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✦ A.I-Generated Summary ▼
✦ A.I-Generated Summary ▼
This "Open Plea" from WildlifeoPedia serves as a dedicated call to action by a young advocate urging the Canadian government, sealing industry, fur industry, and the public to confront and permanently end the commercial* seal hunt.
Key Points:
The Wall Of Silence: Despite sending source-backed, fact-heavy inquiries over the past year, prominent sealing organizations—including representatives of the Canadian Fur Industry and the Canadian Sealers Association—have not wanted to engage in open dialogue or provide counter-evidence.
Biological and Global Collapse Scientific findings from the DFO and the IUCN highlight a 96% probability that the Northwest Atlantic harp seal population has crashed into the "Cautious Zone," leading to a downlisting to "Near Threatened." Concurrently, global markets continue to shut their doors, exemplified by Etsy’s upcoming animal fur ban.
Dismantling Industry Myths: The plea refutes the economic and ecological justifications for the hunt, noting that commercial* sealing contributes less than 0.5% to Newfoundland's GDP and debunking the myth that seals are the primary cause of Atlantic cod depletion.
Call for Political Action: The plea refutes the economic and ecological justifications for the hunt, noting that commercial sealing contributes less than 0.5% to Newfoundland's GDP and debunking the myth that seals are the primary cause of Atlantic cod depletion.
Mission: Driven by the profound impact of witnessing the hunt's reality at a young age, WildlifeoPedia was founded to give a voice to voiceless animals, striving to dismantle industry cruelty and protect marine biodiversity through transparent, collective advocacy.
Final Note:
The open plea is a rallying cry for accountability, transparency, and urgent political reform. By providing direct links to petitions, email campaigns, and symbolic sponsorship certificates, WildlifeoPedia empowers the global community to turn awareness into decisive action before a vulnerable species is pushed beyond the point of recovery. 🦭🌊
ⓘ This Plea was published on July 10th, 2026. Links refer to official sources.
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. In addition to the legislation being there, many people within these markets support the ban on seal products - expressing their own concerns in regards to the animal welfare concerns involved in the commercial* seal hunt. [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 links in our final statement to sign the WildlifeoPedia petition and demand a permanent closure, or personally sign our Open Plea 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?
********
(Independent) sources referenced in the emails sent to the commercial* sealing businesses:
https://csas-scas.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/publications-publications/730aed64-8feb-4bc6-b3d1-fa37d0adb97b?lang=en ("The estimated 2024 total abundance has a 96% probability of being below this PRP and is, therefore, in the Cautious Zone. Under the current ASMS, there is no harvest level that would have an 80% probability of the population increasing above the PRP in 10 years.")
https://www.humaneworld.org/sites/default/files/docs/HSUS_2023-IRS-Form-990.pdf
Drive folder (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1S9k79tcVehMakMqgiwrxMVxwWKiEp2b2?usp=drive_link), referenced by the European Commission at https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14031-Trade-in-seal-products-fitness-check-of-EU-rules/F3482051_en.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aGMBnRn8ft5b4MV7AhOialiLwY-T1lzL
******
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 commmercial* 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 🖋️
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
Why hasn't the sealing industry responded to WildlifeoPedia's findings?
Why hasn't the sealing industry responded to WildlifeoPedia's findings?
Prominent industry organizations—including the Canadian Sealers Association, the Fur Institute of Canada, and NaturaL Boutique—have refused to engage in open dialogue or hearings despite more than a year of fact-heavy outreach.
This ongoing silence suggests to us a lack of empirical data to counter the growing biological and economic evidence against the commercial seal hunt. You can view our verified email records by contacting us directly.
Is the Atlantic harp seal population declining?
Is the Atlantic harp seal population declining?
Yes. According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Research Document 2025/070, there is a 96% probability that the Atlantic harp seal population has fallen into the "Cautious Zone."
Furthermore, in October 2025, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially downgraded the harp seal status from "Least Concern" to "Near Threatened," noting a strictly declining population trend driven heavily by climate change and severe early ice breakups.
What about Indigenous communities?
What about Indigenous communities?
This plea is exclusively directed at the commercial, industrial seal hunt, not Indigenous subsistence hunting. Indigenous communities use sustainable, traditional, and deeply respectful methods that utilize the entire animal, which stands in stark contrast to the mass industrial slaughter of pups for the commercial fur trade.
We fully support the legal exemptions that protect Indigenous cultural rights, and our demand for a federal buyout applies strictly to the non-Indigenous, taxpayer-subsidized commercial industry. However, we want to draw a clear line between the commercial seal hunt and the hunting of seals by Indigenous communities in the Arctic.
The commercial seal hunt is a cruel, profit-driven industry out for the animal's fur only; while Inuit subsistence hunting (usually with harpoons) does not cause the same level of suffering in the animals' final moments. In addition, here, the entire animal is utilized while its fur is simply 'a byproduct'.
Transitioning to a marine ecotourism-driven "Blue Economy" is vastly more beneficial than the commercial seal hunt, as 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.
But seals eat all the cod, no?
But seals eat all the cod, no?
No. Decades of marine biology show that overfishing by humans—not harp seals—caused the Atlantic cod collapse. Although harp seals do eat cod, Atlantic cod makes up only 3% to 6% of a harp seal's actual diet.
Furthermore, harp seals actively hunt predatory fish that compete with and prey upon young cod. Removing seals from the ecosystem actually would disrupt the delicate marine food web and can in fact hamper, rather than help, cod stock recovery.
So, a better way to protect cod stocks would be to let cod populations recover better from (commercial) fishing activities, rather than falsely accusing harp seals of damaging these populations.
How are global markets reacting to the (seal) fur industry?
How are global markets reacting to the (seal) fur industry?
Major global marketplaces are systematically shutting down access to the animal fur trade. For example, Etsy is enacting a strict global animal fur ban taking effect this August 11, 2026.
Many countries including the E.U, Russia & The United States have, with support from the WTO, banned the trade in commercial seal products to "protect public morals".
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