10/12/2011 Press Release As part of International Animal Rights day, Pat Dickens, founder of "The Seals of Nam" and former national coordinator for Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (best known for the TV reality Show "Whale Wars") joined forces with well known South African DJ "MrSub Mrsublive"at the top end of York Street in George to protest the annual slaughter of Cape Fur seals in Namibia Waving graphic placards with the slogan "You can help stop the slaughter" the two managed to make a definite impact with numerous locals hooting in support of their initiative. Each year in Namibia, over 80 000 baby seals, still dependent on their mothers teat, are brutally beaten to death for their fur. A further 6 000 adult bull seals are shot at point blank range so that their penises can be used to make an ineffective aphrodisiac. Since the EU ban in 2009 on all seal products, the Canadian seal cull has ground to a virtual halt, while the Namibian hunt has become the largest slaughter of wildlife on earth. The Namibian Government claim the slaughter is necessary to protect their fishing stocks. They fail to mention that since independence they have increased their annual fisheries harvest from 300 thousand tons to 600 thousand tons without doing any sustainability studies. The Namibian territorial waters are poorly patrolled and illegal fishing trawlers are a dime a dozen. The Cape Fur seal is an endangered species and appears on both the IUCN red data list as well as on Appendix II of CITES.  |
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