Myth #1:

It is illegal to kill baby seals in Canada.

Fact: Canada's commercial seal kill is a slaughter of defenseless baby seals. It is true that in Canada, newborn "whitecoat" harp seals are protected from killing. But as soon as they begin to shed their fluffy white coats—at as young as 12 days old—these baby seals are legally slaughtered by sealers. In fact, 97 percent of the seals killed in the commercial seal kill over the past three years have been younger than three months, and most were younger than one month old. At the time of slaughter, many of these pups had not yet eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. Sealers prefer to kill the baby seals because their skins are in "prime" condition and fetch the highest prices.

Myth #2: 

Fact: In 2001, an independent veterinary panel performed post-mortems on seal carcasses abandoned on the ice floes. Their report concluded that in 42 percent of cases, the seals did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning. This report is supported by the testimony of independent journalists, parliamentarians and scientists who observe and document the commercial seal slaughter each year. Footage from the commercial seal kill consistently shows conscious pups stabbed with boathooks and dragged across the ice, wounded pups left to choke on their own blood and conscious seal pups cut open.

Fact: Scientists agree that current kill levels are not sustainable. A recent study [PDF] by Stephen Harris, a professor at Bristol University in the UK, asserts that the Canadian management regime for harp seals does not apply a precautionary principle and threatens the survival of seal populations. Over the past 10 years, between one-third and one-half of all seal pups have been slaughtered by commercial sealers. Because seals only reach breeding age at six years, the impacts of high killing levels are only starting to be felt. Under the current management plan, by the time the Canadian government decides to take action to save the population, it may be too late to intervene. Today's kill levels meet and even exceed those of the 1950s and 1960s, when over-hunting quickly reduced the harp seal population by nearly two-thirds.

Fact: Sealers are commercial fishermen who earn a small fraction of their incomes from killing seals—the rest from commercial fisheries such as crab, shrimp and lobster. Even in Newfoundland, where more than 90 percent of sealers live, the government estimates that there are only about 4000 active sealers. Newfoundland's fishery has never been wealthier, earning nearly $200 million more annually than it did prior to the 1992 cod collapse. This economic growth is because of the expansion of the shellfish industry, which today accounts for 80 percent of the value of Newfoundland's fishery. Sealing, in contrast, brings in only two percent. Revenues from the hunt account for less than one-half of one percent of the province's economy.

Fact: A 2001 report by the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment found more than $20 million in government subsidies provided to the Canadian sealing industry over the seven year period 1995-2001. While tracking subsidies to the sealing industry is difficult (the information is not public), government subsidies to the sealing industry were granted as recently as 2004, when nearly $400,000 was provided to two sealing companies to process and develop seal products.