by Loren Drummond
Over the last five days, helicopters carrying seal hunt observers from The HSUS and HSI have been flying over the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence off the rugged coast off Newfoundland.
Since April 5, sealers from about a dozen boats have been clubbing and shooting baby seals on small pans of ice. The observers have been flying overhead to document the slaughter. The number of sealing boats was set to increase today, when a the government allowed a new fleet of Newfoundland boats carrying sealers set to join those already searching out and killing pup after pup.
"What we've been witnessing is horrible," said Rebecca Aldworth, who is observing the hunt for a ninth year. "The Canadian government should not allow this level of brutality to continue simply to produce fur coats."
Observation and documentation of the way in which seals are killed by the thousands remains the best tool for animal advocates in the fight to end Canada's large-scale seal slaughter forever. The stories and images that observers carry away from the ice floes have led to key victories. In the last three decades, such documentation has stopped the practice of killing "white coat" seal pups, who are two weeks old or less. Images of the hunt continue to move governments to ban trade in seal products. The United States banned trade in all seal products in 1972, and the European Parliament (along with many individual European countries) is currently considering a ban due to concerns about the cruel conduct of the hunt.
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Ending the Hunt by the Numbers |
10: Number of countries banning or considering banning trade in seal products. The European Union is also considering a ban.
More than 2,000 : Number of restaurants participating in the boycott of Canadian seafood until the hunt ends.
17,485: Number of emails sent in support of the U.S. Senator Carl Levin's Resolution calling for the hunt to end.
66,380: Number of emails sent to Canada's Minister of International Trade calling for the hunt to end.
120,936: Number of emails sent to Canadian Prime Minister Harper calling for an end to the hunt.
More than 350,000: Number of people who have pledged to boycott Canadian seafood until the hunt ends. |
"Before the hunt begins, these ice floes are pristine. The only sounds you hear are the baby seals. It is magical environment; it is one of the best places on Earth," Aldworth said. "After the hunters have left, it is completely ruined. What is left are the tiny carcasses of these baby seals, littered across the blood-stained ice floes."
Seals are shot, or beaten to death with wooden bats or hakapiks, and then skinned. The hunt is conducted almost entirely by commercial fishermen from Canada's east coast. Nearly all of the seals they kill are babies, targeted primarily for their fur, which is traded overseas to the fashion industry.
But the demand for seal fur, obtained at such a high cost in suffering, is faltering. Individuals and governments that have seen the horrific reality of the commercial seal slaughter through observers' lenses are taking action. In the U.S., there are renewed calls in Congress for Canada to end the hunt. Mexico, Croatia, Panama, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany have either implemented seal product trade bans or are in the process of doing so. The European Parliament, too, is seriously considering a ban on the import of seal products.
A European ban would eliminate a key market for seal fur and help remove the financial incentive for Canadian fisherman to kill seals.
On April 11, the slaughter moves further north to the waters off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, where seals will be killed using the same cruel methods observers documented in the Gulf. As the sealing boats move off the visible horizon, Aldworth hopes that they've captured enough proof of cruelty to shut down the hunt for good.
