Yesterday marked the first day of Canada’s commercial seal hunt.
270,000 is the official quota. This makes me sick. Physically sick. This disgusting act of cruelty and complete lack of feeling is incomprehensible to me. I wrote about this last year, hoping I wouldn’t have to ever again.
They beat them, mothers and their babies, with clubs so as not to damage the pelt with a bullet hole. And we call ourselves civilized? Still running around like cavemen, killing animals and skinning them for their fur?
You think people would still wear it if they saw the bloodied and skinned animal it came from? Where’s that marketing campaign? Don’t believe me? Think it’s a painless and beautiful process? Go to images.google.com and do a search for “seal hunt.” See how luxurious that fur really is.
If this is turning your stomach, good– that means you have a heart. And that’s a pretty good sign you should do something, anything.
“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Gandhi
First Seals Killed in Canada’s Commercial Hunt
In the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence today, a handful of sealing boats searched out some of the only surviving seal pups in the area to kill and skin for their fur.
The killing marked the start of the multi-stage, commercial seal hunt in Canada. In the area where the Canadian government authorized sealers to begin hunting this morning, catastrophic ice conditions already led to the deaths of as many as 90 percent of seal pups in March.
The HSUS’ Rebecca Aldworth, who is located in Newfoundland to observe the hunt for the ninth straight year, condemned the sealer’s actions. She said that ice conditions would mean a cruel death for the seals killed.
“We know the sealers are shooting at these pups as they cling helplessly to tiny pans of ice floating in the sea. Some are still not yet old enough to survive in the water—they have no way to escape,” she said.
Canada’s annual hunt will occur in several phases over the coming weeks. Officials will allow 270,000 seals, most of them pups, to be clubbed and shot to death for their fur. Journalists, scientists and observers who were denied permits to observe the hunt in the southern Gulf will be issued permits for observing the next stage in the hunt tomorrow, officials said.
Sealers based out of the Magdalen Islands and the east coast of Quebec have been moving into position for the hunt in the northern Gulf, where thousands of seals are expected to be killed.
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