As he did during the last session of Congress, U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) again demonstrated strong leadership in protecting wildlife by organizing a bipartisan group of senators to support a resolution condemning the brutal Canadian seal hunt.
Introduced on February 1, Senate Resolution 33 urges the government of Canada to end the commercial seal hunt. Citing a 2001 veterinary report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the resolution denounces Canadian seal hunting for failing "to comply with basic animal welfare regulations in Canada." Levin introduced a similar resolution in November 2003.
"As many as 42 percent of the seals studied were likely skinned while alive and conscious," the statement reads.
Calling the hunt "a commercial slaughter carried out by nonnative people from the East Coast of Canada," the document contests Canada's contention that the seals are responsible for depleted cod stocks.
"The consensus among the international scientific community is that seals are not responsible for the collapse of cod stocks," the resolution declares, "and because the seals consume predators of commercial cod stocks, removing the seals might actually inhibit recovery of cod stocks."
The resolution reflects the outrage experienced by many Americans upon learning that Canada had increased the quota of seals that hunters may club and shoot to 975,000 over the next three years. Since The HSUS launched its Protect Seals campaign in June 2003, Americans and Canadians alike have written thousands of letters of protest to Canada's prime minister, ambassador to the United States, minister of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Tourism Commission. In March, activists rallied against the hunt at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Christopher Dodd, (D-CT), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), James Jeffords (I-VT), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are cosponsoring the resolution.
Agreement from Abroad
Levin and his colleagues are not the only political figures to criticize Canada's seal hunt. On November 4, 2003, conservative David Amess, M.P., read a statement to the United Kingdom's Parliament calling the killing of baby seals "cruel."
The Canadian government has "effectively declared war on seals," Amess noted in the debate over his motion to oppose the seal hunt, which was signed by 159 members of parliament. Later the same day, British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brian announced that the United Kingdom would put pressure on Canada to ban commercial seal hunting.
International concerns center on the shocking brutality of the hunt, the unsustainable quota, and the de facto subsidization of the hunt by unwilling Canadian taxpayers. As Senator Levin described in his statement in the Congressional Record, "The images from this senseless slaughter are difficult to view but even harder to accept: skinning of live animals, some no older than 12 days, and the dragging of live seals across the ice using steel hooks.
The hunt is making Canada a pariah in the global community. HSUS marine mammal scientist Dr. Naomi Rose puts it plainly: "The Canadian seal hunt is the largest commercial slaughter of wildlife in the world. This is hardly an achievement Canada should want to be known for. It is a hunt whose quotas are not supported by science—placing the Canadian management agencies at the trailing edge of resource management practices."
What You Can Do
With a distinguished group of U.S. senators speaking on behalf of the growing number of concerned Americans, the Canadian government should act now to end the carnage. Find out how you can do your part to support the resolution.
