Brussels mulls action on “inhumane” Canadian seal killings, the European Weekly

"The European Union is contemplating action against the alleged culling of young seals by Canada, the spokeswoman for Stavros Dimas, European environmental commissioner told journalists last week."

Canadians to fight proposed EU sealing ban, the Montreal Gazette

"A Canadian lobby group that includes Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik will be in London Monday to begin a week-long bid to fight against a threatened European Union seal hunt ban."

Sealers 'breaking humane law,'' the New Zealand Herald

"Animal rights activists have claimed that sealers were not totally complying with a new rule designed to make their hunt more humane on the ice off the Gulf of St Lawrence.

...

"'We've just filmed four seals being killed and not a single one was bled out before moving it,' said Sheryl Fink, a hunt observer with IFAW."

In photos: 'Canada Seal Hunt,' Monsters and Critics

"Photo released 30 March 2008 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) showing a hunter as he clubs a harp seal pup on the opening day of Canada's 2008 commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 28 March 2008 . This seal was struck by the hunter and wounded before it escaped into the water. This is known as seal that has been struck and lost."

Survey: Should Canada End the Seal Hunt?, Treehugger

"That great Canadian tradition, the seal hunt, has started; 325,000 will die in the next few weeks. Many are against it; the Prime Minister says Canada was victim of an "international propaganda campaign," and insisted the cull would be carried out humanely."

CTV is conducting a poll on their site about the seal hunt.  Please visit http://www.ctv.ca/news and let them know you support an end to the seal hunt. 

CTV Montreal also has a poll.  You can take their poll via this link: http://montreal.ctv.ca/cfcf/news/polls&id=983.

Thanks for your support!

 

Hunters go in for the kill, from the Sunday Express

"A day’s work begins on the ice as a hunter slowly, deliberately raises his evil, spiked club.

"Seconds later, it crashes down on the skull of a seal pup  as the latest sickening slaughter started yesterday.

"The defenceless victim was the first of 275,000 pups, most of them under three months old. 

"They are due to die in a frenzy of bloodletting off eastern Canada over the next few weeks in the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world."

Seal hunt causes annual controversy, from the Montreal Gazette

"Britain's Press Association, the country's respected national wire service, said the federal government has been particularly reluctant this year to give out permits allowing international observers and journalists to go on sealing boats. A fisheries and oceans official told the Press Association that Canada's doesn't intend on running a travel agency for the observers and journalists."

Welcome to Canada!, from Pravda

"As opposition to this barbaric practice, which sullies the international image of Canada, grows both inside the country and in the international community, a number of nations are putting their money where their mouth is, introducing legislation to ban seal products. Among these nations this year are Germany, Italy and Austria, which join the U.S.A, Mexico, Croatia, Belgium, The Netherlands and Slovenia, which already have bans on importing seal products.

"The European Union is considering a ban on seal products, in addition to the ban on white seal pelts introduced in 1983. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is “looking into” the inhumane practice of killing baby seals and will deliver his report later this year. However, to date EU legislation is half-hearted: while the number of seals authorised to be slaughtered rises from 270.000 to 275.000, the European Union recommends that the animals are dead before they are skinned."

This image of a sealer dragging a bleeding seal across the ice while another sealer takes aim at a different pup was taken on day two of the Canadian commercial seal hunt. 

Please consider donating to the International Fund for Animal Welfare's hunt monitoring teams to purchase equipment, fuel and fund research efforts that allow us to make the legal case that this hunt must end. 

This morning we awoke to some somber news. According to media reports, a vessel from the Magdalen Islands capsized 70 kilometers north of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia last night while under tow by the Canadian coast guard. Apparently six men were on board; two were rescued, three have died and one is still missing. This morning, the IFAW team of observers here in Charlottetown, PEI offered our support and aircraft resources to assist with search and rescue efforts. The coast guard respectfully declined. All of us here with IFAW extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the sealers who were lost at sea last night.

As far as we are aware, there have been no plans on behalf of Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans to suspend the hunt.

WARNING: This Video contains graphic images of seal hunting.

In this video, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Research Scientist Sheryl Fink talks about this opening day footage of the 2008 Canadian commercial seal hunt.

Sealing begins in St. Lawrence, from The Globe and Mail

"The seal hunt opened yesterday with activists and journalists complaining they were prevented from witnessing the action because of foot-dragging by officials.

"...Yesterday, federal fisheries officials waited half a day before issuing observer permits to activists and journalists, handing them out after noon, when the weather made flying in helicopters almost impossible.

"One group of activists with the International Fund for Animal Welfare managed to fly out to film some scenes of the hunt's opening day. But journalists from several major international and European news organizations, and representatives of the Humane Society of the United States, were unable to make it to the ice floes."

Seal slaughter 'censored by Canada', from The Press Association (UK)

"Canada's annual commercial seal hunt has got under way amid claims animal welfare groups and media were being prevented from monitoring the killing.

"The Canadian government has set a quota allowing hunters to shoot and club to death 275,000 seals, and has said new regulations will make the hunt more humane.

"But the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said representatives waiting for permits to monitor what was happening on the ice had been told that none would be issued until the hunt had started.

"Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans had also refused to hand out permits to members of the media until the hunt was under way, Ifaw said."

Activists dispute new rules make seal hunt humane, from CTV News

"The International Fund for Animal Welfare said Thursday that a new regulation that requires hunters to bleed seals before skinning them 'makes no real changes to the way seals can be killed.'

"Under new federal regulations, hunters will be required to sever the arteries under each flipper, thereby ensuring the animals are dead before being skinned.

"But Sheryl Fink, a senior IFAW researcher, said the new regulations call only for 'bleeding to be conducted at some point.'

"'Now that I have seen the actual text of the new condition of licence, I'm left speechless by its inadequacy,' Fink said in a release."

“We will use every avenue we can within the law to keep people as far away from the hunt as we can.” Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, before the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.  October, 2006.

And so they did. Today was the opening day of the commercial harp seal hunt here in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and even though we had long ago filled out our observation licence applications, gone through the personal interviews, and paid our licence fees, the seal hunt was opened with not a single observer licence issued.

We decided to head out anyway.

I came across this statement recently as I was trawling through the fiery debates on the Sky News discussion board. After a little more browsing, I saw that this is a sentiment shared by many Canadians. After all, goes the argument, Europeans cull lots of animals including deer, bears, and foxes. They should deal with their own problems first and let poor, rural Canadians continue to eke out a meagre income by killing seals.

Well, as a Canadian who lives in Europe, I find this proposition a bit mystifying.

After all, don’t Europeans, Canadians and Americans all share a common cultural heritage that says that causing injury to another creature in such a way that is cruel is morally objectionable? In fact, I think you’d be hard-pressed, whether in Europe or North America, to find anybody who could watch a three-month-old infant seal shot or clubbed and left to slowly die in a pool of its own blood and not be sickened. It’s no surprise, then, that more than seven out of ten people in Europe and also in Canada are opposed to the hunt. In fact, I know many Newfoundlanders who loudly protest the hunt.

Deze blog is geschreven door Yvette Brook (rechts op foto), beleidsmedewerker IFAW Nederland.

Met veel interesse lees ik de blogs van mijn collega's die nu in Canada aanwezig zijn om de jacht te observeren.  Ik ben daar ook een aantal malen geweest, waaronder een keer met Nederlandse politici.

De beelden staan nog steeds in mij geheugen gegrift. 

Gelukkig hebben we nu in Nederland een handelsverbod op alle zeehondenproducten en voeren we nu campagne voor een Europees verbod.

Aanstaande dinsdag, 1 april (hierover maken we geen grappen) houden wij in Den Haag een actie op het Plein, achter het Binnenhof.  Om 10.00 uur starten wij daar samen met Kamerleden en leerlingen van een Haagsche basisschool.

Kom als je kan langs en zet meteen je handtekening voor een Europees verbod!

IFAW 2008 Seal Hunt PSA - "Animal Welfare" from IFAW on Vimeo.

Longtime International Fund for Animal Welfare Supporter D'arcy Callahan speaks about his 21 years of involvement with IFAW.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's J.C. Bouvier filed this report from P.E.I. Canada...

In my role for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) I'm not usually able to get out into the field for actual campaign activities with animals. However on Monday I and my coworker Ed Butler received an offer to go out onto the ice and visit with the maturing harp seal pups on the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

After discovering the joys of getting into the emblematic orange "Mustang" suits...Ed and I acclimated quickly to our first helicopter ride...our pilot Martin was both very professional and genuinely concerned that everyone on board was comfortable and enjoying the experience...once we spotted beater seal pups...the ride became a surreal landing into the scene I had only witnessed in video and still photographs...and I don't know that I was truly prepared for the beauty, but perhaps more importantly the reality that these creatures could be violently attacked for profit within the coming hours...

Once on the ice, Ed, the other passengers and I worked to both be respectful of the seals space...while trying to get as close as possible...we looked a bit like seals ourselves as we slid quietly toward a pair of beaters who were basking in the sun.  They were ultimately very patient and kind while we snapped a few photos and stared in a sort of stunned silence...contemplating our lying on the frozen ocean, working to protect these gentle and timid creatures.

More to come...

Het HuntWatch team is aangekomen in Charlottetown en begonnen met de voorbereiding voor de jacht. Vandaag hebben we de coördinaten van de kustwacht gekregen waar de belangrijkste groepen zeehonden zich bevinden.

Beide IFAW helikopters zijn vandaag uitgevlogen. Één helikopter vertrok met het communicatieteam bestaande uit Stewart Cook (fotograaf), Chris Nickless (cameraman)en Sheryl Fink (campaigner)en in de andere helikopter Robbie Marsland (directeur IFAW Engeland), Cheryl Jacobson (coördinator zeehondenteam) en ik zelf.

De meeste zeehonden zitten vlak bij de kust dit jaar, tussen het oostelijke puntje van Prins Edward eiland en Cape Breton en er waren redelijk veel zeehonden te zien in dit gebied. Er is dit jaar kwalitatief goed ijs, dus konden we veilig landen.

Morgen hebben onze piloten een afspraak met het D.F.O. (Canadees ministerie van LNV) om vergunningen te regelen voor de ochtend. We zijn van plan beide helikopters in te zetten voor meer observatie en documentatie van de zeehondengroep in de namiddag. Sheryl Fink reist mee met het SKY TV team om interviews regelen voor hun bemanning en op te treden als hun ijsgids.

De startdatum is nog niet officieel, maar we blijven anticiperen dat de jacht aanstaande donderdag, 27 maart begint. Het D.F.O. heeft morgen overleg over een mogelijke startdatum. Komt u morgen terug voor meer nieuws!

Katie McConnell schreef deze blog vanuit de IFAW hangar op Prins Edward eiland in Canada

Voordat ons IFAW team dit jaar uitvloog om verslag te leggen over de zeehonden in de Golf van St. Lawrence, kregen we een veiligheidsbriefing om ons vertrouwd te maken met de helikopters.

Onze piloot legde ons de belangrijkste stappen uit van hoe we in en uit de machine moeten stappen. Er werd ons geleerd hoe we een helikopter moesten benaderen, door laag te blijven en altijd voor de helikopter uit te blijven lopen zodat de piloot ons te allen tijde kan zien.

Onder geen beding mochten wij de helikopter van achteren benaderen.Onze team leider, Cheryl Jacobson, maakt de opmerking “Het is net als een paard, daar moet je niet achter gaan staan anders kun je een schop krijgen”. Goede opmerking, zeker omdat een tik van de staart van de rotor zeker fataal zal zijn. We hebben ook gezien waar de satelliet telefoons, reddingsvlotten, etc zijn bevestigd en hoe we deze kunnen benaderen.

Het grootste gedeelte van de briefing heeft de piloot ons de belangrijkste onderdelen van de helikopter laten zien en ons uitgelegd wat we moesten doen. En natuurlijk moesten we ook een praktijkoefening doen. Terwijl de helikopter een paar meter boven de grond zweefde, moesten we in en uit leren stappen, omdat de piloot niet zeker is of het ijs in de baai dik genoeg is om het gewicht van de machine te dragen.

Terwijl de helikopter boven de grond zweefde, moesten wij voorzichtig de deur openen, ons gewicht goed en langzaam verdelen terwijl wij erin klommen, snel over de achterbank schuiven en aan de andere kant weer uitstappen.

Zodra we uit de hangar en in de Golf waren, was er gelukkig genoeg ijs om veilig te kunnen landen. Gelukkig zagen we ook een paar blije jonge zadelrobben. Dit is mijn eerste jaar dat ik baby zeehonden op het ijs zie en kijkend naar hoe ze aan het spelen zijn, maakt de gedachte over de commerciële jacht het nog schandaliger.

Dit verslag is gemaakt door’ onze communicatie medewerker van IFAW Canada, KatieMcConnell...

In voorbereiding van de HuntWatch heeft ons team nog een groot aantal taken te volbrengen voor de aankomst in Charlottetown.

De meeste taken zijn vrij standaard… verzamelen van beeldmateriaal, inpakken van video camera's en bewerkingsapparatuur, informatie regelen voor DFO (Canadese ministerie LNV) waarnemers vergunning, enz.

Dit jaar was er echter nog een minder conventionele taak worden volbracht….. een onderwater vliegtuigdrop cursus! Nu zult u mij vragen wat zo’n onderwater vliegtuigdrop heeft te maken met zeehonden, maar het antwoord is zeer eenvoudig.

In het kader van de ramp van vorig jaar in het zuiden van de Golf van St. Lawrence, moest ons team bijna uitsluitend over open water vliegen, om nog maar te zwijgen van het feit dat we niet in staat zijn geweest om onze helikopter te landen op een stuk solide ijs sinds 2005!

Het team realiseerde zich dat het in ons belang is om een beetje ervaring op te doen over hoe te overleven in het onwaarschijnlijke geval van een landing op open water. Natuurlijk, op papier klinkt het logisch, maar wat houd deze training eigenlijk in? Zoiets als ; instappen in een open stuk van de romp, jezelf vastgespen op een stoel, je ogen sluiten en wachten tot de hele zaak in het zwembad word gedropd en onderwater ondersteboven kiept? Nee, ik maak geen grapjes…

Ons observatieteam reisde af naar Survival Systems, Inc in Groton, om te leren hoe we zelf veilig uit een ondergedompelde helikopter konden komen. Het personeel was er zeer bekwaam en heeft ons stap-voor-stap de vaardigheden geleerd, die we nodig hadden om te ontsnappen via ramen en deuren en weer boven water te komen. Het was vrij eenvoudig eigenlijk.

We moesten blijven zitten, vastgebonden aan onze stoelen, toen het water in de romp werd gepompt en de simulator ondersteboven werd gedraaid. De gedachte hierachter was om ons op 1 plek te houden met een constant bewustzijn van waar het raam of de deur was. Zolang we in dezelfde positie bleven, kunnen wij niet ronddrijven in de cabine of de weg naar buiten kwijt raken. Na enkele uren oefenen in het zwembad (gelukkig was het 28 graden) en na ongeveer 5 of 6 keer te zijn ontsnapt, voelden we ons allemaal vrij zeker over onze vaardigheden.

We hebben nu veel meer respect voor de voorzorgsmaatregelen die we nemen en beschikken nu over onschatbare vaardigheden, hoe we ons leven moeten redden, mochten we ooit neerstorten op het water. Natuurlijk, alsof het lot er mee speelt, nu we vers opgeleid zijn in onderwater rampen, lijkt er ijs in de Golf te liggen ;-)

Katie McConnell filed this report from the IFAW hanger in PEI, Canada.

Before the IFAW team headed out to see this year’s harp seal herd in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we had a safety briefing to help orient ourselves with the helicopters that would be taking us out to see the seals.

Our pilot explained some of the very important safety precautions all of us must take when we enter and exit the machine. The flight team learned how to approach the helicopter, by staying low and always walking in front of the helicopter so the pilot can see us at all times.

Under no circumstances are we to approach the helicopter from behind. Our team leader, Cheryl Jacobson reminded us, “it’s like a horse…never walk up behind one or you’ll get kicked.” Good point – especially since a kick from a tail rotor of a helicopter would most certainly be a fatal one.

We also discussed where the safety equipment – (satellite phones, life rafts, etc.) was located and how we can access it. For most of our briefing, we watched the pilot point out important parts of the helicopter and listened to what we needed to do.

However, for one part we actually had to practice getting in and out of the helicopter as it was hovering a few feet above land. The pilot wasn’t sure if the ice in the gulf was going to be thick enough to support the weight of the machine so we had to approach the helicopter while it was hovering, open the door carefully, distribute our weight evenly and slowly as we climbed in, scoot across the back seat and exit out the other side.

Once we made it out of our hanger and into the gulf, there was plenty of ice and we were able to land safely on it. Luckily we got to see some happy beater seals too. This was my first year seeing baby seals on the ice, and watching them play just made the thought of the commercial seal hunt even more of a disgrace.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's Seals Communications Officer Katie McConnell talks with J.C. Bouvier about the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans decision to allow 275,000 seal pups to be killed during the 2008 commercial seal hunt.

Click here to listen to the podcast!

This report was filed by IFAW Seal Communications Officer Katie McConnell...

In preparation for HuntWatch, our team has to complete a myriad of tasks before arriving in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Most tasks are fairly standard…gather key footage, pack up video cameras and editing equipment, organize information for DFO observer permits, etc., etc. This year however, we added a less conventional task that needed to be completed…an underwater aircraft ditching course! Now you may ask what an underwater aircraft ditching course has to do with seals, but the answer is very simple.

In light of last year’s global warming disaster in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, our team had to fly almost exclusively over open water. Not to mention we haven’t been able to land our helicopter on a solid piece of ice since 2005! The team realized it would be in our best interest to have a bit of training under our belts on how to survive in the “unlikely event of a water landing.” Sure, makes total sense on paper, but what does this training actually entail? How about getting into an open-ended piece of fuselage, strapping yourself to a chair, closing your eyes and waiting for the entire thing to be dunked into a swimming pool and tipped upside down underwater? I’m not kidding.

Our observation team headed to Survival Systems, Inc. in Groton, CT to learn how to get ourselves safely out of a submerged helicopter. The staff there was extremely knowledgeable and took us step-by-step through the skills we needed to escape through windows and doors in order to get to the surface of the water. The system was pretty easy to grasp. We were advised to stay seated and strapped to our chairs as the water rushed in through the floor and the simulator tipped upside down.

The thinking here was to keep us in one spot with a constant orientation to the window or door next to us. As long as we stayed in the same position, we couldn’t float around the cabin or lose our way out. After several hours of practice in the pool (luckily it was 80 degrees) and about 5 or 6 escapes, we all felt pretty confident in our aircraft ditching abilities. We now have a lot more respect for the safety precautions we take before flying out over the Gulf as well as invaluable skills in how to save our own lives should we ever be faced with a ditching situation. Of course, as luck would have it, now that we are freshly trained in underwater egress, there seems to be ice in the gulf ;-)

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) released the total allowable catch (or TAC) of seals today. 

The number of seal pups Fisheries officials decided it was reasonable to kill is 275,000 harp seal pups, known as beaters...seals whose coats have just started to progress past the white coat stage...and the majority of which will be between 3 weeks and 3 months of age...The International Fund for Animal Welfare issued a press release calling the decision 'appalling'.  You can read the complete release here.

We will keep you updated via this, the IFAW seal hunt blog at blog.stopthesealhunt.com about our plans to let the world see the cruelty of this unnecessary commercial hunt. 

Please spread the word about this cause and tell friends to subscribe to this feed.  Thank you.

Submitted by J.C. Bouvier - IFAW Online Campaigns Staff

Hey, for those in Vancouver - The International Fund for Animal Welfare is hosting a Seal Photo exhibit on the Vancouver UBC campus on March 13.  On the 14th from 7 - 9PM IFAW's Dr. David Lavigne will discuss the current state of our fight in the Courtroom of the Vancouver Art Gallery...light food and refreshments will be served.

Download an Outlook Calendar Event Here.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's J.C. Bouvier spoke with the IFAW Seals Communications Officer Katie McConnell about recent statements made by Candian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Minister Loyola Hearn.  Minister Hearn's comments, in particular a quote referring to Canadian's as 'wussies' was also discussed...this podcast runs about 7 minutes.  Visit ifaw.org for more information.

Click here to listen to the podcast!

Below is a special request from Robbie Marsland, Director of IFAW UK:

In a matter of weeks, the European Commission will make an announcement about the trade in seal products in Europe.

As you may know, there is already a ban, which forbids the trade in products from young harp and hooded seals. However, seals as young as 13 days old are currently killed to provide products for Europe and the rest of the world.

Please take action today and ask the UK Government to insist on a ban on trade in all seal products in Europe.

This is a rare chance to make a real difference and to help stop animal cruelty. Closing down markets for seal products will help bring commercial seal hunts to an end. Nothing less than a full ban on all seal products will do.

IFAW has conducted opinion polls across Europe, which show that the majority of people* are opposed to the Canadian commercial seal hunt and that the majority support a ban on the trade in seal products. In the UK, recent polls show that 69% of the public support such a ban.

I urge you to support this campaign today and thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Robbie Marsland
Director, IFAW UK

*Of those expressing an opinion. Polling was conducted in UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands,Belgium, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Slovenia and Finland.