Wildlife & Biodiversity

Canada’s commercial seal hunt begins

India and China urged to help stop the killing with a trade ban

 
NEXT NEWS ❯
By DTE Staff
Published: Thursday 14 April 2016
Canadian Seal hunt 2016 Credit: Michael Bernard/Humane Society International__

Canada’s commercial seal hunt which involves the shooting and clubbing of baby harp seals for their fur has begun.

Currently, trade in commercial seal products is banned by 35 countries, including the 28 European Union member states, the United States and Russia. With dwindling world markets for seal products, the Canadian sealing industry is banking on China and India to import the seal fur, oil and meat that other nations refuse to buy.

International animal rights organization, Humane Society International (HSI) has called upon the Indian and Chinese governments to take a strong stand for seals by prohibiting commercial trade in their products.

“This is my eighteenth year bearing witness to the commercial seal slaughter. It is devastating to watch the suffering of these seal pups, but we do so knowing that the evidence is shutting this industry down. The suffering of these defenseless pups is utterly heartbreaking. With more and more countries refusing to buy commercial seal products, the primary reasons the slaughter continues today are government subsidies and the false promise that a new market will emerge for seal fur. Humane Society International is calling on China and India to set the record straight and help put right an international wrong by banning commercial trade in seal products,” said Rebecca Aldworth, executive director for the HSI’s Canada chapter.

BLOOD HARVEST
 
  • With more than two million seals killed since 2002, Canada’s commercial seal hunt is considered the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth.
  • The seals are killed for their fur and, because the skins of young pups are most valuable, 98 percent are less than three months old at the time of slaughter.
  • Veterinarians have called the methods of commercial sealing “inherently inhumane” and argue that prohibiting seal product trade is the most effective way to reduce the killing.
  • The United States, the 28 countries of the European Union, Mexico, Russia and Taiwan have all prohibited trade in products of commercial seal hunts.
  • In 2013 and 2014, the World Trade Organization twice upheld the rights of nations to prohibit seal product trade for animal welfare reasons.

 

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Seal Wildlife & Biodiversity World India
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