Seal Alert-SA, established in 1999 by Francois Hugo, is a one-man seal rescue organization based in South Africa. Over the past ten years, Mr. Hugo has been involved in negotiations with government organizations, corporations and private individuals in an attempt to end the slaughter of Cape fur seals off Namibia’s coast, as well as single-handedly rehabilitating scores of seal pups who would otherwise not survive without his intervention. Hugo was instrumental in the inclusion of Cape fur seals, at the 11th hour, in the recent EU ban on seal products.
Now an opportunity has arisen to end the killing of these seals, which are listed as endangered by the United Nations – Convention in Trade of Endangered Species (CITES). A deal has been struck with Hatem Yavuz, who represents the Namibian sealing industry and owns an Australian-based company which is the last remaining buyer of the pelts. Hugo says, “I have received a signed exclusive agreement to completely buy-out the entire Namibian sealing industry, lock, stock and barrel and thereafter shut it down.” The deal would include all seal industry-related structures and equipment as well as rights and licenses. He states that it’s “a once in a life opportunity to save an entire wildlife species.”
The annual seal cull was scheduled to begin July 1st and lasts 139 days. The price of the buyout is 14 million US dollars, an amount set by the sealing industry. They initially agreed to refrain from embarking on the slaughter for seven days while funds could be raised, and Seal Alert-SA had agreed to a daily deposit of $15,000 for another week, beginning on the eighth day, to allow for even more time to collect pledges and delay the seal cull. A condition of the agreement was that no seals are killed during this period.
On July 5th, the “buyout” letter by Hatem Yavuz has been made public and as of today, July 6th, the seal slaughter has not begun. Talks are continuing with Hatem Yavuz and, subsequent to recent publicity, Seal Alert-SA is also negotiating with the Namibian government to cancel the sealing rights of the industry and announce an end to the seal cull in a legal binding manner.
The Namibian seal slaughter has been called the cruelest in the world. 910,000 seals are earmarked to be killed in the next ten years, with an annual quota of 85,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls. Cape fur seals live in permanent colonies on land, and the pups suckle from their mothers for 12 months, forming an intense bond. Sealers invade the colony and the terrified seals are herded in-land in groups and clubbed to death. Many pups die in shock or from heat or suffocation. Others die of starvation when they become separated from their mothers in the mayhem of the slaughter and are too young to obtain their own food. The established colonies are continually fleeing for safer ground.
Because the seals have been forced to flee the offshore islands due to past sealing, 25% of the pups are killed by jackals attacking colonies on the mainland. Another 19% die of other causes before the seal cull even begins. The annual slaughter literally wipes out the remaining population of pups as well as causing an extreme disturbance in the functioning of the colony as a whole. If the slaughter continues, nearly one million seals will be killed until 2019 providing the seal population does not collapse first.
Seal Alert-SA is seeking major financial partners and asking supporters to pledge a minimum $15 [US] each to help save the Cape fur seals of Namibia from near-certain extinction. The first step is to email Francois Hugo of Seal Alert-SA at sasealion@wam.co.za clearly stating the amount of your pledge. No money will be collected until all legal considerations are in place and the full amount for the close of the agreement is available.
Pledges are pouring in from around the world, including from Namibian citizens and companies. Phil Wollen, Australian Man of the Year and head of Winsome Constance Kindness, has pledged 150,000 US dollars. Supreme Master Ching Hai, world-renowned humanitarian and spiritual teacher of SupremeMasterTV.com, has donated 100,000 US dollars. Hugo states the buyout is “an unconventional but valid solution and that all other non-commercial avenues have been exhausted.” He says, “Let’s together, change history, and make it happen.”
By Alice Bruckenstein, Contributor
Compassionate Animal.TV
Information for this article was obtained from:
http://sealalertsa.wordpress.com/
http://www.wflendangeredstreamlive.org/namibianseals.html (Hear an interview with Francois Hugo at this website).
Saving Namibia's Seals
Seal Alert-SA Gives Namibian Sealing Industry 24-hours to Halt Impending Slaughter
In a Media Release by Seal Alert SA on the 2nd of July 2009, it was announced that Seal Alert SA has given the Namibia Sealing Industry 24 Hours to Officially Halt the Cull.
Seal Alerts has additionally informed the sealing industry that the $14 million in funds raised will then be offered to the government instead. Further as quoted from the Seal Alert media release;
Seal Alert SA went on to say that, "Attempts by the Namibian newspaper to contact the sealers, was reported as follows, "Attempts to obtain comment from a seal-harvesting company at Henties Bay, Sea Lion Products, proved futile. Only an answering machine responded." In their article "International bid to halt seal culls gain momentum" http://www.namibian.com.na/
Seal Alert-SA will make this signed 'buy-out' letter public should it not hear from them today.
South Africa which has the same species of seal, stopped its seal hunt in 1990, due to public pressure and has experienced no further need to manage the seal population through culls or seen any increase in the seal population, after 19 years.
Temporary Reprieve for Baby Seals of Namibia
Although the government has called for the slaughter to begin today, July 1st, Hatem Yavuz who represents the Namibia sealing industry has agreed to not begin killing seals for 7 days while funds are raised for the buy out. In a desperate attempt to save the baby seals Sea; Alert SA has successfully negotiated that beginning on the 8th day , a daily deposit of $15,000 will keep the sealers at bay for another week while enough pledges are collected to for the $14 million buy out of the industry.
This is a one time opportunity to buy out the industry that holds all sealing rights/ licenses to killing these babies for the next 10 years. Seal Alert calculates that in sum at least 910,000 seal will die, which will surely wipe out this endangered species.
Pledges for the buy-out of the sealers are flooding in from individuals and supporting organizations from around the world, among the highest pledges so far, $150 000 (US) has been pledged by a former merchant banker in Australia.
Seal Alert-SA's international campaign to raise the cash, has seen an overwhelming support for this buy-out at $15 a seal's life. A concept or solution never before attempted to end seal hunts. "The problem, is that I am a tiny, one-man organization, who has no big mass emailing lists or infrastructure to reach millions of anti-seal hunt supporters overnight around the world. It will take time to reach out, time the seal pups in Namibia don't have," says Francois Hugo, Seal Alert SA.
Job redevelopment plans for the otherwise indigent & migrant workers who club the seals and work at the sealing industry plants are part of the legal details included in the buy out agreement.
WFLF and WFL Endangered Stream Live condemn all cruelty to animals. "I deplore crime and all cruelty to animals is a crime from my perspective," states, Katia Louise of WFLF. Katia Louise has compared this situation to that of a loved-one being held for ransom and asked, "If this were about a human, a loved one that any one of us cared about and there was a ransom required to save their life, would we say, no; I won't give money to rescue - go ahead, kill my baby, or my mom or whoever it is... of course not." In another statement made by Ms Louise, she said, "We as animal lovers, advocates and activists value the individual life of each sentient being the same that we do our own kind and therefore should consider all types of rescue possibilities for saving the lives of these baby seals."
Seal Alert-SA has asked the international anti-seal hunt organizations to post information about this buyout on their websites to allow each of their own supporters to each make up their own minds, whether they want to pledge an amount to privately stop the seal hunt in Namibia, and help save the seals from clubbing.
The public offer made by Seal Alert-SA to the Namibian sealers is dependent upon the Sealing Industry upholding its side of the agreement to not kill seals for the first 7 days of the sealing season, which officially starts July 1st.
All pledges of support are to be sent directly to Seal Alert SA at sasealion@wam.co.za Other details of the agreement will be discussed with serious investors.
To learn more, listen to the special radio broadcast, Seals of Namibia at WFL Endangered Stream Live.
Visit the show and resource page covering this issue at
http://www.wflendangeredstreamlive.org/namibianseals.html
Seals of Namibia on International Talk Radio
"Seals of Namibia "
Airs Sunday, June 28th 12PST US/ 9PM S Africa
Francois Hugo, Founder of Seal Alert-SA (South Africa) is in talks with the Namibian Sealing Industry toward ending the South Africa seal cull and saving the Cape fur seal species.
Be a part of history in the making! In just a matter of days 91,000 baby Cape Fur seals will be clubbed to death on the shores of South Africa, but you can help keep this from happening.
This is a call for global action for every animal lover to step up to the plate in support of ending this annual slaughter once and for all.
The Premiere airs on Sunday, June 28th at 12 PM PST.
To learn more and to listen on demand: GO!
Host: Katia Louise
Featuring music from "Song for Canada's Harp Seals" by Alice Bruckenstein, Composer
Please note that this is a special broadcast. WFL Endangered Stream Live is currently on hiatus and is producing this program on an emergency basis to help save these seals from this barbaric mass killing which is due to begin on July 1st without your help. Please listen and help spread the word. Donations are needed. No amount is too small.
A Day of Celebration for the Seals!
A Day of Celebration for the Seals!
Yes! Yes! Despite Canada and Norway's threats to take the 27-nation bloc to the World Trade Organization if it moved to ban seal product imports, the European MPs have voted overwhelmingly for a ban on the trade in seal products across Europe condemning the slaughter of seals as "inherently inhumane"...
MP Arlene McCarthy says, ”This law will ensure there is no European market for these products and put an end to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seals every year and thanks to the continuing collapse in the fur price the Canadian hunt has killed less than 60,000 seals this year."
(FULL STORY)
LEARN MORE
Save the Baby Seals
Seals Warriors
Russia Bans the Slaughter of Baby Harp Seals
From Sea Shepherd
Friday, March 06, 2009
Russia Bans the Slaughter of Baby Harp Seals
The baby harp seals of the world have now found at least one civilized place on this planet to be born where they can be spared the greed and cruelty of humankind.
The Russian government has banned the hunting of baby harp seals in the regions surrounding the White Sea.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called seal hunting a "bloody industry".
"It is clear that it should have been banned a long time ago," said Putin at a meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources.
This leaves only Canada and Norway as the remaining baby seal butchers and both of these nations should be ashamed of themselves in light of this decision by Russia.
Putin acknowledged the importance of the hunting industry in the region and said that he would require the government to compensate incomes of the White Sea people in connection with the ban on hunting.
"This is one of their means of existence. Therefore, simply banning is inadequate. A system of support measures must be worked out to secure employment and income of those who live and work there," said Putin.
The people of the White Sea area are far more economically disadvantaged than the people of Newfoundland and the Magdalen Islands yet Russia has found a way to compensate the hunters and to provide protection for the seals.
"The slaughter of seals in Canada remains one of the blackest marks on the reputation of all Canadians," said Captain Paul Watson. "How sad it is that Russia can find a way to end this slaughter yet Canada continues to subsidize the largest seal massacre on the planet."
The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources is preparing proposals to ban the hunting of seals up to the age of one.
Professor Aleksey Yablokov, an associate professor at the Russian Academy of Science, believes that the seals could soon number no more than 150 thousand.
"This is a real biological catastrophe. At the current rate, in a few years the seal could become a rarity in the White Sea," said Yablokov.
Currently around 800 thousand inhabit the White Sea.
Go to Sea Shepherd
International Day of Action for Seals
From Harpseals.org
March 6, 2009
The International Day of Action for Seals is rapidly approaching. The official day is Sunday, March 15th. Some actions will take place on other days, however.
Please attend an event near you, and help raise awareness about the seal 'hunt'. Together, we will end this madness!
- Find out about the event(s) near you here: International Day of Action for the Seals
Please also take these actions for the seals: 
- Write to Canadian politicians voicing your outrage at this slaughter
- Write to European Union ministers encouraging them to ban seal imports now
- Write to American seafood vendors asking them to join the boycott, and
- Give American seafood vendors Harpseals.org Action Cards to show that you're serious about the Canadian seafood boycott
- Donate to Harpseals.org
- Be a walking billboard for the seals. Wear Harpseals.org t-shirts and other seal gear
Updates regarding the EU Ban of Seal Products:
Please visit "Save the Baby Seals" for a complete resource of updates and information.
Updates regarding the EU Ban of Seal Products:
EU panel approves ban on import of seal products:
The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on the proposed ban April 2. The European Council would then cast its decision on the matter, likely in June. "Canada and Greenland have warned the EU that they could challenge such a ban before the World Trade Organization." Read article at International Herald Tribune
" Canadian fisheries ambassador Loyola Sullivan concedes there will be some type of ban, but whether Canadian seal pelts and other products will be exempt from it is still up for debate."- The Canadiam Press
"The draft law would allow the import of seal products, including skin, meat, fat and oils, from countries that can guarantee their hunting practices are "consistent with high animal-welfare standards" and that the animals are killed swiftly without undue suffering. Special exemptions would be allowed for Canada's Inuit." -The Parliment
European senate proposed a ban on the sale of seal products GO!
Britain blasted for backing seal ban GO!
German parliament votes unanimously to ban seal product imports GO!
European Parliament to vote on a proposal to ban seal product trade GO!
Brigitte Bardot asks Nicolas Sarkozy to ban seal products GO!
Proposed seal-trade ban harpooned GO!
Russia to completely ban seal hunting by March 1, 2009 GO!
MEPs to vote on partial ban on seal products GO!
