The original article appeared on PEICanada.com...

How disappointing it is to see more whining and complaining about NGOs from Fisheries Minister Gail Shea. If she’s not careful, her term will be up before she even begins to address the real issues behind Canada’s commercial seal hunt.

I invite Minister Shea to view the seal hunt footage taken in 2007/2008/2009 by sealing observers, myself included. This is the same footage shown to European parliamentarians. This footage is not outdated - as the minister alleges - nor does it contain images of whitecoat seals.

Europeans know perfectly well the seals killed in the current hunt are not whitecoats. They also know it is irrelevant. When we talk about the difference between a two-week-old whitecoat, and the same pup once it starts to moult a few days later, colour doesn’t matter does it?

This footage shows current and graphic examples of inhumane killing during Canada’s commercial seal hunt. Seal pups are shown hooked in the face and dragged across the ice, while clearly conscious and struggling. It shows seals shot, wounded and left to suffer for prolonged periods.

I challenge Minister Shea to face all Canadians and tell them that what she sees on those videos is “humane,” that it is “professional,” and she is still proud to “stand up” for the sealing industry.

I invite her to explain to all Canadians why her government continues to waste millions of taxpayers’ dollars annually - the WTO challenge alone will cost an estimated $10 million - to support an industry that brought in little more than a million dollars last year, provides only a few days work, and tarnishes other industries such as tourism and fisheries. Taxpayer dollars wasted on trying to keep the sealing industry alive would be better spent on finding economically viable alternatives to sealing.

Meanwhile, Minister Shea’s continued enthusiasm for criticizing animal welfare NGOs simply demonstrates that she has no good arguments to defend Canada’s commercial seal hunt.

Perhaps that’s because there aren’t any?

Sheryl Fink
Senior Research and Projects Specialist
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
Guelph, Ontario

40 years ago, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was founded with the goal of ending the cruel commercial seal hunt in Canada.

Now reaching that goal is closer than ever.

The European Parliament voted 550 to 49 to ban the trade of seal products within the EU. This decisive measure truly reflects the will of Europe’s citizenry, and slams the door on the sale of seal products in Europe from this inhumane and unsustainable industry.

In achieving this ban, 7 of Canada’s 10 top export markets, representing 85% of total exports are officially closed for business.

In Canada, some sealers have started to close down shop as well, citing poor pelt prices and lack of buyers. On April 16th of this year, only six “longliner” sealing vessels left port to start the hunt in Newfoundland compared to more than 113 ships active only a few short years ago.

Jack Troake, one of Canada’s most outspoken proponents of the commercial hunt, opted to stay home. With pelt prices having dropped to as little as $15 each, this was clearly an easy and wise decision to make.

The implementation of this ban will have a permanent quantifiable impact on the remaining international trade in the fur of these helpless creatures.

IFAW believes it may be the beginning of the end to the Canadian commercial seal hunt. This landslide vote demonstrates an enormous resolve to institute this ban across Europe as quickly as possible.

However this victory is only for one battle, the war continues to be waged and we need your continued support to help us put an end to the cruelty once and for all…we must now shift our focus back to Canada to support the courage of Senator Mac Harb and his efforts to ban the practice in his own country.

IFAW is calling on everyone to help make a final push and tell the Canadian embassy officials in their countries to end commercial seal hunting forever.

The end is in sight, will you take 5 minutes to help the seals? Please visit www.stopthesealhunt.org right now.

In this podcast produced by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, senior researcher Sheryl Fink relates her experience while on the ice during the 2009 Canadian commercial seal hunt. Take action today: http://www.stopthesealhunt.org

Right-click here to download the podcast. 

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's senior researcher Sheryl Fink was on the ice in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence while these photos of sealers working were captured. Her quotes are included in this slide show. For more information please visit http://www.stopthesealhunt.org

Right-click here to download the podcast.

In this podcast produced by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, senior researcher Sheryl Fink talks about her experiences while on the ice during the 2009 Canadian commercial seal hunt.

Right-click here to download the podcast.

This short piece created by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, makes the point that the Canadian seal hunt quota has increased in a year when the European Union is voting on enacting more stringent bans on the importation of seal products from Canada and the Russian government has banned the hunting of harp seal pups under 1 year of age.

Right click here to download this podcast.

This post filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's U.K. communications officer, Clare Sterling.

The first stage of this year’s Canadian commercial seal hunt closed yesterday after sealers took just a little over two days to kill up to 20,000 seals - likely exceeding the quota for the Magdalen Islands area. Windy but clearer conditions allowed IFAW’s observation team to take to the skies again to continue documenting the annual slaughter off the east coast of Canada. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) reported that 100 sealers were on the ice yesterday, and IFAW observers, along with photographers and videographers, witnessed dozens of sealers clubbing and skinning seals, before the DFO closed this section of the hunt.

IFAW was able to film and photograph sealing activity, which included a wounded, bleeding seal escaping into the water before a sealer could retrieve it. This seal would most likely have died a lingering death underwater. The Canadian government estimates that around five per cent of seals killed during the annual hunt are “struck and lost”, which would account for around 26,000 seals each year.

It is illegal to hunt whitecoat seals – newborn harp seals which have not yet started to shed their white fur. However, the IFAW team examined the frozen carcass of one whitecoat seal which had been killed but not skinned. They also saw older seal pups which had been killed but left intact on the ice without having their skins removed, providing further evidence of how wasteful this hunt is. Thousands more carcasses had been skinned then abandoned on the ice amid pools of blood.

There is no sealing taking place today, but the hunt, which this year has a total allowable catch (TAC) limit of 280,000 seals, continues. The second phase will open tomorrow morning off Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. More than 1,400 seals are expected to be hunted in this area, both on land and from boats. The seal herds are currently close to shore, which suggests this part of the hunt could be over quickly. IFAW will again be out on the ice, bringing the cruelty of Canada’s commercial seal hunt to the world’s attention.

Please take action now to help end this cruel hunt once and for all.

In this Seal Hunt 2009 podcast, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Patricia Zaat discusses the steps required to secure observers permits for the Canadian commercial seal hunt.

Right click here to download the video podcast!

Posted by Sheryl Fink, IFAW Senior Researcher

In the same week that Russia annouced an end to the hunting of seals under a year old, the Canadian goverment released today that they will allow for the slaughter of 280,000 harp seal pups this year.

This is outrageous.  This quota is completely indefensible. It’s not supported by markets, it’s not supported by the DFO’s own management plan, and it’s certainly not going to be supported by the majority of Canadians.

For the past two years we’ve seen saturated markets for seal fur, and pelt prices are now the lowest in recent memory.  If this is a market-based hunt, as the government claims, the quota for this year should be zero.

The federal government’s determination to ignore reality on this issue is totally irrational.  There are no markets for seal products, and with a potential European-wide ban on the horizon, no signs that the economic outlook is going to improve anytime soon. While our politicians trip over themselves to support commercial sealing, our taxes are being wasted on bailing out an anachronistic, dangerous, dead-end industry.

How ironic that two days after Russia announced an end to its commercial harp seal hunt, Canada is condemning one-third of the pups born here to a cruel and unnecessary death. Our government is insistent on keeping Canada stuck in the dark ages.  Canadians would be much better served by a government that will stop playing politics, stop wasting our taxes, and start investing in alternative, economically viable employment opportunities.

Canada’s commercial seal hunt will be under intense scrutiny this year, as the European Union considers banning the trade in seal products.

You can help keep the pressure on the Canadian government by taking action now on www.stopthesealhunt.org

Last night, key European decision-makers and bureaucrats working late in their offices in central Brussels were treated to an unusual spectacle.

Striking footage of newborn seal pups on Canadian ice floes was projected by the International Fund for Animal Welfare near the Commission and other European Union institutions. Why? To reveal the shocking reality that the seals being born this month are amongst those who could be dead in weeks - killed by sealers for their fur pelts, many of which find their way into fashion houses across Europe.

But more positively, we were there to remind MEPs and Ministers (who were that day discussing a ban in the trade of seal products from commercial hunts) that they have a unique chance to deliver a body-blow to commercial seal hunts in Canada and around the world by voting for a full and unconditional EU-wide ban in the trade in seal products. This crucial vote takes place in the European Parliament next month.