New Canadian Seal Hunt Laws Only a Humane Illusion
On Saturday Canada issued new regulations for its annual seal slaughter, banning the skinning of live seals and forbidding the use of the spiked weapon called a hakapik on seals over one-year-old. Unfortunately, most seals killed in the hunt are under a year old so the law will not alter the cruel deaths many seals face each year.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has confronted and interfered with the seal hunters the past several years, issued a statement condemning the Canadian efforts as merely a reaction to the European Union’s threat to ban all inhumanely slaughtered seal products.
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The hunters themselves fear the ban because they say using firearms to kill seals will result in more blood and thus more negative press and gory photos. The sealers will be required to crush the skulls and bleed out the animals for a minute before skinning them.
Canada has also announced that it will be enforcing the regulations with helicopter-mounted cameras and officials watching from the ground. However, Captain Paul Watson believes these officials will exist more to prevent the harassment of the sealers by activist groups like Sea Shepherd.
A spokesperson for the International Fund for Animal Welfare also criticized the rule change because it will still allow seals to be shot while in the water, where the hunters cannot guarantee a quick death.
Photo Courtesy of Sea Shepherd
[...] that shouldn’t make it acceptable practice. Hundreds, for example, are employed by the annual slaughter of thousands of seals in Canada, a barbaric practice that represents a thriving industry sustaining the eastern provinces. Job [...]
The Canadian Government tweaking the regulations on killing methods will do nothing to diminish public anger and revulsion at this brutal and cruel hunt. Hundreds of thousands of seal pups will still be shot, gaffed and clubbed, with many animals still skinned alive, and that is totally unacceptable in a civilized and compassionate world.
The Canadian seal hunt is a hideously cruel, environmental atrocity and nothing the Canadian Government can do will alter that fact other than ending it once and for all.
In addition to organisations like Sea Shepherd, the Seal Protection Action Group is working hard to protect seals worldwide including Canada and also the UK (where seals are shot by the Salmon industry).
For further information about SPAG’s campaigns to protect seals and details on how you can help please visit our web site http://www.sealaction.org
Thank you
It’s just horrible what humans r doing to this planet.I cant imagine what type of person could do such a crewl act.The inhumane treatment needs to end. Money is the root of all evil……! they will get their judgement someday!
Ugh. I’m terribly disappointed in my country right about now. Usually I’m proud to be Canadian, but… ick. Seriously.
I am so ashamed to be Canadian because of the psychotic sealers. They are a total embarrassment to my country. No human being in their right mind could bash in the skull of ANY living creature, let alone something as cute and helpless as a baby seal. There’s a special place in hell reserved for those barbaric sealers, and hopefully they get there soon!