Canada's commercial seal hunt is the largest, and most brutal, slaughter of marine mammals on earth.
Each year, Canada allows hundreds of thousands of defenseless baby seals to be cruelly clubbed and shot to death for their fur. The last time this many seals were killed—in the 1950s and 1960s—the harp seal population was reduced by as much as two-thirds.
Before the 2007 hunt had begun, the disappearing ice caused by global warming had already devastated seal populations in Canada's North Atlantic waters. It's estimated that more than a quarter of the seal pups died, and the survivors are being targeted by the hunt. That's because, despite these catastrophic ice conditions, the Canadian government chose to allow fishermen to kill 270,000 seals in the 2007 hunt. If the hunt is anything like last year's, almost all of them will be babies as young as 12 days. At the time of slaughter, many will not yet have eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. They will literally have no way to escape from the "hunters."
Once again, The HSUS is documenting the commercial seal hunt firsthand using video and written reports. We are commited to exposing to the world the cruelty that takes place every year on the ice—cruelty that the Canadian government wants no one to see.
The overwhelming majority of Canadians, Americans, and Europeans oppose the commercial seal hunt, and many of us are willing to use our consumer power to help stop it. To pressure the Canadian government and fishing industry to take action, The HSUS and our ProtectSeals network are asking consumers to boycott Canadian seafood products and restaurants and other businesses to pledge to limit or eliminate their purchasing of Canadian seafood until the seal hunt has been ended for good.
