Group: Seal hunt not more humane
(mar. 28, 2008)
thechronicleherald.ca

CHARLOTTETOWN (CP) — An animal rights group is disputing a Canadian claim that this year’s East Coast harp seal hunt will be more humane.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said Thursday that a new regulation that requires hunters to bleed seals before skinning them "makes no real changes to the way seals can be killed."

Seal hunters are required to kill seals by either shooting them with a rifle or crushing their skulls with hakapiks or clubs. As well, hunters are required to perform a so-called blink reflex, which involves touching the animal’s eye to ensure it is dead.

Under new federal regulations, hunters will also be required to sever the arteries under each flipper, thereby ensuring the animals are dead before being skinned.

"The extra step will help ensure a well-managed, sustainable hunt is conducted in a more humane manner," said Luc Legere, an official with the federal Fisheries Department based at a temporary office in Charlottetown.

But Sheryl Fink, a senior IFAW researcher, said the new regulations call only for "bleeding to be conducted at some point."

"Now that I have seen the actual text of the new condition of licence, I’m left speechless by its inadequacy," Fink said in a release.

Phil Jenkins, a spokesman for the federal Fisheries Department, said the regulations recognize that certain ice conditions may make it unsafe to bleed a seal right away, but the rules also make it clear the process must be done as soon as possible.

"They criticize everything," he said, referring to the activists.