Recently a team of three campaigners visited the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Loyola Hearn to call for an end to Canada'sseal slaughter that takes place for just a couple of months each year. At the meeting Oakley Road Resident, Aoibhinn Gilroy handed in a petition signed by various neighbours of both Mr. Hearn and various other predecessors. The meeting spoke about the cruelty of Canada's seal hunt, the fact that the Canadian public do not want the hunt, the fact that markets around the world are shutting down and how outragous it is that the Canadian government have worked literally backwards to push unwanted seal products into China. Thankfully the hunt is on it's knees with very few boats going out this year. ARAN has stated that our campaign will continue on here in Ireland until the seal slaughter is a thing of the past. 

The writing is on the wall – the world does not want, nor need, products made from Canada’s dead seals.

The end of the commercial sealing industry is in sight. It is time for the Canadian government to face the reality that commercial sealing is neither viable nor necessary in this day and age, and there are no indications that it will become so in the future. Instead of propping up this dying industry with bailouts and other financial assistance, any government support provided to the sealing industry should be in the form of a restructuring and transition plan to end commercial sealing and compensate affected individuals. ARAN support Senator Harb and applaud his commitment to end commercial sealing in Canada.

Also this week our work continued on in Irish schools to help bring kindness and compassionate to students and children helping them to understand animals. We believe that a future without cruelty to animals lies with the many young people of today which is why ARAN focusses much of our work on getting into schools to deliver easy-to-understand messages. We're always delighted with the response with all schools and colleges inviting us back for more talks and speeches. ARAN is operating seventeen years now and we all remain strictly unpaid volunteers. If you'd like to donate and adopt a class, please get in touch with us for more information.