"Welcome to my parlour!" said the spider to the fly.: The cry of the innocent - A public service announcement on Namibia seal slaugter

"Welcome to my parlour!" said the spider to the fly.: The cry of the innocent - A public service announcement on Namibia seal slaugter

The cry of the innocent - A public service announcement on Namibia seal slaugter

From award winning performance artist Louise du Toit, in conjunction with The Seals Of Nam comes a spine chilling public service announcement regarding the cruel and brutal seal slaughter that takes place each year in Namibia.

Hi, my name is Louise du Toit, musician and recording artist speaking out on behalf of The Seals Of Nam, a small yet dedicated organization fighting to end one of the most iniquitous, reprehensible acts of mass cruelty on earth, the annual Namibian seal slaughter.

Anyone who knows me will also know I am an animal lover at heart and I cannot abide cruelty in its many forms. I am truly saddened that in this modern day and age the leaders and decision makers of Namibia have chosen to ignore science, economics and the international voice of reason regarding their wonderful seals and have instead decided to continue with one of the largest slaughters of marine mammals on earth and the largest slaughter of wildlife in Africa.

Each year, over a period of 139 days, a quota of 80 000 pups are set to be slaughtered for their fur. This takes place at two main locations namely Cape Cross and Wolf/Atlas Bay’s. At the crack of dawn, men armed with pick handles will invade the beaches, disturb the entire breeding colony, forcibly separate the pups from their mothers and violently beat as many of these animals to death as they can before 9am. Video evidence confirms that after having being clubbed, many pups are still alive and conscious when they are then stabbed in the throat to bleed out. As the seals stampede towards the safety of the sea, heavy bulls crush any young pups that get in their way. Pregnant females become so distraught they regularly self abort while the unweaned pups, who are still dependent on the teat, will vomit up their mothers milk in fear.

The pups are beaten to death rather than shot as a bullet costs money and the hole it creates reduces the value of the pelt. From 9am to 10am the beaches are cleaned up of any blood so as to hide this disgrace from unsuspecting paying tourists who arrive from 10am onwards to view what remains of a once majestic seal colony. The bitter irony of this situation is that Cape Cross is a designated seal reserve, an area where the seals ought to be protected.

A further quota of 6 000 adult bulls is set. Because their skulls are too thick to be crushed with a pick handle, these animals are instead shot in the face from a point blank range. Their fur is too coarse to be used by the fashion industry. They are slaughtered so that their penises can be exported to the East where they are then made into ineffective sex potions, thus fueling an illegal trade in animal body parts for fake medicines.

Seal genitals

In a desperate, last ditch attempt to end this horrific carnage, and after having exhausted all other appropriate channels (including pleading with the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, The Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, The Namibian SPCA and the Directorate of Environmental Affairs) The Seals of Nam finally met with the Namibian ombudsman in September of 2011. 

Quoting from Namibian legislation, it was pointed out to government that they are violating their own law. The Namibian Animal Protection Act clearly states that is an offence to “ill-treat, neglect, infuriate, torture or maim or cruelly beat, kick, goad or terrify any animal.”

In July of 2012 and through a bizarre twist that defies any sense of logic, the Namibian Ombudsman Adv John Walters ruled that a seal is NOT an animal and is thus excluded from any benefits afforded by the Animal Protection Act of 1962. 

This to me is so utterly ridiculous, so morally wrong that I ask you to join me and several other leading South African personalities, including Miss SA 2010  in supporting The Seals of Nam’s campaign calling for a consumer boycott of sport, produce and tourism against Namibia until such stage as the annual seal massacre is permanently ended. 

I also call upon the Namibian government to rise to the challenge in developing more economically rewarding eco-tourism around their seal colony. I believe this will be a positive move, in line with international sentiment and, once developed, will be a brand the people of Namibia can be truly proud of as opposed to the current situation where the slaughter is nothing but a national disgrace. 

For more information visit The Seals Of Nam 

Facebook game requests

Of the many pet hates I have, Facebook games are right up there. I do not see the point in wasting time on such frivolous activities as sending pictures of tractors and clicking little blocks to harvest cyber vegetables. I find these games to be absolutely pathetic and there is more to life than making birds angry.

If I want to play computer games, I would rather invest in a decent game that tests skill and imagination. War Craft or something similar.

So I made this pic to send to the next person who sends me a sheep. 

Namibia's seal massacre is a bloody disgrace

Sign our petitions here 

You can Tweet Namibia's Tourism Board @NamibiaHorizons or email them nschleberger@namibiatourism.com.na
You can E-Mail the King of the Cull Hatem Yavuz who controls much of the demand for the slaughter hatemyavuz@superonline.com

Two of the three slaughter locations take place on property controlled by de Beers. Show them this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0WHJEaCAis

Ask them when they plan to put an end to their unethical blood diamonds from Namibia. You can email them:
Philippe.Mellier@debeersgroup.com, Stephen.Lussier@debeersgroup.com, Tom.Tweedy@debeersgroup.com, Rory.MoreOFerrall@debeersgroup.com, Daniel.Kali@debeersgroup.com, Patti.Wickens@debeersgroup.com

Namibia Facts

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE POST AND SHARE AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE!!

The vast majority of people have never heard of the barbaric and savagely cruel Namibian seal hunt that takes place in Africa. It is a shameful secret the government has kept hidden from public outrage. Consequently, unlike the Canadian hunt, Namibia has received very little opposition to this iniquitous industry. 

Our organization was founded on the principle of bringing the stench of the Namibian seal massacre to the nostrils of an indignant world, to raise awareness to the issue, to educate the misinformed public and apply direct pressure on the government to end the hunt. With YOUR help, we believe we will ultimately achieve this.

The Namibian seal hunt is considered to be the most brutal and cruel of any mass slaughter. Since the EU ban on seal products came into effect, Namibia became officially responsible for the deaths of more seals than any other country on earth. Although Canada sets higher quotas, Namibia is killing more seals. To understand why it is considered to be the cruelest hunt on earth we have put together the following informative clip 

Namibia's seal slaughter is NOT a cull. It is a commercial hunt. The slaughter targets 80 000 nursing pups and 6 000 alpha breeding bulls. Namibia is the only country on earth to beat un-weaned pups to death.

If it were a cull (ie to reduce the population and thus protect fish stocks as government claims) the targets would be the breeding females. However, since mostly male pups and bulls are targeted (so that their penises can make ineffective sex potions for the East) we are left with a an un-natural situation where there are proportionately many more females in a given population. Since one bull can mate with up to 40 females, you are not reducing the population, you are INCREASING it. 

Please do not believe for one second the government propaganda that seals are being slaughtered to protect fishing stocks. This is a blatant lie. We know it, government knows it but they keep pushing it to the gullible. If you lined up every single seal colony in Namibia and put them side by side, this "super colony" would stretch out over roughly 18 km's. Namibia has 1 500 km's of coastline. Her economic fishing zone is 200 nautical miles wide. There is no possible way 18 km of seals can devour an entire 1 500 km's x 200 nm of fish stocks.

The collapse of Namibia's fishing industry cannot be blamed on seals but on over-fishing and environmental factors playing out in the Benguela current. The Benguela Nino has displaced juvenile hake from their spawning grounds, causing them to move to deeper cooler water. Here they are preyed upon by adult hake since both species are canabalistic. Because they have not yet reached sexual maturity, the hake do not breed causing a collapse in stocks.

When Namibia got independence, she increased her annual fisheries harvest from 300 000 tons to 600 000 tons. No public records of an environmental impact assessment to warrant this increase can be found. 

Bernard Esau, Namibia's Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources REGULARLY ignores the advice of his OWN government scientists when it comes to allocating fishing quotas. This irresponsible behaviour does the environment no favours but leaves a greedy commercial fishing industry smiling. Monk Fish quotas for example were increased from 1 000 tons to 14 000 tons while scientists only recommended 2 000 tons.

Namibia, a 3rd world country, is also not very developed. Her navy is not capable of enforcing fishing regulations. Lack of compliance officers and fleet to respond to poaching results in foreign trawlers entering the fishing zone and raping it to their hearts content. 

The government claims the seal hunt provides much needed employment. Another lie. When the seal quota stood at 30 000, 160 people were employed. Now, with a quota of 86 000, the state owned newspaper New Era reports only 81 people are employed.

These are seasonal workers, employed for 4 months of the year. They earn the minimum wage and live in tin shacks in badly serviced shanty towns. The hunt only benefits an economic elite. It does not benefit the economically disadvantaged at all but keeps them in squalor and a position of subjection. 

An independent report was undertaken by an Australian firm called "Economists at Large." This report shows eco-tourism will generate THREE HUNDRED TIMES more revenue and create a multitude of jobs. The government refuses to look into this economically rewarding and viable alternative. http://www.wspa-international.org/latestnews/2011/namibian-seals.aspx

To understand who benefits from Namibia's seal hunt, we put together the following informative clip

To address these issues, a stakeholder meeting was called in September of 2011. It was pointed out to government that they are violating their own legislation. The Namibian Animal Protection Act states it is an offence to "overload, overdrive, override, ill-treat, neglect, infuriate, torture or maim or cruelly beat, kick, goad or terrify any animal.”

In June of 2012, the Namibian ombudsman ruled a seal is NOT an animal and is thus exempt from any benefits afforded by the Animal Protection Act. 

2 of the 3 slaughter locations (viz Wolf and Atlas Bay) are on property that is controlled by NamDeb, a diamond partnership between government and de Beers. While de Beers have indicated they are sympathetic to the cause, they have done precious little by way of opposing it. See the following clip below

If this information shocks you, and you are disgusted by human exploitation, the rape of a fragile and delicate eco-system and gross violations of animal welfare standards, please take action!

Contact media houses, celebrities, tweet about it, share our facebook and website pages. Write to the Namibian embassies and tourism agencies. Contact de Beers and sign our petitions. Boycott all Namibian sport tourism and produce. The more noise we make, the sooner we will succeed.

Thank you for your support.