Saving The Seals

Flower power and bellbottom pants…the Woodstock music festival and the first moon landing…the civil rights movement and the rise of feminism…the 1960′s were a time marked by events and ideas that changed the world forever.

So it should come as no surprise that the decade that spawned such important social change also marked the beginning of a new movement for animals.

A timeline of IFAW’s work to save seals

From the first time a group of caring individuals stepped out onto the ice in 1969, to the recent legislative proposal in Canada to end the seal hunt, our campaign has been marked by successes and challenges:

1969 IFAW founded with the goal of saving hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals from the cruelty of the Canadian commercial seal hunt.
1972 Thanks to IFAW, the plight of the seal pup gains international attention, leading the United States to implement the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibiting the import/export and marketing of marine mammal products.
1983 After receiving several million signatures from IFAW supporters and other groups, the European Economic Community institutes a ban on the import of whitecoats (harp seal pups less than 2 weeks old).
1987 Commercial whitecoat hunt banned; harp seal catches drop to 46,796.
1996 Government subsidies for the sealing industry prompt an increase in the number of harp seals allowed to be killed to a quarter million seals.
2006 Nearly one million seals killed in past three years, a return to the numbers seen in the 1950′s and ’60s when the seal population is thought to have declined by up to 66%.
2008 IFAW’s constant campaigning pays off when the EU announces a proposal to ban the import of seal products.
2009 For the first time in Canadian history, a piece of legislation is introduced to end the commercial seal hunt: the “Harb Seal Bill”.
2010 With the EU seal trade ban in place and markets around the world drying up, over 200,000 seal pups were spared a cruel death.
2011 With seal markets dwindling and pelt prices plummeting, most of Canada’s 6,000 sealers stay home… Our campaign is working!


A new hope

Canada’s commercial seal hunt costs more money than it makes. The worldwide demand for seal products is shrinking, and the European Union has joined with nations around the world who have decided that they don’t want Canada’s dead seals.

This is truly an historic moment – a moment that marks the beginning of the inevitable end to Canada’s commercial seal hunt. But the Canadian government continues to prop up this dying industry, encouraging the slaughter to continue. Our video footage from this year alone reveals unprecedented cruelty and suffering.

We can not stop until this slaughter is ended once and for all.

Stay tuned for more updates from the ice and from our campaigns around the world. And thanks again for taking the time to act for animals,



Fred O’Regan
IFAW President