Canadas shame
Canadas shameThe infamous Harp (whitecoat) and Hooded (blueback) seal hunt photos have virtually disappeared from newspapers or television news. That does not mean that seal hunting in Canada has stopped. The mass killing of seals off Canada’s East Coast is commercial, cruel, and wasteful, yet despite furious outcry from Animal Rights activists the government is refusing to take notice. The cruelty of this extensive killing operation, which starts during the seals’ birthing season, has been denounced for years as “Canada’s Shame.”
The senseless slaughter of seals springs from the profit they bring, the use of their pelts for coats, and other products. It has been proven though, that other products can be used in place of sealskins and pelts but still the slaughter continues. There is also the claim that seals are contributing to the depletion of the cod stock due to high fish consumption. The validity of the above accusation is easily measured. With the collapse of the Canadian cod stock, it would be natural to expect the seal population to plummet, if in fact they were devouring as much cod as is claimed. However, since the cod have disappeared, the seal population has remained stable in its numbers. Seals have become a scapegoat, rather than over fishing by humans.
Sealers are playing on the depletion of the cod stock to slaughter a greater number of seals in a cruel and heartless fashion. The two methods most commonly used by the landsmen (hunters who venture short distances from shore on foot, snowmobile, or small boat), are clubbing and shooting. The big commercially owned boats on the other hand have an entirely different method of killing. Seal pups are gathered up individually and incased in netting – somewhat like a bag of oranges. Dozens of baby seals in net bags are packed into wire cages and moved by helicopters to fur farms. After the pups molt, they are killed. Catching seals in nets unavoidably causes a slow and painful death for these beautiful mammals.
Seals are mammals, warm blooded like the rest of us. There is nothing in place to protect them because under Canadian law, these mammals are legally...
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