Canada’s Bloody Seal Slaughter

Posted on by Ashley Fruno

Canadian seal huntHumane Society of the United States

Photo courtesy of the Humane Society of the United States

Once again, baby harp seals in Canada are facing slaughter by the thousands as the annual massacre begins.

During the slaughter, huge numbers of baby harp seals, most less than 3 months old, will have their still-soft skulls crushed by crude spiked clubs. Many infant seals are bludgeoned before they even eat their first solid meal or learn how to swim.

More than 170,000 harp seals have been slaughtered on the ice floes off Canada’s east coast in recent years. The seal pups yelp in terror and pain as the sealers’ spiked clubs slam into their heads, while other seals nearby can only wail in despair. 

After violently attacking these young pups, sealers routinely hook them in the eye, cheek or mouth – sometimes while they are still conscious – to avoid damaging their pelts before dragging the animals across the ice to skin them. They then leave them to die a slow, painful death.

This massacre is a terrible price to pay for lifeless fur garments that are paraded on catwalks, displayed in shops and worn as if they were symbols of something other than extreme cruelty.

The European Union, Mexico, Taiwan and the United States already prohibit the sale of seal fur, and Russia – formerly Canada’s largest commercial market for seal fur – has banned the importation of any harp-seal products. But the slaughter of baby seals continues.

Please ask the Canadian government to end the massacre of these helpless animals, and get your friends and family to do the same.

Posted by Claire Fryer