The commercial seal hunt in Canada takes thousands of victims every year – usually, they are the youngest and most vulnerable animals, clubbed to death for their meat and pelts. This unbelievable annual practice, described by Humane Society International as “the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet,” clearly should not be taking place any longer and has already been going on for much too long. In 2014, the Canadian government’s hunt quota was a shocking 400,000 seals. And, despite international opposition, the end of this bloodshed is nowhere in sight.
More than 36 countries, including United States, the European Union nations, Russia, and Switzerland, have already banned commercial, non-aboriginal trade of seal products in an effort for the seal slaughters to end. Moreover, polls show that most Canadians themselves want an end of commercial sealing – and a fair transition program for commercial sealers.
Commercial seal hunt is shrouded in misinformation – much of it perpetrated by the Canadian government itself, as International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) points out in its Care2 petition aimed at stopping the hunts. Although scientists at Fisheries and Oceans have already clarified that harp seals are not impacting cod recovery, the animals are still targeted, Canada’s Members of Parliament (MP) insisting that seal populations must be reduced in order to protect cod stocks. MPs use an antiquated claim that sealing makes up 35 percent of a fisherman’s income, even though the figure has also been already refuted. According to the petition, recent statistics say that a commercial sealer on average makes less than 1,700 dollars a year from sealing.
The commercial seal hunt on the East Coast also has to be distinguished from the Inuit hunt, the petition emphasizes. The cruel and completely unnecessary commercial sealing industry simply cannot be supported any longer – while Inuit struggle when it comes to food security.
Demand for products from the commercial seal hunt is declining and the general Support for the practice is lower than ever – it is time to finally put an end to the hunts once and for all. Click here to sign IFAW’s petition to Canada’s MPs to cease spreading misinformation about the case and stop the East Coast seal hunt!
Image source: skeeze/Pixabay
Canada needs to end this holocaust. It needs to protect the victims from the psychopaths that get their thrills from slaughtering defenseless victims.
Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada/Premier ministre du Canada;
Dr. Stephen Lucas
Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Environment and Climate Change;
Honourable Catherine McKenna
Minister of Environment and Climate Change;
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Anne Lamara, Asistant Deputy Minister;
Dominic LeBlanc
Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard;
Ed Fast, Member of Parliament
Critic, Environment and Climate Change;
Todd Doherty, Member of Parliament
Critic, Fisheries and Oceans;
Rona Ambrose, Member of Parliament
Interim Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada;
William Amos, MLA Pontiac, Quebec;
Gulf Fisheries Center
Department of Fishers and Oceans and Coast Guard:
Here in CANADA, in Prince-Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec (Magdalen Island), seals are brutally shot and clubbed to death for their pelts.
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA and his “decision makers” APPROVED THAT CANADA must have a NATIONAL DAY celebrating the seal slaughter https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sheryl-fink/national-seal-products-day-canada_b_16542826.html
The LIBERAL Government found a way to sneakily ram BILL S-208, an Act Respecting Seal Products Day, through the House of Commons, a bill that was at the bottom of the order paper, and not expected to reappear for months.
The HYPOCRITICAL WORD used by the Canadian Government for clubbing baby seals and slaughtering them and their mother is "HARVEST". Here, in CANADA, we "HARVEST" seals and their mother, we do not clubb baby seals NOR THEIR MOTHER, nor do we slaughter them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????? WE HARVEST THEM!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS SICK.
I suggest to Mr. Trudeau and his “decision makers" listed above to watch the following video. "Seals sliced open while alive and conscious [warning: link contains graphic content]. Their skulls smashed with hakapiks and left to choke and suffocate in their own blood. Pups hooked in the face as they helplessly attempt to defend themselves.“ This is not ”misinformation." This is fact.
WHY do you Mr. Trudeau and your "decision makers" glorify such a slaughter??????????? You people have the platform to BAN this seal slaughtering. DO IT.
These seals are being hit on the head with either a firearm, club or "hakapik" – a multipurpose hunting tool — wooden club with a hammer head (used to crush seal\’s skull) and a hook used to drag carcass away???????????
PERHAPS YOU, Mr. Trudeau and your "decision makers" listed above SHOULD GO TO the areas around the Prince-Edward Island/Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec (Magdalen Island) TO SEE HOW BABY SEALS AND THEIR MOTHER ARE "HARVESTED" .
You all have the platform to BAN THIS BLOODY AND CRUEL CANADA COMMERCIAL SEAL HUNT. DO IT.
FURTHERMORE, STOP THE EXPORTING OF SEALS TO CHINA AND TO OTHER COUNTRIES. Thank you.
SIGNED THE PETITION.