A national and international campaign will be launched on social media on Friday against seal clubbing which is poised to begin in Namibia.
The campaign has the support of various South African celebrities, including musician Louise Carver and businesswoman, Edith Venter.
The organisation Fur Free says Namibia is on the brink of massacring 85 000 nursing seal pups and a further 6000 bulls.
It says this is now the biggest slaughter of wildlife in the world and Fur Free is calling for an international boycott of Namibia and all Namibian products.
Patrick Dickens, the director of Seals for Namibia, says the cape fur seal is on the endangerd list.
"Basically, the cape fur seal is an endangered species, its listed on the appendix two of CITES. Namibia are responsible for the mass slaughter of this species, 86 000 nursing pups are beaten to death each year," he said.
"There's no way the Namibian government can blame the seals for being responsible for a drop in fish stocks when 86 000 of the 91 000 are nursing pups that are still on the teat," he added.
Dickens said the Namibian Minister of Fisheries "repeatedly ignores scientific warnings from his own government scientists and has increased the quotas for pilchards agains this year."
"We've gone through all the avenues we can possibly go through to request that the Namibian government desist from the ghastly slaughter and nothing happens. So, we've now launched a full scale boycott of all Nambian sport, tourism and produce," said Dickens.
See the full statement below as well as useful links:
8 March 2012, Johannesburg: As part of another worldwide campaign for the Seals of Namibia an action will be launched in the local and international social media on Friday the 9th of March, to protest against the massacre of 85 000 nursing seal pups and 6 000 bulls poised once again to begin in Namibia. This is now the biggest slaughter of wildlife IN THE WORLD!
In addition to well known celebrities, thousands of local and international participants will once again call for a GLOBAL BOYCOTT OF NAMIBIA and all Namibian products, including tourism to Namibia, and will post special messages on their Facebook and Twitter pages. See http://youtu.be/nCZKMbnzFEw for statements about the seal massacre by local celebrities, including Jeremy and Jacqui Mansfield, Cito from Wonderboom, Louise Carver, Jenna Clifford, Edith Venter and many more.
The Namibian Seal "cull" is the largest slaughter of wildlife in the world today. It is also considered the most brutal of all culls.
Every year for the past three years, the kill quota has been set at 85 000 nursing pups and 6 000 bulls. In the past, concessionaries have admitted that there are simply not enough animals to kill, and they seldom meet their quota. Yet the Namibian authorities insist on increasing the quota.
The Namibian Government has been resorting to non-existent laws to arrest and detain journalists who attempt to film the cull. See http://bit.ly/eAQzaU.
The government also inflates the figures of the actual seal population to justify a higher cull quota – see http://tinyurl.com/5rpp7nx
Seal clubbers have been known to attack and beat journalists – see http://tinyurl.com/62vujny
The following footage shows how savage this "cull" is (warning - graphic content): http://tinyurl.com/5wfb3we
Also note the following facts:
· Independent observers have concluded the killing methods to be cruel and inhumane, causing unnecessary suffering. See the SA Journal of Science 2010, 106(3/4), and click on the following link for video evidence: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=989_1206722962
· The Animal Protection Act 71 of 1962 (Namibia) expressly forbids beating an animal to death. This is circumvented by seals not being classified as animals. We would like clarification on this matter. Are these creatures birds? Insects? Invertebrates? Fish?
· It is not about conservation, since there is solid scientific evidence that the Cape fur seal is being threatened by extinction (They are listed on both Appendix II of CITES as well as the IUCN’s red list, and the removal of an apex predator from the food chain goes against the norms of accepted scientific conservation practices). (The quota of pups to be 'harvested' now exceeds the number of pups alive on the first day of the 'cull'. When the pups are bludgeoned to death, they vomit mother's milk.)
· Independent research has found that the seals do not adversely affect Namibia's fisheries, and that fish numbers have declined due to human over-fishing and bad management practices. Although South Africa had similar concerns that its fisheries would be adversely affected when they ended their seal culling program, the industry has shown nothing but positive growth.
· South Africa stopped its seal culling in 1990. Namibia was advised by the Commission on Sealing to follow suit. The USA, Mexico and the EU have all banned seal products on the basis of the inherent cruelty involved.
· The Namibian government has ignored all pleas, stating that it will not be prescribed to by anyone.
· The Namibian Ministry of Fisheries can no longer claim the slaughter is providing much needed employment, since the number of people involved has dropped from 160 to 81. Clubbers hardly benefit, since they cannot even support their families and are living below the poverty line in tin and cardboard shacks. (We are advocating the promotion of community-based, sustainable seal-viewing eco-tourism, which already yields 80 times the revenue generated by the sealing industry and will provide not only more jobs year-round but will also lead to skills development and investment.)
News of the boycott has been spread rapidly by the media and by conservation organisations, animal rights groups and concerned citizens around the world. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are littered with references pertaining to the savagery of the hunt.
For further information on the Namibian boycott, please refer to https://sites.google.com/site/thesealsofnam/, which will provide you with information regarding supporting groups and details of international protests that have taken place. Included are photos and footage of the slaughter, press articles, celebrity statements on the hunt and a list of corporations (such as De Beers diamonds) that are being targeted by the campaign organisers.
ENDS
https://www.sites.google.com/site/thesealsofnam/the-horrors
Press release
Image source: The Seals of Nam
