HOW CAN GIANT SUPERMARKETS HELP SAVE SEALS? 21MAI10

 

 From the Humane Society, I hope all will participate in this action to force Giant Supermarkets to end their support of fishermen who participate in the bloody and cruel Spring Seal hunt in Canada, clubbing baby harp seals to death for their fur.

Click the header to go to the HSUA website.

We've reached a tipping point. I can feel it.

Thanks to you and thousands of others who stood up for seals this year, the writing is on the wall: Canada's commercial seal hunt cannot last.

Help me end this barbaric annual slaughter by keeping up the pressure on the Canadian fishermen who hunt seals in the offseason: Tell Giant supermarkets (parent company Ahold) to join other grocers like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Harris Teeter in boycotting seafood from sealing provinces.

Giant is similar to these other chains in its commitment to buying more sustainably harvested seafood, but it falls short in its level of commitment to responsible marine stewardship when it comes to seals. Unlike their major competitors, Giant has not provided assurance that they are not buying (and will not buy) seafood from the fishermen who club and shoot baby seals each spring. With your help, we’re hopeful they will re-consider this oversight.

Our seafood boycott is working. Over 5,500 grocery stores and restaurants are already using their seafood purchasing to send Canada a clear message. And thanks to the seal product ban in the European Union, seal skin prices are very low. As a result, far fewer sealers participated in the hunt this year.

While the hunt was smaller than usual, the killing we witnessed was horrific. We documented many violations of the few inadequate rules to which sealers are supposed to adhere. The evidence we gathered this year could be the final nail in the coffin for the Canadian seal hunt.

You and thousands of other animal lovers around the globe have made this possible by donating to send us to the ice, boycotting Canadian seafood, and telling Canada you’ll do whatever it takes to end the hunt. One by one, your actions have created a sea change that’s spelling the end of this annual massacre, once and for all.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Aldworth
Executive Director
Humane Society International/Canada 

 My letter to Ahold on 21MAI10

As a powerful seafood retailer, Ahold has the ability to help bring the commercial seal hunt to an end. Please use that influence to steer the rest of Canada's fishing industry and the Canadian government away from hunt that has no place in the 21st century.

I do not have to shop at my local Giant in Herndon, VA. Safeway, Bloom, Shoppers, Trader Joe's and Harris Teeter all have stores in the area and I can spend my money there. As a matter of fact, I have to go to the grocery store later today, and I will be shopping at one of these other stores, and will continue to do so until you change your corporate policy.

I will also make family, friends and co-workers aware of Giant's complicity in the seal hunt, the clubbing to death of baby seals, in Canada and ask them to boycott Giant.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this important matter.