More Than One Million Children Learn About Seals This Week

10/4/2006 11:41:00 AM


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To: National Desk

Contact: Kerry Branon of IFAW, 508-744-2068 or kbranon@....
Web: http://www.animalactionweek.org

YARMOUTH PORT, Mass., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Some 1.2
million children in 15 countries worldwide, including 500,000 in all
50 states, will participate this year in IFAW's (International Fund
for Animal Welfare -- http://www.ifaw.org ) Animal Action Week.

"Making Waves for Seals," is this year's theme -- focusing on seals
and the many threats seals face like: pollution, habitat loss,
climate change, entanglement in fishing nets, commercial hunting and
extinction.

IFAW distributed interactive materials including student booklets,
teacher's guides, calendar posters and a 15 minute educational video
introduced by E.R. actor Goran Visnjic to 10,500 U.S. schools and
community organizations. In the past few weeks, the "Making Waves
for Seals" video also aired on 450 U.S. cable stations, reaching a
national audience of more than two million. IFAW's free educational
materials can also be downloaded at,
http://www.animalactionweek.org. Additional Web-based activities
include the "Live Like a Seal" game and the opportunity to adopt a
seal.

"Animal Action Week is the largest animal-focused educational event
in the world and it is growing rapidly. In the U.S. alone, requests
for our education packs have doubled since last year," said IFAW's
Patrick Ramage. "Activities are not limited to the first week in
October. We encourage schools and youth groups to join in and take
action whenever it best fits into their schedule and curriculum."

Launched annually to coincide with World Animal Day, IFAW has
sponsored Animal Action Week for 14 years with topics ranging from
cats and dogs to whales, elephants, seals and wildlife trade. Each
year, more and more educators use IFAW's curriculum to educate their
students about animal and conservation issues. In the U.S., nearly
16,000 teachers and youth group leaders will use the "Making Waves
for Seals" curriculum compared to 8,100 who implemented last year's
Animal Action Week materials.

In the past, many seal species were pushed to the brink of
extinction and now one-third of all seal species are listed as "at
risk." Seals are still hunted in several countries for fur and other
unnecessary products. Canada's commercial seal hunt is the largest
in the world with 335,000 seals killed in 2006 alone.

IFAW was founded in 1969 to end the Canadian seal hunt and has
continued to campaign to protect seals for 35 years. Seals have been
protected in the U.S. since 1972 when Congress passed the Marine
Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits the import, export and
marketing of seals and their products. Many countries are
implementing similar bans on seal products including the U.K.,
Italy, Belgium, Mexico and the Netherlands.

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About IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)

Founded in 1969, IFAW works around the globe to protect animals and
their habitats, to create a better world for animals and people.
Each year during the week of Oct. 4, IFAW sponsors Animal Action