With more than one million harp seals clubbed and shot to death for their fur over the past three years alone, Canada's commercial seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on earth. It is also the most brutal.
The Canadian seal hunt is a slaughter of baby seals. Ninety-seven percent of the seals killed in the past five years have been less than three months old, and the majority under one month old. At the time of slaughter, many of these defenseless pups had not yet eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim, leaving them utterly defenseless against the 'hunters'.
It is a cruel slaughter. Representatives of the Humane Society International/Canada and the Humane Society of the United States have repeatedly observed and documented the commercial seal hunt in recent years. The resulting video evidence shows sealers leaving injured seals to choke on their own blood for as long as 90 minutes, cutting open animals as they struggle, stabbing seals through the skulls with illegal weapons, and dragging conscious seals across the ice with boat hooks. Our footage has prompted governments around the world to take action to ban their trades in seal products, and Canadian veterinary experts to call the seal hunt 'inherently inhumane'.
The seal hunt is unsustainable. Scientists have condemned the current Canadian harp seal management plan as reckless and irresponsible, stating that it poses a threat to the survival of the population. Notably, today's kill levels meet and even exceed those of a half century ago, when sealers quickly reduced the harp seal population by nearly two-thirds.
The seal hunt is not economically viable. Canadian sealers are fishermen who earn on average only a small fraction of their incomes from seal hunting – the rest from fisheries such as crab and shrimp. Regardless, the Canadian government continues to subsidize the commercial sealing industry each year. In 2001, the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment produced a report detailing more than $20 million in government subsidies provided to the commercial sealing industry over the previous seven years. And while the economic contribution made by the sealing industry is small, the cost to Canada is severe.
The seal hunt has sparked an international boycott of Canadian seafood products. In 2005, following decades of failed negotiations with the Canadian government, The Humane Society of the United States and a network of the world's most powerful animal protection groups launched a global boycott of Canadian seafood products until the seal hunt is ended for good. In the months since the boycott began, more than a quarter million people have pledged not to buy Canadian seafood until the seal hunt has ended, and more than 1000 restaurants, seafood wholesalers and grocery stores have followed suit, reducing or eliminating their sales of Canadian seafood until the seal hunt is stopped.
HSI Canada believes the Canadian government should protect Canada's fishing industry by closing the commercial seal hunt and implementing a retirement plan for sealing licenses. This cost-effective solution would compensate fishermen for any lost revenue resulting from the hunt closure, and it would provide a graceful exit to this issue for Canada.
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