It may be true that if you torture numbers, they will tell you anything. But here are some numbers that require no manipulation, no twisting, and no pretzel logic: More than 317,000 harp seals were killed this year during Canada's annual seal hunt, and an estimated 98%-plus were babies less than three months old, still developing animals who were routinely clubbed and shot, with many allowed to die slowly.
And yet, these figures apparently say nothing to Canada, which is already talking about another number: the alleged increase in the harp seal herd to an estimated 5.9 million, a number that's highly contested by scientists and animal advocates. This fall the Canadian government will convene to determine one more grisly figure: the number of harp seals the country will allow hunters to kill over the coming years. During the last three years, Canadian sealers were allowed to club and shoot 975,000 baby seals.
If the raw number of dead seals doesn't move Canada, perhaps this one will: Three billion.
That's approximately how much cash, in Canadian dollars, that Canada's fishing industry makes annually from exporting its seafood to the United States. It dwarfs another number: 16 million. That's approximately the amount of money Canadian fishermen—the same folks who look to those billion-dollar exports to America for their livelihood—earn in a record profit year from killing seals for the fur industry.
This is where Red Lobster's numbers come in: The chain has more than 670 stores that served more than 144 million customers in fiscal year 2004, making Red Lobster the self-proclaimed "world’s largest seafood casual dining company." As part of feeding those millions of customers, Red Lobster annually purchases millions of dollars worth of Canadian seafood.
In other words, Red Lobster has the opportunity, through the sheer volume of its purchases, to help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of harp seals with one decision: Stop buying Canadian seafood.
To date, Red Lobster has refused to join our ProtectSeals campaign, despite these numbers: 130,000 people who have already signed the pledge to stop buying Canadian seafood, and 30,000 people who personally emailed or called Red Lobster urging the chain to join the cause.
So it has come to this: We need to show Red Lobster that there are a serious number of people devoted to saving seals. We need people to join us on June 25 for Day of Action demonstrations outside more than 70 Red Lobster restaurants in the United States and Canada.
"This is not a protest of Red Lobster," says Dr. John Grandy, senior vice president for Wildlife and Habitat Protection for The Humane Society of the United States. "It's not a boycott of Red Lobster. It's a demonstration to show the world's largest seafood chain that Americans care about protecting seals—and that they see Red Lobster as a means to an end, the end being that Canada stops slaughtering baby seals."
Day of Action organizers promise that they day will be painless for those who wish to participate: Local organizers will provide all the signs and leaflets necessary for those who show up outside a Red Lobster in the 27 states where demonstrations will be held. They will also make sure you know what to say to those people patronizing your local Red Lobster.
As Rebecca Aldworth, The HSUS's director of Canadian Wildlife Issues and a veteran witness of the seal hunt, wrote in a recent email to HSUS constituents, "Demonstrating is an important step—and it can be a little daunting if you haven't done something like this before. But please know that your actions will make an enormous difference."
And in a game of numbers, that's the bottom line: making a difference, and saving the lives of harp seals who die for virtually nothing.
What You Can Do
Join us at the Red Lobster location nearest you, and show your support for the ProtectSeals campaign. Help us urge Red Lobster to put an end to the hunt by boycotting Canadian seafood until the hunt is stopped.
