Canada’s annual seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth. Last year, the world looked on in horror as the Canadian government permitted the slaughter of more than 330,000 harp seals. During the hunt, baby seals are shot or repeatedly clubbed. Sealers bludgeon the animals with clubs and “hakapiks” (clubs with metal hooks on their ends) and drag the seals—who are still conscious—across the ice floes with boat hooks. An estimated 42 percent of the animals are skinned alive. Hunters toss dead and dying seals into heaps and leave their carcasses to rot on the ice floes because there is no market for seal meat. Veterinarians who have investigated the hunt have found that hunters routinely fail to comply with Canada’s animal welfare standards.
It is legal in Canada to kill seal pups when they are about 12 days old. During last year’s hunt, almost all the seals killed were 3 months old or younger. Many had not yet learned how to swim or eaten their first solid meals. Baby seals are helpless and have no way to escape from the sealers’ clubs.
Hey it beats the Hell out of the american tradition of killing innocent people and babys !!!!!
lol.
the seal hunt has a quota, to ensure that these seals don’t overpopulate (which they do),
the video and article is opinion. we hunt club the baby seals in our ancient right of passage ritual to make men of ours boys, and women of our girls. the seals threaten our frontier, and must be kept in check, lest they destroy first our cities, then yours!
ah its to ensure the quota so they dont overpopulate, so we should have a human hunt cause humans are way over populated and have been for a long time let hunting begin.
Okay ur saying that we should kill seals? Lol u really dont even make sense. We need to have a pop. control on the seals? Rofl wat about the human race, i would rather we would be killed even though it doesnt sound humane but still the point is we should be worrying about the human population instead of others let them mass produce….. and let us stop mass producing we should follow the rules of Japan 1 child per family ^_^
First, this article is so flawed I don’t know where to start.
1. “During the hunt, baby seals are shot or repeatedly clubbed.” It’s been illegal for 20 years.
2. “permitted the slaughter of more than 330,000 harp seals” Yup and there were about 1,000,000 new pups too. Population still going up.
3. “Sealers bludgeon the animals with clubs and “hakapiks” “> True, but it was proven to be even more humane to the animal than a riffle shot because it is more precise.
4. “and drag the seals—who are still conscious—across the ice floes with boat hooks” When they club a seal, it is dead within 2 seconds. When you see the seal flopping around, it’s the muscles draining. Every animal does that. Have you been to a slaughter house lately?
5. “An estimated 42 percent of the animals are skinned alive.” Who estimated that? It is scientifically proven that the animal is dead within 2 seconds of being clubbed. Plus hunter always make a reflex test prior to skinning to make sure the animal is dead. It’s a law.
6. “Hunters toss dead and dying seals into heaps and leave their carcasses to rot on the ice floes because there is no market for seal meat.” False. You can buy seal meat from Les Iles de la Madeleine.
7. “Many had not yet learned how to swim” The youngest that are killed are called beaters because of the way they swim, They slap their tales in the water.
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I appreciate all your comments. Especially the ones from Canada, as they know better what is happening in their country. Thank you.
Kill them ALL, every last one that will solve the population problem and shut up the protesters. If I could get the time off work I would personally go up there and club seals till my arm went numb, It looks like a lot of fun and I’m sure they make a cool sound when you crack their skulls.
PS… My comment was a joke and I really don’t fell that way, I just like stirring the pot.
Hmmm…what about all the cows that are killed each day?
Unless you are a vegetarian, how can a person complain about the seals??
What the hell is with that video? They’re saying that the seal would rather swim and swim around in the open water searching for ice until it becomes exausted and drowns and washes up on the shore to rot and have it’s cute little carcass pecked at by gulls. (Something that I’ve seen many times considering I live in Newfoundland. ) As opposed to being clubbed and dieing before it can register any pain and then have all parts of it put to good use, the meat is eaten, the pelts are used to make clothes, the fat is used to make oil that is often used in medicines and cosmetics, even the bones can be used to make medicine and other things as well.
Not to mention the fact that the seal population absolutely needs to be controled. They overpopulate too rapidly for their food source to keep up – the almost extinct Cod fish (thanks to foreign trawlers) so then the seals will starve to death and their wasted carcasses will again be washed up on shore to be pecked at by gulls.
Oh by the way, I adore the image of “The big bad sealer” in that video- one guy on a boat with a gun. HA! They don’t do that for many reasons, it’s less acurate and the seal may not die completely, it would ruin the pelt and meat, half of them would be lost in the water and washed up on shore to rot AGAIN. Killing whitecoats- the cute white baby ones that you see on all of the save the seals campaigns- is and has been illeagal for over 20 years!
The thing that you have to understand is that sealing isn’t an “Old Canadian Tradition” at all! It’s the processing of a natural reasorce in Canada, just like fishing or cattle farming. People need to stop being so gullible and stop believing everything that they hear or read from misinformed sources.
I think part of the problem is that people assume that since seals don’t inhabit wherever they live, then they must be rare or endangered. So no wonder they’re shocked to find out that they’re annually hunted. But that is completely incorrect. They’re not endangered at all, they’re dangerously abundant infact. Of course you don’t see them where you live, they’re all up north where there’s lots of ice.
canadians rule, keep clubbin boys!, all this article did is make me wanna try some seal, i wonder how seal tastes, espically young clubbed to death seal lol
When I read that harsh writing, and look at the videom yes I do tend to go, “Oh my word. That is terrible!” But some of what you said is not true. And it’s just like us killing cows and pigs for food. It’s something we need to do. So everyone just stop whinning like a baby and let them do it, as long as they do it properly.
thats so ewwwww nasty y would u do that????o well geas we will just have to live with it
I find few MORONS in this page who like the idea of killing innocent lives. Its pathetic on their part to even appreciate the idea of killing baby-seals in mass. The animal rights should immediately stop this gruesom killing and bring the people who support this act, to justice. I suggest these people who support this act should face capital punishment (like cutting of hands, or 5000 lashes etc) to immediately stop this act and save the environment.
Sealslaughter is an act of perverts, living their sadistic, brainless minds. Probably they were clubbed as babies themselves….
Do they visit Church before they go out clubbing seals?
This slaughter must be stopped at once as long as these people
want to be called human beings.
I hope these people will be seals in their next lives.
ontarian_frog,
you sound like a total degenerate and I wander how you would feel if someone clubbed you and skinned you while you are still alive simply because your cousins in china are multiplying. who made you the expert on animal control?
What a collection of stupid, ignorant people. WOW. The human race’s demise will be solely based on our lack of understanding of our surroundings, and the fact that we are so out of touch with the natural world. Do you people crying foul about this particular issue have ANY idea where your food comes from on a daily basis? I find it hilarious that, in my experience, the majority of idiots who feel compelled to jump on the “animal rights” bandwagon would be the first to jump off if they really knew how it would affect their daily lives. You can’t decry humanities management of other natural species, and at the same time enjoy your place at the head of the table, protecting yourself from them. We are all animals; human, ape, budgie or seal.
I guess we will let the seals overpopulate, decimate the fishing industry, force the human settlements to move into the big city, and poison the rest of the world by trying to manufacture these products without the use of animal products. That sounds like a great idea….
Some of the other posters are correct; the worldwide human populations are getting too large. Perhaps some of these idiots would be willing to be first in line to face population reduction. Put your money where your mouth is assholes. Long live hunting and other similar outdoor pursuits; these are the only activities that keep us in touch with the natural world. Club away!
If the seal population is keep’t at a steady level, and the number of seals killed each year dossent surpass the number born, i see no problem with this pratice
hey i am doing a project to stop slaughter poor innocent baby seals.in one week over 259,965 seals are killed. and it is horrible and with the enviroment we do not need the seals getting killed.also it is only for their fur. i think if you are going to kill an animal it should be for most or all of the animal. and americans don’t kill innocent people maybe you do and want to blame it one someone else. you need to watch videos on it to understand how horrible it is
lol. Americans DO kill innocent people. Being an American, I can say that, for I WATCH the news. As for this “Oh, bad Canadians. How could you?” Save it. We do the same to, as someone said earlier, pigs, cows, deer. Hmmm. Seems as though people are THE biggest hypocrites these days. So, save your slap on the hand speech, mmkay?
People….do your homework before you spend your precious life complaining about things that you do not truly understand.
For those who shriek about killing ‘baby’ seals, it’s important to remember that harp seals grow very quickly and that by the time they molt their ‘whitecoat’ fur at only a few weeks of age these are no longer ‘babies’…they’re independent of their mother and living much as they will for the rest of their lives. Whitecoats have not been part of the quota for over twenty years now, so you may as well stop mooning( and moaning) over old pics of whitecoats being harvested. The quotas and the hunt itself are based on the scientific findings of the D.F.O. THEY decide that there ought to be a hunt, and THEY decide how many animals
ought to be harvested to maintain a healthy herd number.
These decisions are made by trained and educated conservation-minded scientists, not by the sealers or the sealing industry.
When it’s all said and done, the seal hunt is about population control….thinning the herd for the good of the greater whole, not only of the harp seal, but the ecosystem as a whole. Sure, there may be some sealers who need some improvement in their shooting and clubbing technique in order to harvest these animals in the most humane way…this is so in every area of hunting. ‘Done properly’
is an important aspect that should indeed be monitored and enforced. Having said that, the harp seals will continue to be killed every year, hundreds of thousands of them each year….it’s not going to stop…try and get used to that, won’t you? Most of the seal hunt ‘antis ‘ fall into one of two groups (stick with me here ;) ) The first group is involved in ‘saving the seals’ for no other reason than that they are making a lot of money for themselves by doing so. Again…please do your homework…there’s a LOT of money to be made in fundraising of ANY sort…that’s the way it is. The second group is comprised of earnest, well-intentioned folks who are woefully ill-educated as to the actual dynamics of wildlife management. Rather, they’ve been lied to by the first group and have thus allowed themselves to be seduced into the idea that they are trying to create a better world…folks, that’s NOT the way it is.
Animal populations either manage themselves, or we do it for them. When they manage themselves, they overpopulate until they reach critical mass…then, via starvation, epidemic disease, and/or other processes that you’d likely find just as unpalatable, the population ‘busts’ plummeting down to a small percentage of it’s former size.
The young of any species has the highest mortality figures of any age group within that species. Harvesting this years offspring (most of which will not survive until adulthood)
is by far the most efficient method of maintaining population control. The important factors here are the breeding age adults, not the high-mortality adolescents who
have not yet been proven in ‘survival of the fittest.’
If several hundred thousand breeding stock harp seals were being removed from the population every year, that might be
cause for concern….but that’s not how it is.
Suppose the seal hunt did become outlawed…what then?
The situation would not change…the scientists that monitor harp seal populations and their impact on the ecology will still find that there are unsustainably large numbers of harp seals. By the way, the first group (the one that’s been lying to you and making money for themselves)
actually does NOT want the seal hunt to end…ever….they’re making money on this ‘war’. If the war did finally end, they would lose that stream of income.
As far as the harp seals themselves go(remember, there’s too many of them)…should the seal hunt become outlawed,
the goverment would immediately institute a cull program at taxpayers expense. Thus, you’d have the same men on the same ice, killing the same seals….only they’ll call it a ‘cull’ instead of a ‘hunt’. Who knows? the sealers might actually make more money that way. Be careful what you wish for….and do your homework, won’t you? ;)
Well you people can think what you want but i honeslty think if you all wanna kill helpless animals then do it but god forbid you people get away with it how would you fell if someone one hit your baby or your child with a club you would be devastated you would wanna do something about now wouldnt you!? But who am i to say anything im just one person right? Not like my word counts.
dont waste your time trying to convince people. everyone will believe what they want and do what they want. its a fact of life. drop it and leave it alone. yes it is true that the seals are overpopulated thats why you kill them. would you rather have them eating all the fish? then the fish market will fail and tons of people will be out of jobs. oh and in the northern wisconsin we have people complaining about the same thing with the dear. we hunt, its part of human history, its what we do so just accept it already.
@ hrinm dichotomous eastwood:
Oh really? So in order to be considered a f*cking “man” and “women”, it’s your job to annihilate all innocent mammals that do nothing to harm you, despite the fact that their territory is being overconquered by idiots such as yourself? Please, learn to grow up “boy” or “girl”, whatever the f*ck you consider yourself as. Maybe in order to mature you more, how would it feel to skin you alive and drag you a thousand miles across nude in the frozen dead ice. Naw, maybe that won’t mature you enough more. It probably would be a much better idea that we Americans (your GODS) go over to Canada and club and skin the mess out of all your “women”, “men”, and newborn babies for all we f*cken care. Seriously, know what you’re saying you dumb@ss. And Canadians walk around talking shyt about other countries. Eye roll* Boy do I have A LOT to say about this..