Canada toughens seal hunt rules

Canada has introduced new regulations for seal hunting in an attempt to head off a proposed ban on Canadian seal products by the European Union.

Over 375,000 seals are killed each year so that their skins can be made into cheap fur coats, leather shoes, and tacky little trinkets.

“The hunt is undeniably cruel.” said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for The Humane Society of the United States. “Every year we see conscious seal pups stabbed with metal hooks and dragged across the ice, wounded seals left to suffer in agony and seals skinned alive.”

Seal hunting — or "sealing" — for their pelts, blubber, penises, and meat, is practiced in 5 countries: Canada — where most of the world’s seal hunting takes place — Greenland, Namibia, Norway, and Russia. Seal oil was often used as lamp fuel, lubricating and cooking oil, for processing such materials as leather and jute, as a constituent of soap, and the liquid base for red ochre paint.

Images from the hunts have become iconic symbols for conservation, animal welfare, and animal rights advocates.

The main method of killing seals is with a hakapik — a heavy wooden club with a hammer head and metal hook on the end. The use of guns is also allowed, but the hakapik is for some unknown barbaric reason preferred. The hammer head is used to crush the skull, while the hook is used to move the carcass.

British reporter Danny Penman from the Daily Mail spent nearly a week in Nova Scotia, Canada, to investigate last year’s ruthless slaughter at close range as the horror unfolded.

He stated in his report:
“The baby seal looked into the eyes of her executioner. Barely a flicker of emotion shows on the fisherman’s face as he smashes a steel-tipped club into her mouth. She lay whimpering on the ice, blood pouring from her jaw and nose.”

“But she wasn’t yet dead, so the sealer hit her in the face another 4 times before slamming a hooked “hakapik” club into her stomach and dragging her across the ice towards the ship.”

“Yet even this savagery is not enough to kill the poor creature. A few seconds later, the pup starts wriggling furiously. She was clearly still alive, though in terrible agony. The fisherman smashed her head another 3 times.”

Sadly, Penman stated that this incident was far from unique during his visit, The horrific scene was repeated hundreds of thousands of times over the weeks.

The new regulations aim to make Canada’s seal hunt more ‘humane,” ensuring that seals are dead before the skinning process. Requiring a pup must first be shot or battered into unconsciousness.

Then the fisherman has to check that an animal is fully “insensible” before slicing open the arteries near its flippers, allowing the creature to “bleed out” before it can be skinned.

They will also ensure that older seals, which make up only a small fraction of those harvested, are shot with a firearm, rather than clubbed to death with the traditional hakapik, or spiked club.

The changes will result in increased costs to sealers, and reduce the speed of the hunt.

Canada's Fisheries Minister says the new rules are modest modifications of existing practices aimed at placating the concerns of animal welfare groups and the European Union.

However the Minister also says the 2009 hunt will go ahead as planned.

The International Humane Society is dismissing the new rules as "cynical" and "cosmetic".