How Many Seals Are Killed Annually?

In
2005, the government quota for the number of seals who could be killed
was 320,000, and in 2006, it was raised by 5,000 because of government
reports that the seal population is "flourishing." However, scientists
argue that the Canadian government failed to take into account changes
in the environment, like food availability, toxins, and global warming
(which may adversely affect the populations of harp seals, because they
give birth on ice floes) when setting "sustainable" hunting quotas.

Are Baby Seals Still Being Killed?

It
is legal to kill seal pups when they are about 12 days old, or as soon
as they have molted their white natal fur. During last year's hunt,
almost all the seals killed were 3 months old or younger. Many had not
learned how to swim or eaten their first solid meal. They are helpless
and have no escape from their violent end.

How Are the Seals Killed?

Sealers
bludgeon seals with clubs and "hakapiks" (clubs with a metal hook on
the end), drag conscious seals across the ice floes with boat hooks,
and toss dead and dying animals into heaps and leave their carcasses to
rot because there is no market for their meat. Seals are also shot, but
bludgeoning is preferred, because pelt buyers deduct money for every
bullet hole in a seal's skin. Veterinarians who studied a past hunt
concluded that the hunters failed to comply with Canada's basic animal
welfare standards and that 42 percent of the seals appeared to have
been skinned alive.

an eyewitness account from last year's hunt. Rebecca Aldworth, a native
Newfoundlander, who for years has worked to stop the seal slaughter,
described this scene during last year's hunt:

"A movement catches my eye, and I realize with horror that a clubbed
baby seal is still conscious. She is writhing around on the ice in
pain, moving her flippers. She lies next to another seal who has been
killed, vacant eyes staring up, blood already frozen in the ice under
her mouth. It is a macabre scene—the dead and the dying huddled
together here in the rain."

Aldworth says that the seal
"is trying to crawl and making anguished sounds. … She is trying so
hard to live, and I know there is no hope for her. She has her eyes
tightly shut, as if to keep out the sight of the dead seals around
her."

Do Harp Seals Contribute to the Depletion of Cod Populations?

The
scientific community has concluded that the cause of the depletion of
fish stocks off Canada's East Coast is human over-fishing. Blaming
seals for disappearing fish is a convenient way for the fishing
industry to divert attention from its irresponsible and environmentally
destructive practices. Harp seals, who are the primary target of the
hunt, eat many different species-—only 3 percent of a harp seal's diet
is commercially fished cod—and they also eat many cod predators.

Is the Seal Hunt Necessary for Canada's Economy?

The
Canadian fishing industry is propped up by millions of dollars in
subsidies every year. Local fishers make one-twentieth of their income
from seal hunting and the rest from commercial fisheries. Even in
Newfoundland, where 90 percent of sealers live, revenues from the hunt
account for less than 1 percent of the province's economy. Nor is
sealing a livelihood for native tribes; most sealers are commercial
fishers who use large boats to break through the ice to reach the baby
seals.

International boycotts in response to
the slaughter further weaken the "economic" argument. Italy and
Greenland recently banned imports of seal pelts, and more than 400
restaurants and companies have pledged to boycott some or all Canadian
seafood until the seal hunt is ended.

You Can Help

Write to the Canada Tourism Commission and tell it you will not visit Canada as long as the bloody seal hunt continues:

Michele McKenzie

President and CEO

Canada Tourism Commission

55 Metcalfe St., Ste. 600

Ottawa

Ontario K1P 6LS

Canada