Thousands of Seals Pups Slaughtered as Canada’s Annual Seal Hunt Begins
The commercial seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet, with more than two million seals violently killed during the past decade alone.
Credit: HSI
Canada’s annual seal hunt, which will see up to 400,00 harp seals killed, has officially begun. The controversial event occurs off the coast of Newfoundland and is one of the biggest slaughters of marine mammals on the planet.
During the hunting season, commercial sealers will bludgeon, stab, and shoot thousands of the animals with wooden clubs, spiked clubs known as hakapiks, and guns. Staggeringly, 97 percent of the seals killed are pups typically under three months old and often as young as 12 weeks old. The seals are then skinned.
Scientific reports on the hunt have found that the killing methods used often violate Canada’s animal welfare standards. And in 42 percent of cases studied there was insufficient evidence of cranial injury to the clubbed seals to guarantee they were unconscious during skinning.
Demand for seal products has mercifully dropped over the last ten years, thanks in part to the increased awareness of the cruelty involved, and the closure of international markets. There are currently 36 international trade bans on seal goods in place across the world.
Last year, Canada exported seal products worth $177,178 with Norway, Japan, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea, and China the top importers. Senior Canadian government representatives define the seal slaughter as “primarily a fur hunt,” according to The Humane Society.
“Closing international markets, a lack of demand for seal products, changing climate conditions, and perhaps even mistakes made by the sealing industry itself, all have played a part in bringing the commercial seal hunt to a fraction of its former magnitude,” said Sheryl Fink, Canada’s Campaigns Director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) who have opposed the commercial seal hunt since 1969.
“It is time to leave Canada’s commercial seal hunt where it belongs, in the past, and instead focus on supporting much-needed alternatives in Atlantic Canada, such as funding the removal of ghost gear and marine debris from our ocean environment.”
Take action!
Join Species Unite in calling on the Honourable Derrick Bragg, Minister of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture to put an end to this shameful and bloody slaughter before the Harp seal population is irrevocably damaged by this senseless cruelty. More than two million seals have been violently killed in the past decade alone. Sign the petition here.
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