support a dying industry in the face of worldwide opposition.

"We still call it a hunt," Harb said. "Frankly it's not a hunt at all. They can't walk, can't swim, can't fly. These are babies. Give them a fair shake. This is not a hunt. It's a slaughter."

Despite the ridicule he faces from fellow politicians, Harb isn't deterred from his mission. He's pressing ahead with gusto.

"The government is on the wrong side," Harb said. "They have developed a mental block on the issue. They just don't want to hear about it."

Harb says fear of losing Atlantic Canada's votes -- largely a region galvanized by the fishing industry -- has caused politicians to shy away from ending the slaughter once and for all. That logic doesn't make sense when it's settled against public opinion. While Harb's fellow politicians aren't giving him props, the public certainly is. Forget about being called crazy. "Hero" is the word being bandied about by animal lovers. Not a word typically used to describe politicians.

In all, a whopping 518,000 Canadians have called, written, or emailed Harb's office since he launched his campaign. They've sent letters of support, petitions, and words of encouragement. That's an impressive number in a country with a population of 30 million.

Harb is bringing the letters by the wheelbarrow load to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office.

"We are going to see the beginning of the end of the commercial seal hunt," he declared.

The government computer system has been overwhelmed by the response from the public. Half of the Senate computers -- about fifty of them -- crashed as emails flooded in supporting the Harb Seal Bill. And the servers that handle internet traffic for the Senate and the House of Commons have crashed twice. Kids as young as four years old have written to Harb begging him to keep fighting for the seals.

"When the Government of Canada's computer system can't take the emails from the people, Parliament has to take note of that," Harb said.

As a Canadian, I am stunned by how out of step politicians are with the will of the people on this issue. Polls estimate that 80 percent of Canadians oppose the seal hunt. The exercise in government-subsidized cruelty churns the stomachs of most of us. And the barbaric annual ritual bloodies our public image worldwide.

Harb doesn't call himself an animal activist. He's not even a vegetarian. But he still "cannot understand for the life of me what the rationale is."

"How silly we are to allow this to continue. A loving, kind nation, and now we're killing baby seals," Harb told listeners, who at times gasped in shock as gruesome footage of the carnage on ice was screened. "I have letters from tourists who don't want to come here because all they think about is the seal hunt. It doesn't mesh well with the Canadian image."

The cruelty footage that played out on screen at Harb's event -- which was sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) -- left me breathless. I've viewed the worst: puppy mills, torture, dog fighting. Still, I've never seen cruelty that rivaled this.

Despite his official stripes, Harb hasn't been given any professional courtesy. When he traveled to Eastern Canada this year, the government wouldn't even direct him to the site where the bloodbath on ice was occurring, despite its claims that peaceful observers are welcome. Yet elite government ice-breakers costing taxpayers $50,000 per day escort the seal killers to the places where the pups are innocently learning to swim and feed themselves.

Harb had to spend three and a half hours flying around in a helicopter with IFAW looking for the slaughter site before he found it.

"The government could have told me as a senator, as a courtesy," Harb said. "There are a lot more horrifying photos and videos than what you just saw. These images are the tip of the iceberg."

DO YOU WANT TO HELP SAVE BABY SEALS?

Click on these links to get involved.

International Fund for Animal Welfare

www.stopthesealhunt.ca

www.protectseals.org

What if Stephen Harper was Stephen Harp Seal?

A two-week-old seal pup frolics on an ice floe. Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

Canada's Prime Minister is headed to Prague this week to kick off free trade negotiations with the European Union. If talks are successful, the country stands to gain billions in trade wealth.

But there's an obstacle blocking the way. The blood of baby harp seals threatens to rain on Stephen Harper's trade parade. The intense pressure from Europe -- and the world -- to end government-sanctioned animal cruelty is swelling to a crescendo.

This week, members of the European Parliament are expected to vote in favour of a law banning the import of seal products. It's a major strike against the sadistic seal slaughter that goes on for a few weeks every March and April on the remote ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The EU's seal vote is on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Harper is scheduled to launch the free trade talks at the Canada-EU annual summit. It's not exactly a dynamic public relations roll-out for Harper.

The inhumane nature of the hunt has been one of the most contentious issues between the two parties. In fact, the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth has caught the eye -- and the ire -- of many nations appalled by the barbaric ritual. More than a million baby seals have been beaten to death in Eastern Canada in the past four years.

The United States has been prohibiting seal products since 1972. And now Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Panama and Mexico have either banned trade in seal products or announced their intentions to do so. In mid-March, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin outlawed the hunting of baby harp seals in the White Sea region, labeling the hunt a "bloody business."

It's not just foreigners who disagree with the cruel blood sport. About 80 percent of Canadians oppose it too. Most are too sickened and horrified to watch the footage or hear the details. And many Canadians don't even know it still goes on. The hunt collapsed in the 1980s before being quietly re-introduced in the mid-90s, resurrected by government subsidies.

Many animal welfare groups won't even call the slaughter a "hunt" because there is no chase involved. The seal pups are still learning to swim and eat solid food. They lie on the ice, helpless and trusting until they are bludgeoned to death by young, strapping men with spiked clubs.

Veterinary studies have concluded that about half of the seals are still conscious when they are skinned alive.

About 90 percent of the men who participate in the commercial seal hunt are Newfoundland fishermen, and most are not aboriginals. And the ones who are aboriginal remain protected -- First Nations have been exempted from the proposed legislation.

Despite the will of its citizens' majority, Canada's federal government remains inexplicably defiant in its blind support of the grisly slaughter. According to a report in the Calgary Herald, Ottawa is monitoring the EU vote closely. If the ban on seal products passes, the government intends to challenge it under World Trade Organization rules, said Kory Teneycke, Stephen Harper's director of communications.

The seal hunt has already cost Canada hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2005, animal welfare groups formed the ProtectSeals campaign, whose main line of attack has been convincing American grocery stores and restaurants to boycott Canadian seafood exports, a $3-billion industry annually. The move is designed to attack the sealers' core income coming from their seafood catch.

The boycott has already cost Canadian businesses millions. Just the value of snow crab exports alone to the U.S. have declined $750 million since the ProtectSeals campaign began, and seafood exports from Newfoundland to the U.S. have dropped 44 percent according to the Humane Society of United States. HSUS is a major backer of the ProtectSeals campaign and one of the largest animal welfare organizations in the world.

Animal welfare groups aren't taking all the credit for the declines in seafood exports. Other economic factors are also at play. But since ProtectSeals started, it has successfully lobbied 5,000 American grocery stores and restaurants to stop carrying Canadian seafood, including popular chains such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. There's no doubt that ProtectSeals is having an impact.

By contrast, the take from the so-called hunt is miniscule. Last year, its gross revenues were $12 million, and typically at least half of that is eaten up by expenses. And with world markets for seal skins closing like dominoes, so have prices plunged -- to $15 per pelt from last year's $33. In 2008, the seal hunters took home about $1,100 each, a fraction of their annual income. This year, pelts are piling up unwanted in warehouses, and sealers will be lucky to break even.

The hunting lobby portrays sealers as poverty-stricken fishermen who need the revenue and the meat to feed their families, but the facts don't support these arguments. They aren't eating the meat. Footage documents hundreds of thousands of bloody carcasses left to bleed out on the ice.

Even those who don't care about animals should have something to say against the seal hunt, considering the millions it costs Canadians. A fleet of 10 government vehicles including ice breakers and helicopters assist sealers in getting to the remote ice floes for this dangerous, macho rite of passage. Last year, four sealers drowned, and another two almost died. The ensuing search and rescue took several days and cost the Coast Guard -- or should I say the taxpayers -- millions of dollars.

Still, Canadian politicians seem determined to sacrifice an ocean full of cash for what amounts to a bloody drop in the bucket.

Why?

Maybe Stephen Harper will have an answer to that when he faces the European Union on Wednesday.

Animal lovers the world over will be waiting to hear it.

DO YOU WANT TO HELP SAVE BABY SEALS?

Speaking out against the heartless killing of seal pups is easy, and your voice counts.

These links will propel you to action:

www.stopthesealhunt.ca

www.protectseals.org

A senator speaks about the Harb Seal Bill

Canadian Senator Mac Harb is the first parliamentarian in history to table a bill devoted to ending the seal slaughter. He has already received 30,000 letters of support at his office. Make yours one of them! You can bet he'll be riding that wave of public support all the way to Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Email the Senator at harbsealbill@sen.parl.gc.ca

Senator Harb will be speaking at the Vancouver Art Gallery tomorrow. If you live nearby, drop in and show your support. I'll be there to interview him and blog the event.

The Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street, Vancouver
Heritage Court Room (Second Floor)

The event will be on Sunday, May 3rd from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Doors will open at 5:30 PM.

Watch them, don't wear them

Photographer and TV celebrity Nigel Barker shoots baby seals the only way they should be shot -- with a camera. Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

There's no question that the seal hunt costs the Canadian government much more than what Newfoundland sealers take home in profits. The price tag is in the many millions of dollars.

But the costs that flow from this bloody event aren't just financial.

Canada's reputation on the world stage as a kinder, gentler nation is threatened by the inhumane hunt, an exercise that has inexplicably escaped animal-cruelty legislation. Propping up this dirty business has disastrous consequences on public relations that reverberate the world over.

How can we put a price on our reputation?

The international export markets are banning this commerce in cruelty, closing their ports to seal products. And celebrities are also using their public platforms to have their say.

Heather Mills and former husband Paul McCartney famously took to the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in March 2006 to witness the slaughter. They also appeared on Larry King Live to debate the issue with Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

During the same month, actress Brigitte Bardot traveled to Ottawa to protest the hunt, but the prime minister refused to meet with her.

This year, a television star from the popular reality show America's Next Top Model was the signature celebrity name attached to the cause. Nigel Barker, a British-born fashion and portrait photographer, was on the ice during last year's hunt to photograph the carnage. He filmed a documentary there called A Sealed Fate? that illustrates the travesty.

"I personally will not stop nor sleep well until I know we have stopped this horrendous slaughter," Barker said.

Instead of slaughtering the seals, Barker and others say the site should be developed for eco-tourism. With last year's hunt drawing in gross revenues of less than $12 million, it won't be difficult to replace the measly sum that trickles in from 300,000 seals barbarically stripped of their pelts each season. And they aren't hunting the babies to eat. They leave the bloody skinned seals behind on the ice. This year, pelt prices plunged from $33 to a measly $15 each, so it's likely they won't profit at all. In the past, the average fisherman made just $1,100 a season on sealing, only a fraction of his annual income.

No doubt people will pay more to watch them than wear them.

"Every country has its issues, and this is Canada's," said Barker.

Nigel Barker tells the 2009 Genesis Awards audience about the horrific sights he photographed out on the ice during last year's seal hunt. Photo courtesy of the Humane Society of United States.

Nigel has designed a line of merchandise with proceeds going to save seals. To buy, go this HSUS online store.

His documentary A Sealed Fate? will be available for purchase there soon.

Lights, camera, action against cruelty!

Numerous celebrities have opposed Canada's commercial seal hunt, including:

Richard Dean Anderson, Charles Aznavour, Nigel Barker, Kim Basinger, Juliette Binoche, Sir Paul McCartney, Heather Mills, Kasabian, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, Pamela Anderson, Martin Sheen, Mogwai (band), Pierce Brosnan, Paris Hilton, Sara Quin, Loretta Swit, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Rutger Hauer, Brigitte Bardot, John Paul DeJoria, Ed Begley, Jr., Dave Foreman, Farley Mowat, Linda Blair, Berkeley Breathed, Rolf Harris, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jet, The Vines, Hawthorne Heights, Pink, The Darkness, and Good Charlotte.

Heather Mills was on hand at this year's Genesis Awards in Beverly Hills to show her support for seal pups.

I interviewed Nigel Barker at Genesis. The event was dedicated to ending the Canadian seal hunt.

The pictures don't lie

Note that only the skin is taken. The rest of the animal is discarded on the ice. Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

I received an email today from Sue Hirsch, an animal advocate who works tirelessly for the ProtectSeals campaign. She was in tears over the news coming out of Ottawa today.

Peaceful observers of the commercial hunt released footage documenting extreme cruelty to baby harp seals slaughtered this month and last off Canada's East Coast. They recorded apparent violations of the Marine Mammal Regulations, which fall under the Fisheries Act.

The evidence was shown at a press conference on Tuesday held by Humane Society International's Canadian branch and Senator Mac Harb, the first Canadian parliamentarian to introduce a bill to end the seal hunt. The legislation has come to be known as the Harb Seal Bill.

"This is not a viable industry," said Harb, whose office has received more than 30,000 emails from people who are outraged about the hunt.

"The cruelty we filmed this year proves that the slaughter is as cruel and inhumane it has always been," said Rebecca Aldworth, director of HSI Canada. "We filmed seals being shot repeatedly in open water, seals cut open as they appeared to respond to pain, injured seals left to suffer on the ice, and wounded seals allowed to escape beneath the water's surface where they endured a slow and painful death. It's time the Canadian government ends this cruelty by buying back the sealing licenses."

Veterinarians have repeatedly condemned the hunt as inherently inhumane.

"Despite its best efforts, the Canadian government simply cannot regulate a commercial activity that is carried out in such dangerous conditions in such a short time frame," Harb said. "The derby style of the commercial hunt means it will never be humane, and given the economic realities of the cost of the hunt and the lack of markets for luxury seal fur, it will never be profitable either. I have witnessed with my own eyes the dangerous conditions and the shocking brutality of the hunt. The majority of Canadians want the commercial seal hunt stopped for good."

Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

Do you want to help save baby seals?
Try these links to action:

www.stopthesealhunt.ca

www.protectseals.org

Seal pups slaughtered for sport, not profit

Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

As Canada's hunting season for baby seals draws to a bloody close, East Coast sealers are trading in their skins for cash. They are finding out their skull-crushing efforts were for naught. Prices were a measly $33 per skin last year, and this season, the bounty plunged further. Pelts fetched from $15 to $17 each, not even enough to cover expenses such as gas money.

The message to hunters is clear.

The world refuses to give its seal of approval to Canada's barbaric ritual, which has claimed the lives of one million pups in the past four years. The United States has been prohibiting seal products since 1972. And now global markets are shutting down like dominoes: Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Panama and Mexico have either banned trade in seal products or announced their intentions to do so. In mid-March, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin banned the hunting of baby harp seals in the White Sea region, labeling the hunt a "bloody business."

"This news regarding the depressed seal pelt prices does offer us a small ray of light in what is otherwise a fairly dark tunnel," said Bruce Foerster, president of the West Coast Anti-Sealing Coalition. "The people we are dealing with here seem more determined than ever to continue this barbaric and senseless slaughter despite there being no market for their bloody harvest."

Supporters of the seal hunt argue that out-of-work fishermen need the money from the skins to supplement their incomes. Seal hunting is an off-season activity conducted by about 5,000 people at the most. Hunters come from Newfoundland fishing villages known for high unemployment rates because of depleted fish stocks.

But the financial data doesn't support this economic plea. According to Canada's Department of Fisheries statistics, just 1.3 percent of Newfoundland's fisheries income came from seals in 2008. Because of depressed pelt prices, that's expected to dip even lower this year. The rest of the fisheries revenues in the province come from seafood.

After years of pleading their case, animal welfare groups have finally decided to hit the sealers where it hurts most: their wallets. And that meant targeting seafood exports to the United States, a $2.5-billion industry. In 2005, a network of animal welfare groups including Humane Society of United States instigated a Canadian seafood boycott. The ProtectSeals campaign has successfully lobbied 5,000 American restaurants and grocery stores to stop carrying Canadian seafood. Iconic chains such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's won't buy Canadian until the seal hunt ends.

Seafood exports from Newfoundland and Labrador have been halved in recent years. The value of Canadian snow crab exports alone to the U.S. has declined by more than $750 million. The ProtectSeals spokespeople say the boycott is working.

Last year, the seal hunt amounted to just $12 million in gross revenue, and half of that money was eaten up by hunters' expenses. For a mere $6 million, 300,000 baby seals were cruelly clubbed to death. At least half of them were skinned alive.

This year, sealers won't break even.

"Why anyone would risk their lives and endure torturous conditions in order to slaughter baby seals for no net return is a mystery to us all, although some sealers have admitted that they do it not for the money but ‘just for the fun of it'," said Foerster.

And revenue figures don't take into account what the Canadian government pays to keep the business of the hunt supported -- probably 10 times that much. So goes the estimate by Toronto lawyer and journalist Murray Teitel.

Traveling to the remote ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence where the baby seals frolic is dangerous, and defies nature. For seven weeks, the Canadian Coast Guard is deployed to help the hunters with a 10-vessel fleet that includes icebreakers, helicopters and patrol planes. Just one of the icebreakers known as The Amundsen costs $50,000 per day to operate in winter.

The fleet helps break up the ice for hunters, and rescues stranded sealers trapped on the ice. Last year, four sealers died. Another two almost lost their lives. Searching for the sealers cost the government many millions of dollars.

And millions more are paid out for boats damaged by ice.

That's not the only cost.

High-level trade delegations are sent abroad many times a year to argue the merits of importing Canadian seal products. They spend taxpayer money to promote animal cruelty.

Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

How baby seals become easy prey for hunters

A mother nuzzles her baby. Photo courtesy of Nigel Barker.

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of female harp seals travel from Greenland, gathering on the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From late February until mid-March, mothers give birth to their pups, transforming the once-barren ice into a massive nursery set in tones of whites, pale greys and blues.

The pups are nursed with their mothers' high-fat milk until they are about 12 days old, giving them enough blubber to survive when they are abandoned and learning how to feed themselves. Their mothers leave them to join adult males for the annual mating ritual.

Hunters used to be allowed to slaughter the pups when they were still snowy white and snuggling beside their mothers. But skinning them alive while their mothers looked on in panic was a public relations disaster for sealers. Now hunters have to wait until the pups are at least 12 days old, when their coats begin to molt to a silvery grey and their mothers have already gone.

The baby seals -- still too young to swim -- remain on the ice. They mew for their mothers at first, then grow quiet as they realize they have been left to fend for themselves. The silence is broken only by the creaking of the ice as the floating pieces rub and grind together.

These pups are called "beaters", but it's not because of how they are killed. They are named for the way their fins beat the water as they try learning to swim.

That's when the sealers descend upon the helpless pups and turn their icy paradise into a bloody scene rivaling the goriest horror movie. In fact they are closing in right now with boats, helicopters and snowmobiles, killing hundreds of thousands of baby seals. The men are armed with guns and spiked clubs called hakapiks that are used to smash the heads of the seals.

In 2001, an independent team of veterinary experts studied the bodies of animals killed during the hunt. In 42 percent of the cases, the seals didn't show enough evidence of cranial injury to guarantee that they were even unconscious before being skinned alive.

Fully 95 percent of the harp seals killed over the past five years have been under three months of age.

They are utterly helpless and trusting, and wriggle right up to their killers with open curiosity.

GO ON THE SCENE WITH REBECCA

Rebecca Aldworth has been witnessing Canada's seal hunt for 11 years. She's also the director of Humane Society International Canada. You can follow what's happening by clicking over to her Live from the Ice blog. She's on scene documenting the hunt right now as it's happening. She reports sealers are more aggressive to the unarmed, peaceful observers than ever before, threatening them with promises of "ricocheting bullets." A rifle was pointed at them, and four sealing boats repeatedly tried to ram their Zodiac.

Helicopter photo of Rebecca Aldworth courtesy of Humane Society of United States.

HELP END THE CRUELTY

The annual seal hunt is going on right now. To be part of stopping this atrocity for good, follow this link to the ProtectSeals campaign.

40 years later, baby seals face the same brutal fate

A trusting harp seal pup slides over to investigate. Photograph courtesy of Nigel Barker.

I was still just a pup myself when I discovered the horrors of baby seal hunting.

The annual barbaric ritual had been taking place in Eastern Canada for 300 years in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But the public couldn’t get close enough to witness what was happening on the remote ice floes. When animal welfare groups rented helicopters and filmed the carnage in the 1960s, people were outraged.

Three hundred thousand helpless and trusting seal pups were being killed by Newfoundland fishermen each year. The hunters used spiked clubs to beat the seals to death, then sold the pelts to top up their incomes.

Children across the continent were shocked when information films depicting the hunt were screened in schools. The fluffy white mammals were so young that they hadn’t yet learned to swim or eat solid food. Grisly footage showed live baby seals being smashed in the face and shorn of their skins. The animals whimpered in pain as they cuddled close to their terrified mothers. The wake of violence left pools of red blood on pristine white ice.

Like other kids, I was sickened and appalled by the bloodbath. I needed to do something to protect the pups that were even more helpless than I was. My brother was four and I was six when my mother took us to our first protest. At the Canadian National Railway’s Union Station in Winnipeg on the corner of Broadway and Main, we took a stand against the biggest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth.

The protest had been organized by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which was born the same year I was -- 1969. Their founding mission was explicit. To save the seals from this cruel commercial hunt. I carried a tiny picket sign I had made myself. We wore white T-shirts silk-screened with baby harp seals and emblazoned with the words “Save the Seals”.

Now it’s 35 years later, and the hunt is back on in full force. And I’m still speaking out against it, but there’s a difference.

I feel even more powerless than I did at six.

In the past three years, nearly a million pups off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador have been brutally slain for their fur, the highest number since the 1950s and ’60s. Back then, mass killing caused the harp seal population to be depleted by two thirds.

When I attended the Genesis Awards in Beverly Hills last week, the night was dedicated to ending the Canadian seal hunt. The red-carpet affair is organized by the Humane Society of United States (HSUS), and recognizes actors, writers, directors and producers for works that highlight animal welfare issues.

Renowned fashion and portrait photographer Nigel Barker of television’s America’s Next Top Model was the special guest. This time last year, he spent two weeks on the Atlantic Canadian ice photographing the seal pups as they were being born. And then he stayed to document the carnage that followed.

“The methods used to kill them that I witnessed were brutal in the extreme,” Barker said.

Heather Mills came to the Genesis Awards, too. She and her ex-husband Paul McCartney witnessed the hunt the year before Barker, drawing world attention to the slaughter.

At my table, I sat beside Susan Hirsch, a consultant for the ProtectSeals campaign. As we ate, we talked about the hunt. I told her what I felt every time the topic came up.

Shame.

As a Canadian, I am ashamed that we haven’t managed to stop this cruel event. Clubbing baby animals is not what our peaceful nation stands for, and studies show that most Canadians are opposed to it. In fact, many don’t realize it’s still going on.

If animals were being slaughtered in this manner openly in our neighborhoods and not on unpopulated ice floes, this brutality would have been outlawed long ago.

We must stretch our arms wider and protect those animals struggling to survive in Earth’s remote corners. They deserve humanity just as the rest of them do. That would be something for Canadians to be proud of.

Photograph courtesy of Nigel Barker.

YOU CAN HELP END THE CRUELTY

The annual seal hunt is going on right now. To be part of stopping this atrocity for good, follow this link to the ProtectSeals campaign.

Genesis Awards harness star power to save animals

Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres strut their stuff on the red carpet. Photo courtesy of HSUS.

When you make a career in show business, creating a fantasy becomes your reality.

But this past Saturday, it wasn't make-believe that took center stage at the 23rd annual Genesis Awards in Beverly Hills. Animal cruelty and neglect grabbed the spotlight when celebrities, directors, writers and producers were honored by the Humane Society of United States.

America's largest animal welfare organization handed out 20 awards for films, television programs and news stories that raised public awareness of animal issues. The biggest honor of the night went to Ellen DeGeneres and her partner Portia de Rossi, who accepted the Wyler Award together for spreading the word on the inhumane treatment of factory farm animals. DeGeneres spoke to viewers of her talk show about Proposition 2, which addresses the issue in California.

"This stuff haunts me now," DeGeneres said.

As the star-studded crowd began to arrive at the Beverly Hilton hotel, uninvited bystanders crowded against the velvet ropes with cameras in hand, hoping to get a glimpse of the noteworthy parading past on the red carpet. The eclectic crowd featured big-name stars mingling with hard-core animal activists.

But the most popular celebrity was one who strolled in on four legs, not two. It was Clyde, the dog who starred in the hit film Marley and Me with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. He stood to the side of the red carpet and enthusiastically greeted everyone who walked by, even giving my face a friendly lick when I kneeled down to pet him. It was better than an autograph.

This was my second year attending the event that's held in the same massive ballroom used to host the Golden Globes. Guests nibbled on a delectable vegan meal of artichoke salad, tasty soy protein with black rice, and a rich chocolate mousse dessert.

"I called myself an animal lover, and I ate them," DeGeneres told the crowd. "It really is so much easier to say, ‘I can't think about it - I don't want to know about it - it's horrible' - and when we finally took the time to force ourselves to look at the reality of the lives of these poor animals, you can't ignore it. You can't say, ‘Yeah, but I want a cheeseburger so badly. I don't want to look at that."

The footage that rolled as the nominees were announced was gut-wrenching to watch. At every table, tears flowed down perfectly coiffed cheeks. Some guests had to step out when the images got to be too much.

The clips spared no tender hearts. A has-been racehorse was killed at a slaughterhouse. The tape cut to another that lay dying in the mud. Abused elephants were beaten and chained until they performed tricks for a circus crowd. A whale was massacred in the ocean, its blood staining the seawater bright red. Factory farmed pigs and chickens were miserably crowded into tiny cages, unable to enjoy basic behaviors like standing up or spreading their wings.

DeGeneres wasn't the only talk show queen to win a prize for speaking out against the atrocities. The Oprah Winfrey Show also garnered an award, picking up the outstanding talk show accolade for reports on factory farming, puppy mills and dog fighting. Another big win was for Walt Disney Pictures' Bolt, in the feature film category. The Academy-Award nominated movie reveals the sad truth about the fate of abandoned cats and dogs. For the fifth time, Fox picked up the Sid Caesar comedy award for The Simpsons, which recognized them for a show that painted a bleak perspective on the horrors of factory farming. ABC TV's Grey's Anatomy won best drama for an episode that discussed the ethics of using live animals in medical research.

News outlets were also honored. ABC News took home the TV newsmagazine national prize for 20/20. World News With Charles Gibson won for a national news feature. HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel received the national newsmagazine cable award.

Among the print journalism winners were USA Today for a series of newspaper articles, and the magazines Sports Illustrated and Newsweek were also recognized.

Animal activists are accustomed to being abused and misunderstood for their viewpoints. But it was evident that among this crowd, being kind to animals was ultra-cool. Celebrity chic, in fact. Ellen herself embraced the title.

"The more labels I add to myself, the more I risk alienating people, but I'm openly gay, and that's worked out okay...so now I'm openly vegan, and I will do everything I can to help."

Here's me with Clyde, the lovably rambunctious canine celebrity from Marley and Me.

Jorja Fox of CSI fame has been voted sexiest vegetarian by PETA. She plays forensic scientist Sarah Sidle on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Animal lover Marg Helgenberger is also of CSI fame, and plays Catherine Willows.

Just a few of Jennifer Coolidge's best-known parts include roles in Legally Blonde, American Pie, Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. She's lent her star power to organizations such as Louisiana SPCA, PETA and Farm Sanctuary.

Oscar-winning actor James Cromwell became a vegetarian in 1974 after visiting a Texas stockyard and witnessing the "smell, terror and anxiety."

Professional football player Jarrod Cooper volunteers with abused dogs at a San Francisco animal shelter.

Michael Vartan of Never Been Kissed and One Hour Photo is also known for his role as Michael Vaughn on the American television action drama Alias. He's also an avid animal lover.

Emmy-nominated Wendie Malick of TV comedy Just Shoot Me plays Nina Van Horn. She's a vegetarian and committed to animal welfare causes.

PETA member Emily Deschanel plays Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan in the crime drama Bones. She's a vegan and an animal rights advocate.

Ellen and Portia accept the Wyler award.

Above photos courtesy of Long Photography and HSUS

More to come…

The 2009 Genesis Awards ceremony was dedicated to ending the senseless slaughter of baby harp seals in Canada. I spoke with renowned British-born fashion photographer Nigel Barker of the reality TV show America's Next Top Model about his work out on the ice documenting the bloodshed. That story’s coming up, so stay tuned.

Photography courtesy of Nigel Barker.