Campaigns  /  Seal Hunt

Current annual quotas allow roughly 350,000 defenseless baby seals to be brutally clubbed and shot to death for their skins, which are destined for international fashion markets.
At just 12 days of age - as soon as they begin to shed their fluffy white coats, baby harp seals can be legally killed in Canada. Official government kill reports show that 97 percent of the seals slaughtered over the past five years have been less than three months of age, and the majority have been under one month old. At the time of slaughter, many of these pups had not yet even eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim...leaving them with no escape from the "hunters".

Sealing is an activity conducted by a few thousand fishermen over a few days each year. They earn, on average, less than 5 percent of their annual incomes from sealing - the rest from commercial fisheries. Even in Newfoundland, where 90 percent of sealers live, sealing revenues account for less than one tenth of one percent of the economy, and only 2 percent of the fishery.

Unacceptable Cruelty - Each year, independent journalists, scientists and parliamentarians report horrific cruelty at the commercial seal hunt - including conscious seals dragged with boathooks across the ice, dying seals left in stockpiles to suffocate in their own blood, seals shot and left to suffer in agony, and even seals skinned alive. In 2001, an international team of veterinarians studied the commercial seal hunt, and concluded it results in 'considerable and unacceptable suffering'. Their report noted that 42 percent of the seals they examined had likely been skinned alive. Dr. Mary Richardson, a Canadian veterinary expert and former chair of the Animal Care Review Board for the Solicitor General of Ontario, asserts Canada's commercial seal hunt is inherently inhumane.

An unsustainable slaughter - Sealers have slaughtered up to half of the baby seals born over the past ten years. The last time Canada allowed this many seals to be killed - back in the 1950s and 60s, nearly two thirds of the harp seal population was wiped out. To make matters worse, the ice-breeding harp seals face a new threat to their survival - global warming.
In 2002, the Canadian government estimated 75% of the pups born in the Gulf of St. Lawrence died because of the lack of ice.
In 2007, scientists estimated close to 100 percent mortality among the more than 260,000 seal pups in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nevertheless, the government authorized a quota of 270,000.

Growing international opposition - Polling consistently shows the majority of Canadians, Americans and Europeans surveyed are opposed to the commercial seal hunt and many countries are working to ban the import of all seal products. In 2005, an international boycott of Canadian seafood products was launched until Canada ends the seal hunt for good.
The United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Croatia and Mexico have already banned the import of seal products.