Urge Canada to Stop the Slaughter of Baby Seals

Every year, hundreds of thousands of seals are brutally slaughtered in Canada’s annual seal hunt, the largest killing of marine mammals on the planet. This violent, cruel, and unsustainable massacre continues under the approval of the Canadian government, despite overwhelming opposition worldwide.

Ninety-seven percent of the seals killed are defenseless, weeks-old pups, that are still dependent on their mothers. Hunters use wooden clubs, ice pick-style weapons, and guns to massacre both baby and adult seals, all for the senseless greed of those who covet their soft skins.

Hunters have a fee deducted from the price of the babies’ skins for each bullet hole, so they often allow these newborn sentient beings to suffer long, excruciating deaths from poorly aimed gunshot wounds all while their helpless mothers look on. Scientific reports on the hunt have found that the killing methods violate Canada’s own animal welfare standards, and in 42% of cases studied, there was insufficient evidence of cranial injury to guarantee the seals were unconscious during skinning.

The people who participate in this unthinkable violence against seal pups are mostly from Newfoundland, yet income from the seal slaughter accounts for less than 1% of the province’s economy. Out of over half a million Newfoundlanders, only 6,000 take part in this atrocity. This hunt brings shame on the good people of Newfoundland, benefits only a selfish few, and costs Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars each year. It represents the worst of humanity—and it must be stopped.

Unfortunately, Diane Lebouthillier, Canada’s current Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, is a strong supporter of Canada’s gruesome seal hunt. She has even suggested that the hunt should be expanded and that seal meat should be rebranded as a seafood delicacy to increase support for this cruel and outdated industry.

After decades of progress by animal welfare organizations in exposing the horrors of this annual hunt, we cannot allow Canada to move backward by permitting even more innocent seals to be tormented and killed. Please join Species Unite in calling on Minister Diane Lebouthillier to get with the times and end this shameful and bloody slaughter before the harp seal population is irrevocably damaged by this senseless cruelty.