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PETA Wants to Buy Olympic Billboard Space for Anti-Seal Slaughter Ad

July 28, 2009

Group Says Marine-Mammal Massacre Taints Olympics

Vancouver, British Columbia (RPRN) 7/28/2009--After learning that the Olympic Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Games is attempting to sell billboard space after having trouble convincing sponsors to buy the space it had stockpiled in advance of the 2010 Winter Games, PETA has sent a letter to the committee offering to pay to erect a billboard criticizing Canada's annual seal slaughter. The ad features a baby harp seal pictured against a blood-spattered backdrop next to the tagline "Canada's Olympic Shame: End the Seal Slaughter."

Every year, the Canadian government allows sealers to beat and skin hundreds of thousands of seals, many of whom are only weeks old. These baby seals are shot or bludgeoned to death. Veterinarians and Fisheries and Oceans Canada officers have found that the young seals' skulls are often not adequately crushed, which can lead to a prolonged death.

"As long as the seal slaughter continues, Canada's image will be equated with cruelty to animals on an unprecedented scale," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "If Canada wants to clean up its world image for the Olympics, the first thing it must do is call off the universally condemned seal slaughter."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA's letter to the Vancouver Organizing Committee follows.

July 27, 2009

Dave Cobb
Vice President of Marketing, Revenue, and Communication
Vancouver Organizing Committee
#400 - 3585 Graveley St.
Vancouver, BC
V5K 5J5
Canada

Dear Dave:

I am writing to you today with a business proposal. In light of recent news that the Vancouver Organizing Committee has invited nonsponsors to buy billboard advertising inventory during the 2010 Winter Games  because of slow sales, PETA would like to place our "Canada's Olympic Shame -- End the Seal Slaughter" billboard in Vancouver before and through the games. Artwork is attached.

With the Vancouver games taking center stage worldwide, we hope to draw as much attention as possible to Canada's shame: the annual massacre of baby seals. Many seals are bludgeoned and have the skin ripped off their bodies before they have eaten their first solid meal or learned how to swim. Because the government has turned a deaf ear to worldwide outcry over the slaughter, concerned citizens are targeting other Canadian events and institutions to turn up the pressure, and this year, that means the Olympics.

World leaders including Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin have condemned the seal slaughter, and the E.U. recently voted to ban baby-seal pelts. Our billboard would send a similarly strong message to the Canadian government and help put a stop to this disgraceful massacre, once and for all.

Please contact me at your earliest convenience to discuss rates. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dan Mathews
Senior Vice President

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Contact Information:

Ashley Byrne 757-622-7382

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