What do Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Have Against Canada Anyway, Eh?

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Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, WinCo, and Houston’s restaurants are just a few of the 5,000 establishments pledging to boycott Canadian seafood.

Why, eh? We thought you’d ask. The ban is a part of the Humane Society’s ProtectSeals campaign to curb commercial seal hunting in the Great White North—the world’s largest massacre of marine mammals.

Says Whole Foods: “(We’re) suspending any purchase of seafood from the areas where the brutal killing of baby seals is taking place until the fishermen commit to stopping this practice.”

According to HSUS’s countdown clock, 2009’s hunt is due to commence in a mere two months. Last year, seal hunters promised a more humane approach—but as Mother Jones’ Julia Whitty noted, it was far from humane.

If you too care about protecting the seals, you can sign a pledge not to buy Canadian seafood, urge your local grocer to join the boycott, or purchase products like this adorable T-shirt:

save-seals.jpg

—Nikki Gloudeman

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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