Canada defiant over annual seal pup cull
(mar. 26, 2008)
telegraph.co.uk

Hundreds of thousands of seal pups will be clubbed to death in Canada over the next few days despite protests.

The legalised annual slaughter in the Gulf of St Lawrence and around Newfoundland has this year been set by the Canadian government at 275,000 harp seals, out of a herd of more than 5.5 million, as well as 8,200 out of 600,000 hooded seals.

But protesters say that of the 224,000 seals killed last year, 98 per cent were pups under the age of three months.

Canada's commercial seal cull by fishermen - who harvest the creatures for their pelts, blubber and meat - is the world's largest hunt for marine mammals.

Given the helpless, photogenic nature of the prey and the hunting technique in which the creatures are chased over the ice and clubbed to death with a heavy stick, the practice has long prompted protests and anger.

While the Canadian government claims that the hunt is "humane, sustainable and responsible", protesters say it is cruel and unsustainable.

Harp seals have never been considered endangered but environmentalists say that the killing of so many pups each year will ultimately damage seal stocks.
Seal pup

Robbie Marsland, the UK director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the quotas "will inevitably have serious consequences for the future of the harp seal population".

He added: "Scientists predict that annual hunts at this level could reduce the population by 70 per cent in the next 15 years."

The commercial seal hunting season in Canada lasts from mid-November to mid-May but most of it occurs in late March and the beginning of April.

The actress Alison Steadman travelled to Canada this month to raise awareness about the impact of the fur trade on seal populations.
Seal pup

Ms Steadman, who played Mrs Bennet in the BBC television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, said that she saw hundreds of newborn seal pups being nursed by their mothers on ice sheets off Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

She said: "It is tragic that Canada's pristine ice floes are now remembered as the place where millions of seal pups are bludgeoned to death, where the largest most brutal marine mammal hunt in the world continues to take place every year."

This year, the Canadian government has attempted to foil protests by the cull's most active opponent. It has warned the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that one of its vessels, the Farley Mowat, would be in contravention of international maritime laws if it tried to stop the hunt.
seal pup

Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd, plans to sail the ship to the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland to intervene directly in the hunt.

The Canadian and Newfoundland governments have resisted intense pressure to curtail the hunt, arguing that Canadian fishermen rely on it for their livelihoods.