Canada's seal hunt
As mentioned in yesterday's post, we're going to be looking at some forms of animal suffering this week which we haven't been able to focus on yet. One of those tragedies is the annual Canadian seal hunt, which takes place from mid-November to mid-May, and is most heavily concentrated in late March and early April on Canda's east coast, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland.
Some seal hunting also takes place in Namibia, Greenland, Norway and Russia, but Canada is most active by a long shot, with well upwards of 300,000 killed in 2006 and close to 250,000 in 2007, mostly harp seal pups and some hooded and gray seals (Wikipedia). The Humane Society's "Protect Seals" page says that "Ninety-seven percent of the seals killed in this hunt are babies under just three months of age, and they are utterly defenseless." The following video is from the 2009 hunt, and contains graphic images, but let's not walk away and forget:
The Humane Society also mentions that "Veterinary studies show high levels of cruelty at the slaughter, including wounded seals left to suffer in agony, conscious seals impaled on metal hooks, and live seals cut open." Andrew Linzey addresses the many horrors of the seal hunt and its weak moral basis in his book we reviewed last week, Why Animal Suffering Matters. He writes,
Here we go to the very heart of the problem: inconsistency, or arbitrainess, in the manner of death and the degree of suffering caused is an inherent feature of the Canadian seal hunt - inherent because it derives from the nature of the hunt itself, the methods of killing involved, and the uncertain circumstances in which the killing is pursued [below-zero temperatures, unstable waters, seal movement, archaic gaffing and hooking, animals left behind, etc.]. (pg. 125)
Linzey goes on to quote Mary Richardson, a Canadian animal welfare expert, who wrote objectively and tellingly in response to HSUS videos of the 2005 hunt:
The tapes show many of the wounded seals are still conscious and struggling for prolonged periods ... In some scenes, seals with terrible head injuries are left in stockpiles of dead and dying animals, choking on their own blood and suffering tremendous pain - some for as long as 90 minutes. In others, sealers cut open seals that are clearly still conscious.
... The cruelty documented by the HSUS this year is not the extreme - it is the routine of the commercial seal hunt. (pg. 133, from "The Horror of the Seal Hunt," National Post, Jun. 9 '05)
One more reflection from Linzey on an implication of the hunt you might not immediately think of with so much obvious violence, blood-stained ice and physical agony to take in, has to do with the effect of the killing on the seals left behind, similar to other mammals:
Seals are sentient and intelligent; they are highly developed social beings capable of experiencing intense pain and suffering. The mother seal, as is typical of mammals, is very protective of her young offspring and may well suffer at the death of an older pup even if the latter is on the verge of becoming independent. Studies show that many mammals react even when an unrelated animal is killed in their presence. (pg. 137)
Tragically, the hunt isn't even the only primary threat to the baby seals' existence. Warmer winters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence the last few years have produced a serious ice problem, with far less, and much less stable, ice available to mother harp seals who need it to give birth to and care for their babies who are still too young to swim. Fewer pups will be born, and many more will drown (Wikipedia, Humane Society newsletter). See the following HSUS video, which is not graphic:
(book content from Andrew Linzey, Why Animal Suffering Matters: Philosophy, Theology and Practical Ethics (Oxford University '09); comp. review copy)
March 30, 2010
Reader Comments (4)
That is one of the most selfish displays of cruelty, and all to make a fur coat? That is absolutely disgusting and completely unnecessary.
I continue to be shocked that a country as progressive as Canada still allows this sort of unnecessary, heinous practice to continue.......it is an ugly, ugly stain on the Canadian people. I am embarrassed for them.
Hi, I’m Martha and I'm an employee of the Government of Canada working on the seal file.
While some may not agree with the harvest itself, Canadian sealers follow strict regulations which are enforced by fishery officers to ensure the animals are harvested quickly and humanely.
A little more information for you and your readers. Seal harvesting practices in Canada are guided by rigorous animal welfare principles that are internationally recognized by virtually all independent observers. In fact, Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations include a three-step process to ensure the animals are harvested humanely. Compliance with these rules is high (estimated at 98.5% in during the 2009 harvest).
More information about the seal harvest can be found here. The full text of the Marine Mammal Regulations is here.
Thanks
I agree, Cheryl, and with you as well, Tracey, though I am ashamed of many of our American ways of raising and harvesting animals as well.
Martha, thank you for dropping by, though for some reason you didn't leave a last name or email address for me to be able to follow up with you. Aside from the barbaric and outdated routine of the hunt, the opinion you left about humane harvesting simply isn't remotely accurate, as even the few sources mentioned above contradict comprehensively. Please don't slant the truth so terribly with your reference to "virtually all independent observers." I very much doubt the humaneness of the hunt has improved much if at all since Linzey and Richardson wrote their reviews - Ben