Dear Editor,

PETA is calling on the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee to use its influence to help put a stop to the annual seal slaughter.

Sealers routinely hook live seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid damaging their fur.

About 95 percent of seals killed are under three months old, and many may not have even eaten their first solid meal or learned how to swim before they are skinned for their fur.

There's no justification for clubbing and skinning baby seals alive. In Newfoundland, income from the seal slaughter accounts for approximately 1 percent of the province's economy, but even if it were more, there will never be an excuse for clubbing baby animals as their mothers look on in horror and fear.

The seal slaughter is not a subsistence trade for native peoples; it is an off-season profit venture for fishers off Canada's East Coast. Inuit seal hunting accounts for only about three percent of the slaughter.

Joanne Beeson