Baby Seal Slaughter in Canada: Canadian Fishermen

Baby Seal Slaughter in Canada:

Canadian fishermen usually club hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals to death in front of their mothers every year. This event has developed into a yearly spectacle with the media and animal protection groups trying to cover the slaughter from helicopters or ships. These attempts are due to the fact that both the Canadian government and the sealers try to prevent access to the baby seal slaughter area in order to evade publicity. This event continues to receive green light from the Canadian government which set the quota with an example being the 275,000 seals that was set in 2008. The Canadian government permits hunters to bludgeon thousands of baby harp seals through shooting or repeated clubbing using metal-hook-tipped clubs that are also known as hakapiks. After clubbing the baby harp seals, these sealers then drag the unconscious seals across the ice floes with boat hooks. The carcasses of dead seals are then left to rot on the ices floes since there is no market for seal meat ("Canadian Seal Slaughter," par, 2).

According to reports of veterinarians who have scrutinized the slaughter, hunters usually fail to adhere to the stipulated regulations in Canada's animal welfare standards. Most of these baby seals are helplessly clubbed to death since they have no way of escaping from the sealer's clubs. Moreover, these seals are helplessly killed since they are less than or 3 months old and are yet to learn how to swim or eat solid meals. While the killing of these seals has continued to raise several concerns among different groups, the sealing industry claims that the slaughter is conducted because of the increased demand for fur. Canadian hunters continue to murder the seals because of the fact that people wearing fur products of various animals are responsible for creating the demand for this raw material. However, through its animal welfare standards, the Canadian government prohibits the cruel slaughter of baby seals.

Canadian Policy for Baby Seal Slaughter:

The current policy that permits the killing of baby seals in Canada was adopted in 1987 after images of pure-white baby seals caused various publicity problems and public concern to the Canadian government. The policy regarding seal slaughter was then restructured to target seals that are more than two weeks old whose seal coats have started to turn grey. According to the Canadian government, the 2-week-old baby seals are regarded as adults regardless of the fact that they are still young to swim and cannot escape. Over the years, the Canadian government has continued to change its policy regarding the killing of baby seals due to various reasons. For instance, the Canadian government was recently forced to enact new rules to ensure that baby seals are murdered more humanely. This was because of the widespread images of burly men smashing the skulls of baby seals openly which in turn resulted in an extended and painful death.

Such pictures have not only resulted in heavy criticism of the way the seals are killed but it has also proven be a massive problem for the Canadian government. In 2001, veterinarians examining the skulls of skinned seals reported that more than 40% of clubbed seals were still alive and conscious at the time of skinning (Lin par, 3). However, regardless of these policies to regulate baby seal slaughter, animal rights groups within the country have stated that the government doesn't have adequate regulators to enforce the legislations. The current policy allows hunters to follow a three step process which ensure that the bay seals are slaughtered more humanely. The first step is to club or shoot the seals followed by checking their eyes to make sure that they are dead and cutting the animals main arteries if they aren't dead yet. Apart from ensuring that the seals are slaughtered in the right procedure, the three step process helps in avoiding incidences where these seals are still alive and conscious at the time of skinning. In addition to this, this policy also ensures that the seals are not subjected to a prolonged death.

Facts about Baby Seal Slaughter:

Baby seal slaughter has been going on for decades in Canada despite of the public outcry and general common sense concerns that the annual activity has generated. Actually, the Canadian government has continued to offer lots of support to this annual event because of the fact that seal harvest supports many families in the coastal region. Actually, it's believed that these families derive approximately 35% of their annual income from this activity. Consequently, much of Canada's commercial seal hunt takes place in Canada's East Coast region particularly in Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence ("The Facts," par, 8). As a matter of fact, it's estimated that up to 90% of Canadian sealers live in Newfoundland. In this particular region, seal hunting has political advantages since political parties that oppose the activity are considered to be out of the running. As a result, seal hunting is an important political feature for many political parties especially in the coastal regions where the activity is common.

For many scientists, journalists and parliamentarians observing the annual commercial seal hunt, there are unacceptable levels of cruelty in baby seal slaughter. These unacceptable levels include dragging conscious seals across the ice floes using boat hooks, leaving the seals to suffer in anguish, skinning seals alive and gathering heaps of dead and dying animals. These unacceptable levels have been noticed due to the fact that government policies have neither been respected nor imposed. Notably, each baby seal killing method or procedure is regarded as demonstrably cruel since shooting the seals only leave them wounded to suffer in anguish.