Barbaric Blood-Letting Seal Hunt in Canada, from Life in the Fast Lane

"British reporter Danny Penman from the Daily Mail spent nearly a week in Nova Scotia, Canada, to investigate this year’s ruthless slaughter at close range as the horror unfolded.

"'The baby seal looked into the eyes of her executioner. Barely a flicker of emotion shows on the fisherman’s face as he smashes a steel-tipped club into her mouth. She lay whimpering on the ice, blood pouring from her jaw and nose.'

'But she wasn’t yet dead, so the sealer hit her in the face another 4 times before slamming a hooked “hakapik” club into her stomach and dragging her across the ice towards the ship.'"

Editorial: Canada is not so caring, from the Brantford Expositor

"The seal hunt, nearing 300,000 slaughtered babies per year for the garment industry, has increased drastically since the Conservatives took power. Most people who do this hunt are far batter off financially than many Canadian households. The hunt is not needed for the survival if the hunter. This hunt is only needed for trading purposes with Asian countries, soon to be the only countries that will allow any seal part into their lands, as we are one of the few remaining countries to allow dog and cat furs into our homes."

Mourners gather in small town to remember sealers, from CTV

"Mourners gathered Friday as the bodies of three sealers, who perished at sea last weekend, were carried into the town hall of Cap-Aux-Meules, a small community located in Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Que.

"A fourth sealer is still missing and presumed dead after the victims' fishing vessel, the L'Acadien II, capsized during a rescue operation by the Canadian Coast Guard last Saturday off the coast of Cape Breton."

Comments

[Sebastian Antoniadis]

SAVE THE SEALS! or youll have me to deal with.

[Iguassu Iterei]

stop
be human
not a murder
LEa

[Yu-Chen Chen]

Don't kill the seal

[Brigitte from Vienna]

I think, they sell the seals.
Therefore I suggest to buy
- and ask for donation
to buy - seals alive

[Nina]

Wir sammeln mit, Brigitte !!!

Wir hoffen, daß all diese Russen- Norweger- oder Asia-Schlampen, die sich mit diesen unglücksseligen Babyfellen behängen, ewiges Leid erfahren und ihres eigenen wertlosen Lebens nicht mehr froh werden !!!

Ebenso diese wertlosen Baby-Mörder !!!

Wir wünschen ihnen und deren Anhang die Hölle auf Erden !!!!!

[Louise]

These sealers are inhumane and I find it incredible that they have no feelings! They should be clubbed or shot~and skinned themselves to experience the agony and fear they are causing to these poor innocent baby seals!!!!
I find it hard to believe that people can brutally harm animals without a care in the world!!!

[Lois]

I have NEVER seen anything so appalling in my life!!! I can not believe that any man would stoop so low and become so barbaric to so something like this. This should be STOPPED IMMEDIATELY!!! If only the situation could be reversed....?

[Cynthia Hodges, MA, JD]

The Canadian harp and hooded seal hunt is contrary to international law. As a party to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), Canada obligated itself to “[c]onsider and undertake any ... action that may be required for the achievement of the purposes of this Convention …” Article 23 4(i). The goal of the CBD is to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss as decided by the Conference of the Parties in Decision VI/26. The spirit and the content of the Convention is concerned with the intrinsic value of biological diversity together with the moral and ethical aspects of its protection, The government of Canada should bring an immediate halt to the seal hunts that are not only cruel but also comprise a threat to global biodiversity, thus contradicting the 2010 goal as determined by the parties to the CBD.

The rate of biodiversity loss is increasing at an unprecedented pace. In order to meet the 2010 goal of halting biodiversity loss, parties must ensure that their national policies do not endanger biodiversity. This is something that Canada has failed to do. Reports show that the effects of climate change on the habitats of harp and hooded seals are causing a dramatic reduction in sea ice cover and, consequently, endangering harp and hooded seal populations. The 2007 quota of 250,000 seals and the 2008 quota of 275,000 seals as set by the government of Canada is unsustainable. The total amount of seals killed exceeds even this enormous quota. Many seals shot during these hunts escape beneath the ice where they die slowly and are never recovered. These seals are not counted in official kill statistics, making the actual kill level far higher than the level that is reported.

There is an international outcry against the cruelty and the over-exploitation of the commercial seal hunts in Canada, A report of an independent team of veterinarians invited to observe the hunt by the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2001 concluded that the seal hunt failed to comply with basic animal welfare regulations in Canada and that government regulations regarding humane killing were not being respected or enforced. The above report found that as many as 42% of the seals studied were skinned while alive and conscious. Furthermore, 95% of the seals killed over the past five years were pups between the ages of 12 days and 12 weeks.

In order to fulfill its obligations under the CBD, Canada must bring an immediate halt to the seal hunt because it is cruel and threatens global biodiversity. Canada’s actions with respect to the seal hunt contradicts the 2010 goal of reducing biodiversity loss as agreed upon by the parties to the CBD. Canada must end the seal hunt to comply with its international legal obligations.

[Guess Who]

If you are actually a lawyer, you'll know math, and you'll realize that 'study' was mathematically insignificant. Or maybe you didn't read it all. Or maybe you copy and pasted from another site. Whatever.

Prove it's unsustainable... stop saying it is and give us data. Birth rates, death rates, all that. Evidence? Nonexistent.

Or you could look at the Great Lakes. I'm fairly certain species there are in DIRE straights and need immediate help. Even if the seals were in trouble, and the population started dropping now (and we continued hunting as usual), it would be 10-15 years before a complete extinction. That's plenty time to realize something is wrong. Instead, you just fell for the propaganda. Hey, when one of your biggest heroes says your group is only in it for the money, (good ole Paul) you know you've got it bad.

[K. Slifer]

STOP -

JUST STOP - WHAT HAS HAPPEN TO THIS WORLD, WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE WE, THERE IS NO GRAY AREA FOR THIS LAW, THERE IS NO HUMANE OR INHUMANE WAY OF JUSTIFING THESE ACTS OF VIOLANCE. JUST STOP KILLING SEALS. JUST STOP "SO SIMPLE".

[Leigh-Ann Gerow]

This blog is about the seal hunt and only the seal hunt. It is not about factory farming, vegans, other animal species, how smart you think you are, or how stupid you think someone else is. If you need to debate, debate the issue of the seal hunt and not the issue of each other.

If you had (a) post(s) deleted, it was because they contained more than just seal hunt discussion. If you are opposed to IFAW's position, you are free to express your opinions, but if you attack another poster or veer off-topic, your post will be deleted.

Anyone who thinks I've deleted their comment in an attempt to "silence" them is incorrect. Your comment was deleted for a reason I've already listed. Write your comment again, refrain from mocking other participants in the conversation, and your post will remain.

[Natalia Sanchez Puertas]

I can't believe that the Canadian Government allows this brutal, savage, cruel and shameful hunt go on year after year. When are human beings going to leave the Middle Ages behind? Those hunters should put themselves in those innocent, defenseless animals skins.

[NormachristineC]

REALITY CHECK: Time to Face the Fact the Newfoundland Seal Hunt is Doomed.

The Independent, Newfoundland and Labrador Newspaper
By Columnist RYAN CLEARY
Saturday, April 19, 2008

Time to face the fact the Newfoundland seal hunt is doomed. We cannot save it, not right now, no matter how right and desperate we are to try.

The forces against the commercial hunt - dark though so many of them may be - have become too passionate and powerful. The animal rights crowd is winning the public relations war with the average Joe and Jane on the world street. The continued battle is doing more harm than good to our economy and international image.

We would be better off if the commercial hunters retreated -at least for now, until a world appetite develops such that the method of harvest is secondary to the mouths that are fed and bodies clothed.

It hasn't been that way in a dog's age. The Newfoundland hunt was once about survival, plain and simple. Every part of the animal was used to keep outport body and soul together. More and more it's about pelts and prices.

That's not enough to justify a hunt. The seal has become the modern-day buffalo in terms of waste.

Given that so many of the world's cupboards appear to be bare or headed there, a new hunger for seal (and our fish, but that's not this week's topic) may not be that far off. It was only last week the Globe carried a two-page feature on the rising prices of food around the planet and a crisis around the corner.

The world will eat seal when it's hungry enough to eat seal. It wasn't long ago lobster was the spider of the sea.

As for the politicians defending the hunt - federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn chief among them - he's been criticized in the national media for using the hunt to improve the Conservative lot in the Atlantic provinces.

It sure looks that way. At the very least, Hearn was stunned enough to play directly into Paul Watson's hands. Hearn, the poor over-his-head shagger, can't win. More on that in a moment.

On Thursday of this week The Globe and Mail ran eight letters to the editor under the headline, The many truths about sealing.

A sample of the anti-hunt sentiments:

"I will not vacation in Canada and will avoid buying Canadian products until the seal slaughter stops," writes Pat Ginsbach of Kerrville, Tex.

Anita Rutz of New York mentions the recent loss of four sealers from Quebec. "If they weren't committing acts against God's creatures, they would be alive."

Peter Bowker of Ontario says if government could find $50 million to pay pig farmers not to raise pigs, why can't the same amount be found to pay sealers not to seal? "Or must we admit that the hunt, as it is conducted, is really a cultural ritual, like cockfighting and fox hunting?"

Many Canadians who can sympathise with the economic necessity of the seal hunt can't get past the term "skinned alive," writes Birgit Van De Wetering of Ontario. "It belies the image of warmth and folksiness the Newfoundland Tourist Board is trying to sell us."

Right or wrong, an anti-seal hunt attitude has taken hold. That's the reality.

We are right to defend sealing as part of our heritage. An attack on the hunt is an attack on who we are as a people and where we come from. Remove the emotion from the debate, however, and it's clear the commercial hunt is no longer critical to our survival.

Today's hunt is as much about pride - our God-given right to hunt - as money. That attitude got us nowhere with fish. It's getting us nowhere with seals.

I would argue the hunt has marginal value. The potential loss to tourism alone may far outweigh the benefits of a continued hunt.

God knows the hunt has political power.

The Globe went after Hearn earlier this week in an editorial critical of the Canadian Coast Guard's recent boarding and seizure of the environmental vessel Farley Mowat and the arrest of her captain and first officer. The paper described the move as a "grossly disproportionate response" to the efforts of opponents to document the seal hunt.

For his part, Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said the action was taken to seize graphic videotapes of the hunt. The Globe, on the other hand, noted the action was a way for Hearn and his party to redeem themselves with East Coasters.

God knows they need redeeming.

Premier Danny Williams waded into the debate with a guest column of his own in the Globe. He proposes the banning of hakapiks. But such a move will not appease anyone as long as the ice beneath the seal is stained red with blood.

Ironically, ending the commercial seal hunt may spell an end to Watson, who relies on it financially as much as any sealer from Twillingate.

The Globe also carried letters in defence of the hunt. Kyle McIver of Kingston says he finds no difference between clubbing seals with hakapiks, fish asphtxiating on decks or using high-pressure metal bolts to sever spinal cords of cattle. "If sealing is basically akin to agricultural meat production and fishing, then the primary reason to defend seals is reduced to the fact they are cute with big round eyes and soft fur, and the argument fails."

The argument may fail, but the big round eyes will always win. Until the people are hungry enough.

ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

[Uli Buser]

Furchtbar, wie das Töten der Robben geschieht. Ein Leid ohne Ende. Bloß, daß einige blöde Frauen einen Pelz tragen können. Das Tier hat ein Recht auf Leben.

[u.stoercher]

Wer solch einen Pelz trägt,hat Schuld am Tod der armen Tiere und vor allem wie sie sterben mußten. Ich wünsche denen, das gleiche durchzumachen.

[Montserrat Nogueres Ribes]

I cannot believe that human beings are still in the Stone Age. How can this cruelty be permitted? It's a shame on Canada