What's Happening
Each year, seasonal workers in Canada flock to the ice floes in late March and early April to kill 300,000 young seals. Seals are often clubbed many times before they are dead, and there is evidence of some being skinned alive.
Seal Hunting Methods Seals are usually killed by using a club called hakapik to smash the forehead in a single blow. When properly used this bring instantaneous death to the animal. The Canadian Marine Mammals Regulations require the severance of a major artery underneath the flipper to ensure that animal is dead before it is skinned. However in 17% of the cases as monitored by International Fund for Animal Welfare, the hakapak is not properly used. The seals are forcefully clubbed, causing considerable and unacceptable suffering, until they are dead.
The other method for seal hunting is by shooting by rifle. However, as hunters shoot from distance of over 50 meters with strong wind and low visibility, seals are often wounded rather than killed instantaneously. These practices cause the injured seals to suffer in agony before they die. In 2001, an independent veterinary panel performed post-mortems on seal carcasses left abandoned on ice floes and concluded that 42% of the carcasses showed insufficient cranial injuries. They deduce that those 42% of seals examined were conscious at the time being skinned and being dragged across the ice. |
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