The Canadian government doesn’t seem to want to let go of the country’s increasingly unprofitable and unsustainable annual seal hunt, which is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet, according to Humane Society International (HSI).
The hunt kills hundreds of thousands of harp seals each year through painful methods that involve wooden clubs, hakapiks (clubs with sharp picks at the end), and guns.
In an effort to avoid even more bad press and protect its sealers’ interests, an ag-gag type bill was recently introduced into the Canadian legislature that would “increase the distance that unauthorized persons or ‘unlicensed observers’ must maintain from seal harvesters,” reports The Epoch Times. If passed, this bill has the potential to limit important hunt documentation carried out by nonprofit organizations like the HSI and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
In yet another crazy turn of events, the Canadian government has just announced that it is setting its 2014 hunt quota at a staggering 400,000 seals – an absolutely absurd number considering that a 2013 ICI Radio Canada report revealed that thousands of seal pelts have been thrown away in recent years due to declining demand.
“In setting this reckless quota, the Fisheries Minister has yet again ignored sound science in favor of political agendas. Given the devastating impacts of climate change on the ice dependent harp seals, the Canadian government should be ending commercial sealing, not setting historic high slaughter quotas,” said Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of HSI Canada.
Countries around the world have been showing opposition to Canada’s annual hunt — from the U.S. and China to the nations of the EU (where a seal products ban has been in effect since 2009) — yet somehow Canada still insists that its annual hunt is an important part of the country. When will Canada wake up and see the reality that’s plainly laid out before them?
We need to show Canada that there is a way out of this dying industry and that the world wants to see this cruel annual slaughter come to an end. Lend your voices to Canada’s seals and use the petition below to urge the Canadian government to end the seal hunt once and for all with an industry buyout that would offer sealers a fair payment to give up their seal hunting license.
Image source: Brian Skerry / The Humane Society of the United States
people you need to get the facts, clubbing of seal is banned, and hunting younger seals, or whitecoats, has been banned since 1987, this group is telling nothing but lies to get people to give them money, they are getting rich of everyone who support them, people needs to wake up and smell the coffee, if you aren\’t a vegetarian, then you have no right to judge, how is killing seals any different then killing cows, pigs, chickens, deer…..etc or maybe it\’s ok to kill these animals because the aren\’t as cute, whatever…IFY YOUR MEAT don\’t magically appear in the store. also this group uses out dated videos from the 80\’s, wake up people and stop giving them money, why not give your money to a needy child, if there was any truth to this then why hasn\’t this group stop it, they are just taking your money and sitting back and getting rich, why can\’t people see that this group as done NOTHING, BECAUSE IT\’s A LIES common since PEOPLE!!!! ANSWER ONE QUESTION PEOPLE WHAT AS THIS GROUP DONE??????? TAKE YOUR MONEY!!!!
Yeah, but why do we have to control seal populations. I think more important that we control ignorant human populations, a far bigger problem without a doubt. This article is ignorant.
This is why I\’m not into patriotism. From my perspective, all countries are garbage.