Students and Teachers
The Fur Free Alliance is holding our fourth-annual Design Against Fur poster competition! Students and teachers around the world are invited to participate in this important contest with a conscience. Just design a creative, compelling poster that delivers this year's message of compassion "Protect Seals". Your work will be evaluated by design and marketing experts, and potentially used in national and international campaigns to end the cruel fur trade. The winners will receive fantastic cash prizes! The contest is open to students of fashion, design, fine arts, advertising, marketing, graphic design multi-media, and other disciplines in colleges around the world including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States etc... The competition will take place in two phases. Winners of the Regional Competitions will go forward to an International Competition. The Grand Prize Winner wins $5,000 US and a trip to Stella McCartney's fall fashion show in Paris! We've added a new prize for 2006. In September 2006, the regional winners' posters will be part of a world-wide-web vote for The People's Choice Award. The poster receiving the most votes wins $1,000 US. The Message: "Protect Seals" The theme of the 2006 Design Against Fur poster competition is Canada's commercial seal hunt—the largest and most brutal slaughter of marine mammals on earth. The Goal: "Awareness, Public Outrage and Government legislation" Target Market: Governments, opinion leaders, and consumers. How:
Important Information about the Fur Industry and the Canadian Seal Hunt Over the past three years, the Canadian government has allowed nearly a million harp seals to be slaughtered. 97 percent of those killed were under three months of age, and the majority were less than one month old. At the time of slaughter many had not yet even eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. It is legal to kill a seal pup once it starts to shed its white coat at about 12 days of age. The last time sealers killed this many seals—back in the 1950s and 60s—the harp seal population was reduced by two thirds. Many people are unaware the commercial seal hunt goes on today, believing it was ended back in the 1980s. The majority of those that are aware of the seal hunt are opposed to it. Unfortunately, there are consumers around the world who choose to buy sealskins, many possibly unaware of the cruel origins of the product. Each year, veterinarians, journalists, scientists and animal welfare experts observe the commercial seal hunt at close range. They continue to report unacceptable cruelty, including conscious seals stabbed and dragged with boathooks across the ice floes, wounded seals left to suffer in agony, and seals even skinned alive. Their observations are supported by a 2001 report by an independent panel of veterinarians. The report concluded the seal hunt results in considerable and unacceptable suffering, and in up to 42 percent of the cases they examined, the seal had likely been skinned alive. It is the demand for fur products in general that creates higher prices for sealskins, and therefore a larger hunt. We want the public to be aware that the face of the clubbed baby seal is the face of the fur industry. Whether an animal is trapped, raised in factory farms or slaughtered on the ice, extreme suffering is inflicted on animals for a frivolous product and industry. The seals are killed primarily for their fur, which is legally traded in Europe, Russia, China and many other parts of the world. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, in the United States, it is illegal to kill marine mammals or trade in their products. Therefore there is no sale of seal products in the United States. Outside of the U.S., seal skins are used for fashion items, with new techniques making the skins lighter and more versatile—and therefore more valuable. But today, domestic and international opposition to the seal hunt is strong and increasing, and governments around the world are working to ban the trade in all seal products. Though there are commercial hunts for seals in other parts of the world, Canada's slaughter is seven times the size of the largest of these. It is the Canadian supply of sealskins that continues to drive the international markets. Representatives of the Canadian government provide a great deal of misinformation on this issue, dramatically overstating the economic benefits of sealing to the province of Newfoundland. But, in reality, income from the seal hunt accounts for less than one percent of the province's economy! The Fashion Industry A number of well-known fashion designers have used seal fur and skins in their collections during the past several fashion seasons. By using seal skin and fur in items such as trim, coats, tunics, dresses, shoes, vests, and jackets, designers are providing the Canadian government and sealers with an economic incentive to continue the hunt. Seal products can be seen on the streets of cities in Denmark, Russia and Italy. Sometimes the skin has been so transformed that it is difficult for consumers and the public to determine that it originated from a seal. Some Web Sites About Canada's Seal Hunt animalalliance.ca api4animals.org bontvoordieren.nl boycott-canada.com canadasealhunt.org gaia.be gan.ca greenpeace.org hsi.org.au hsus.org ifaw.org infolav.org pelsinfo.dk pinnipeds.org protectseals.org respectforanimals.org sealhunt.ca wspa-international.org You can view and order photographs of the 2005 Canadian seal hunt and seal pups here: http://www.humanesociety.org/forms/seal_hunt_2005_image_request_form_1.html Please note that some of the images are disturbing. Some Web Sites to View Seal Products greatgreenland.com A Greenland based fur company that processes Canadian and Greenland seal skins—lots of pages to view seal skin products under the headings "furs" and "skins"—don't miss this page "use of seal skins" under skins. The Greenland harp seal population is the same seal population as the Canadian harp seals. This harp seal population migrates from Canada to Greenland and back. It is hunted in both countries. furbusiness.com/News/289/ A Denmark based fur business news site with one item on selling and processing seals skins. ilesdelamadeleine.com/odette/index2.htm This site belongs to a seal skin designer living on Canada's Iles des Magdeleine. It includes one page about her sealskin designs. The island lies between the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. A harp seal nursery is off the islands' coast. |