March 29th – Despite the ecological tragedy that has unfolded in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has authorized the killing of 270,000 harp seals this spring, but The Humane Society of the United States will be there to bear witness, and expose the plight of the baby seals to the world.
"There is no responsible government that would allow this hunt to open," said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues, for The Humane Society of the United States. "With this decision, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is telling the world that the Canadian government will stop at nothing in its agenda to exterminate seals, even with hundreds of thousands of seal pups perishing in the wake of devastating ice conditions. Hopefully, closing markets for seal products and the ongoing boycott of Canadian seafood products will soon force the Canadian government to make the ethical and responsible decision to stop this brutal and needless slaughter–before it is too late."
The HSUS believes the seal hunt will open in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the next few days.
Throughout the past week, Aldworth and a team of videographers and photographers have flown over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and report there are almost no pups to be found. This year, global warming caused the ice off Canada's east coast to melt before the pups were old enough to survive in the water. In the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, The HSUS believes hundreds of thousands of seal pups have already perished. In a reckless and politically motivated decision eerily reminiscent of the 1992 cod collapse, the DFO is now allowing hundreds of thousands more seal pups to be slaughtered for the commercial hunt.
"This will be the ninth year I have observed the commercial seal hunt," Aldworth continued. "In that time, I have observed unimaginable cruelty as the sealers literally compete against each other for seals to fill their quotas. Wounded seals are routinely left to suffer in agony for extended periods of time. Conscious seal pups are stabbed with metal hooks and dragged across the ice floes. Seals are even skinned alive. The pups, just days or weeks of age, are utterly defenseless against the hunters."
This is not the first year such an ecological disaster has been ignored in the pursuit of profit. In 2002, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimated 75 percent of the seal pups born in the Gulf of St. Lawrence died when the ice melted before they were old enough to survive in the water. Still, the Minister allowed the hunt to proceed, and knowingly allowed the sealers to exceed their quota by more than 37,000 animals.
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