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 considered to be fish! Perhaps that is why our government thinks so little about slaughtering these animals. Perhaps that is why the quotas have been set so high and why both the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland are now providing subsidies to entice more fishermen and sport hunters to kill seals. The Government of Canada is gambling that the public has forgotten about the cruel and bloody images of the Canadian seal hunt prior to 1984. The truth is, nothing has changed “…about 220 000 seal pups were killed in 1997 alone.” And this statistic does not even take into account the thousands of mature seals being killed; it’s merely the estimated number of seal pups being massacred.
Consequently the Canadian commercial seal hunt has been a focal point of international attention for more than 20 years. There are many organizations working towards the ban of seal hunting such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Sea Sheperd Conservation Society (SSCS), the International Wildlife Coalition (IWC), and the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA). These organizations have publicized the clubbing of baby Harp seals for their white fur coats and succeeded in raising international involvement against the practice. As a direct result of massive negative publicity, the prices of sealskins and other seal product fell dramatically. The international markets for Canadian sealskins, largely located in Western Europe, virtually disintegrated over a one-year period in 1982-1983. In 1983 the European Community (EC) issued a Directive, banning the importation of products made from Harp and Hooded seal pups. Markets have not recovered. As it stands there is a very strong public opposition to the killing of seal pups. The hunt is viewed as abhorrent both in Canada and abroad.
More must be done regarding the hunt. A stand must be taken against the cruelty and wastefulness of the hunt, for there is no such thing as a “humane” seal hunt. Silence will merely be taken as tacit approval of what is happening. As a result these beautiful mammals that live off our East Coast will be a thing of the past, occasionally remembered, but lost forever!