Action Alert: Tell SPAR Norway to stop its sales of whale meat

The international convenience store chain SPAR is selling whale products in Norway and we need your help to urge it to stop.

Here are four easy but important ways in which you can play a vital role in telling SPAR that profiting from the slaughter of whales is unacceptable:

1. Send a Tweet

If you are a Twitter user, send a Tweet to SPAR calling on it to ban all sales of whale products. You can compose your own, or use this sample Tweets.

@SPARInt: Please stop selling #whale meat in Norway #SparWhaleFail

Make your Tweet more eye-catching by attaching one of our campaign images below!

You can follow EIA’s Twitter account @EIAinvestigator and reTweet our messages about this issue.

 2. Send an email

Let SPAR know how unacceptable it is to be making money from the slaughter of whales by sending an email to CEO Dr Gordon R Campbell at info@spar-international.com and Communications Manager Penny van der Kaars P.vanderKaars@Spar-International.com.

For additional impact, please cc in Spar Norway Administrative Director Ole Fjeldheim at ole.fjeldheim@norgesgruppen.no.

You can compose your own message, or use/adapt the sample email below, sent for the attention of SPAR CEO Dr Gordon R Campbell:

To CEO Spar International Dr Gordon R Campbell and Communications Manager Penny van der Kaars

I am deeply concerned to learn that SPAR is involved in the sale and trade of whale meat in Norway and politely request that the entire Spar family of companies immediately and permanently bans all such products.

As documented in the report Convenience Kills, SPAR Norway and its parent company NorgesGruppen ASA are important facilitators of the distribution and sale of whale meat in Norway. Internationally protected minke whales killed in Norwegian waters are being sold in a number of SPAR Norway outlets and other NorgesGruppen stores.

SPAR is an influential international brand name and I am appalled to learn it is involved in perpetuating such a cruel and unnecessary hunt of a protected whale species. The Norwegian Government’s official data shows that at least one in five whales do not die immediately and suffer prolonged and agonising deaths.

Norway’s whaling is conducted in defiance of 30-year-old international ban on commercial whaling and is based on self-set catch limits rejected by the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee. Furthermore, minke whale products exported from Norway to Japan were recently rejected by the Japanese Government due to levels of toxins in excess of Japanese human health standards.

Please demonstrate that you and SPAR genuinely care by permanently banning the sale of all whale products in all SPAR stores.

Sincerely

((Your name here))

3. Share our campaign posters

EIA has produced these posters, in the style of SPAR’s own advertising, to spread awareness of the company’s sales of the products of protected whales – click on each to be taken to full-resolution versions.

Please share them widely and embed them in online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+

In addition, we’ve produced a shop window-style promotional poster for use on Facebook, etc:

4. Post a protest on SPAR Norway’s Facebook page

If you use Facebook, you can find SPAR Norway’s main page at https://www.facebook.com/SparNorge

Visit the page and post a message to register your protest – you could adapt the above messages or compose one of your own.

Please circulate this Action Alert to everybody you know and encourage them to help – the more people who contact SPAR, the sooner the company is likely to respond in a positive and responsible way.

Thank-you for your help and action!