With extreme cold weather my first attempt to post our new stickers that state "Say No To Shark Fin Soup" in chinese languages was a failure. The weather was around minus 13'C and the poles were not allowing them to stick so attempt was over and a plan to do it again had to be according to the temperature.
February 12th looked like the best day for the posting at a temperature of minus 2'C and it was a saturday which made it the only window. This day my daughter and I were heading to 2 anti-fur demos and we thought we could grab onto other activists that may want to help the sharks as well. Luckily were able to get 3 other people making our shark team for the evening posting at one Handful - 5!
We hit the streets of Chinatown in Toronto around 6pm and the sun was disappearing and the wind was picking up. The temperature has to be below the minus 2'C but we were all dressed for warmth and passion to speak for the sharks was our drive.
The reason for plastering Toronto's Chinatown area is:
" Toronto and the surrounding Greater Toronto Area is home to over 700,000
Chinese. As the festivities for the Chinese New Year begins, there will be
Banquets and dinners held for two weeks from Feb 3 to Feb 18th. Let's all
Encourage them to enjoy the festivities without the cruelty that is
Shark Fin soup."
As the 5 member team - Jordyn 9yrs, Sarah, Alex, Vanessa, and I posted these stickers up we had a lot of older asian individuals reading them. The first time one did he stated "Only Rich can afford that, and the animal needs to be protected, too expensive." I was first happy to know that the words on the sticker in the chinese languages were understood and second to hear such a positive response. The crowd of asian individuals kept checking out the stickers and kept responding, smiling, and some were even taking pictures of the poles all posted. Over-all the event was extremely positive! The one asian man kept saying "the Japanese love this soup too". I am aware of the Japanese finning sharks after seeing video and pictures from a few months ago.
Europe has been the largest finning operation in the world for this industry and just a few weeks ago the European Union is supporting the ban on Shark Finning! This is fantastic News for the sharks and the ocean!
We did the heart of Chinatown as our starting point - Dundas Street W and Spadina Street intersection. From here we went east of Dundas Street W on both sides and then North on Spadina hitting a few areas out front of restaurants that actually serve shark fin soup. Weather permitting we did quite a bit of area in chinatown but still have to get back there since these types of stickers are good 365 days a year!
How Many Sharks Killed Annually?
YEAR - 90 Million
WEEK - 1, 730, 769
Day - 247, 252
Hour - 10, 302
Minute - 171
Approximately 80 to 100 Million sharks are killed annually for their fins, meat, and
cartilage. About 80% are killed for their fins alone since the money generated
for just the fins is more than landing the body of the shark and fins attached,
which in this case takes up weight. After the fins are removed the shark’s body
is thrown back into the ocean alive to drown. A total of 80% of the fins removed
from the ocean end up in Hong Kong.
 |
| THE SHARK TEAM Left to Right: Alex, Vanessa, Sarah, Jordyn and photo by me |
 |
| An Asian lady reads the posting - Great Positive response! |
 |
| Serves Shark Fin Soup E-Pan Chinese Cuisine #369 Spadina Ave #416-260-9988 Toronto, Ontario M5T 2G2 |
 |
| Serves Shark Fin Soup and Caters Weddings Bright Pearl Seafood Restaurant #346 Spadina Ave. Toronto, Ontario M5T 2G2 |
 |
| Serves Shark Fin Soup New Sky Restaurant #353 Spadina Ave #416-596-8787 Toronto, Ontario M5T 2G3 |
 |
| Serves Shark Fin Soup XAMYU #339 Spadina Ave Toronto, Ontario Phone #416-340-8603 M5T 2G2 |
Very Nice! Thank you very much for taking the Singapore/Malaysia design to Toronto. :) :) :)
ReplyDeleteWell done, Bob and all. I hope that there will be a change in thinking within the Chinese community. It is necessary to educate people and built up pressure from below to wake up our politicians. That is the only way to get things done.
ReplyDelete