Each year, Canada’s government allows hunters to visciously and brutally beat and attack defenseless baby seals during their annual commercial hunt. This hunt is the largest hunt of marine mammals in the world. Most killed are under three months old. There are millions of pictures on the web, of hooded men bashing small bleeding and crying seals over the head and body with a hooked club. Yep, a thick piece of wood or metal with a big , sharp metal knife on the end. They beat them until they are unconscious, or not - until they give up. In one study conducted in 2001, veterinarians found that about 40% of these suffering seals were skinned alive while still conscious. It is not of concern for these hunters if they are nice to the seals. They brutally drag them across the ice by the hooks embedded in their flesh, only to beat them more and skin them. Sometimes the hunters use guns, which seems more humane until you find out that they are unlikely to shoot twice, because the more bullet holes in the skin the less money they make - so they are very likely to just injure the seal and let it suffer and bleed to death than kill it instantly. “During the 2006 hunt, the Canadian government allowed fishermen to club and shoot at least 354,344 seals. The last time seals were killed at this rate—in the 1950s and ’60s—the harp seal population was reduced by nearly two thirds. And the actual number of seals killed is probably far higher than the number reported. Many seals are shot at and injured in the course of the hunt, and studies suggest that a significant number of these animals slip beneath the surface of the water, where they die slowly and are never recovered”.  (http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/protect_seals/about_the_canadian_seal_hunt/)

 Oh and the best part about all this cruelty- the only real use for the seals is their fur - for fashion. The meat is usually left to rot on the ice. Wow.

Seal hunting is an off-season thing fisherman from Canada’s East Coast participate in. They earn little to none of their income from hunting seals —what they do make money from is the sale of seal pelts to European fashion industry. Most of the seal hunters’ incomes are from commercial fishing. Canadian seafood exports to the United States give $2.5 billion annually to the Canadian economy, hardly none of which is contributed to by the slaughter of seals. The connection between the commercial fishing industry and the seal hunt in Canada gives people like us the power to end this cruel slaughter. All we have to do is boycott Canadian Seafood. One easy way to do this is by not eating at RED LOBSTER, because they support the Canadian Seal Hunt. Also, there are many ways you can spread the word about these brutal massacres - there are many t-shirts and other things that are on sale on the HSUS website that will spread the word.

Go to this website to learn how to help and watch a video, one that isn’t nearly as gruesome as some of hte ones I’ve seen. http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html


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