The Humane Society of the United States is pleased to announce that Autry Greer & Sons Inc., parent company of Greer's Food Tiger and Greer's Markets, has joined The HSUS ProtectSeals campaign against the cruel and unnecessary slaughter of baby harp seals by commercial fishermen in Canada.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Greer’s to the ProtectSeals campaign and honored to have their help,” said Patricia Ragan, director of The ProtectSeals campaign. With headquarters in Prichard, Ala., Autry Greer & Sons operates 32 grocery stores under the Greer’s Food Tiger and Greer’s Market banners in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.
“We believed that standing with other grocers, restaurants and suppliers against this inhumane hunt is the right thing to do,” said Johnny Fayard, director of perishables for Autry Greer & Sons Inc. “We’re glad to be able to be of help to The Humane Society of the United States and to the baby seals.”
Autry Greer & Sons Inc. joins more than 4,500 restaurants, grocery stores, hotels and casinos across the United States who have pledged to avoid buying Canadian seafood until the government-sanctioned hunt is stopped. Other campaign participants include Whole Foods Markets, Trader Joe's, BiLo Supermarkets, Harris Teeter, WinCo Foods, Richard’s Whole Food Markets, Earth Fare, Legal Sea Foods, Margaritaville Cafés, Ted Turner’s Ted's Montana Grill, Oceanaire Seafood Room and Bon Appétit Management Company. These companies are sending a clear message to Canada’s fishing industry that slaughtering baby seals is an unacceptable business practice.
The Humane Society of the United States hopes that Canada’s fishing industry will soon end its support for the commercial seal hunt and advocate instead for a sealing license retirement plan. Under such a plan, Canadian fishermen who participate in the commercial seal hunt would receive fair compensation for the small amount of additional income they earn killing seals, and the hunt would come to an end. When Canada ended its commercial whale hunt, it set up a license retirement plan along these lines.
Facts about Canada’s Commercial Seal Hunt:
- Canada's commercial seal hunt is the world's largest slaughter of marine mammals, with nearly one million seals killed in the past five years.
- Restaurants, seafood distributors and grocers participating in the ProtectSeals campaign pledge to avoid Canadian snow crab, or all seafood from Eastern Canada, or seafood from all of Canada until the hunt ends for good. The HSUS has signed pledges from all boycott participants.
- Canada exports nearly two-thirds of its seafood to the U.S. producing $2.5 billion annually for the Canadian economy, compared to less than $8 million generated in 2008 by the commercial seal hunt.
- More than 95 percent of the seals killed each year in the commercial seal hunt are less than three months of age. The majority are about one month of age or less. Many have not yet eaten their first solid meal or learned to swim properly at the point they are killed.
- As a result of global warming, ice is thinning in the Canadian birthing grounds of the harp seal. In 2007, more than 90 percent of the seal pups died in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence due to melting ice. Despite this, Canada went on with the hunt.
- Since the ProtectSeals seafood boycott went into effect, the value of seafood industry exports from Canada to the United States has fallen dramatically.
For more information about the campaign to save Canadian seals, please visit
humanesociety.org/protectseals.
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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.
