Costco is taking a stand against the Canadian annual seal slaughter by removing seal oil capsules from its Canadian stores.
Says the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whch is behind the move, “By removing this despicable product, Costco has sent a message that they will not participate in the promotion of products obtained through the world’s largest slaughter of marine wildlife: the annual Canadian harp seal hunt, where more than 325,000 seal pups between the ages of 2 weeks to 3 months are killed each year.”
Canada has spent millions of dollars searching for and creating new products and markets for seals. Some of these products have been perverse and ridiculous, such as the dried seal penises sold to Asian markets to be used as aphrodisiacs during the mid to late 1990’s. With seal products banned in the United States due to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the Omega-3 seal oil capsule product was developed for the Canadian market to sell as some sort of health benefit.
Still acting like snake oil salesmen, Canadian government civil servants working as seal product promotional salesmen began pushing Omega-3 as a cure for everything from warts to a remedy to prevent heart attacks.
Costco inadvertently provided some credibility to this product by stocking the shelves of their Eastern Canadian outlets with Omega-3 baby seal oil capsules. But, thanks to the efforts of Sea Shepherd volunteer Stephen Thompson of Vancouver, who has been tirelessly tracking and opposing the baby seal oil capsule market in Canada, they have removed this product and will not offer it again.
Costco is one of a growing list of companies that has publicly declared that they want no part of this “tradition” and will not support it through the sale of products obtained through ruthless cruelty and slaughter.
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