A cruel hunt
The Canadian government claims the commercial seal hunt is humane and well regulated. But experts disagree.

In 2001, an international team of five independent veterinarians observed the seal hunt. The veterinarians found that 79% of the sealers did not check to see if an animal was dead before skinning it. In 40% of the kills a sealer had to strike the seal a second time, presumably because it was still conscious after the first blow or shot. And when the veterinarians examined the skulls of killed seals, 42% were found to have minimal or no fractures, suggesting a high probability that these seals were conscious when skinned.

The veterinarian team concluded that the existing regulations were neither being respected nor enforced, and that the seal hunt is resulting in considerable and unacceptable suffering.

Furthermore, each year, animal welfare investigators and journalists document routine abuses at the hunt. IFAW has submitted video evidence of more than 660 probable violations of Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. These abuses include skinning or bleeding live seals, stockpiling dead and dying animals, dragging live seals across the ice with sharpened steel hooks and shooting seals and leaving them to suffer. To date, not a single charge has been laid in response.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it is committed to proposing new regulations to address what it sees as the critical hunt issues. The International Fund for Animal Welfare stresses, however, that it is impossible to effectively regulate any commercial hunt. Unpredictable weather and ice conditions, combined with the difficulties inherent in killing a large number of wild animals very quickly, will always add up to cruelty.