Canada's commercial harp seal hunt started today with a quota of 280,000 seals,

only days after Russia decided to ban all hunting of harp seals under one year of age.

Baby seals are being killed on the ice in Canada as you read this - observers from The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) confirmed the first seal death just moments ago.

Observers from HSUS and IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) are in the air and on the ice, watching the hunt, recording abuses, and campaigning to end this cruelty once and for all.

You can help end the baby seal hunt. Thanks to a courageous Canadian Senator, there is now a bill in the Canadian Senate that would end this hunt permanently. This is the first time such legislation has been put forward in Canada. Sign the petition to support Senator Harb's bill to end the commercial seal hunt: http://go.care2.com/19752554

You can get real-time updates and on the ground reports from both of these fantastic organizations by following their posts on Twitter:

• Follow IFAW on Twitter with @action4ifaw. Their hash tag for this issue is: #stopthesealhunt.

• Follow HSUS on Twitter with @HumaneSociety. Their hash tag for this issue is: #sealhunt09.

Source: Care2