The Canadian Seal Slaughter

Canada, the home of affordability, spectacular national attractions, a vast array of outdoor activities and of course “The Canadian Seal Hunt”. Every year from 15th November till 15th May hundreds of thousands of seals are killed for their meat, skin, fur and blubber. This is then used to make things such as clothing, health pills and food for both human and pet consumption.

The harp seal is perhaps one of the most iconic of sea mammals around the world, the seal cubs are recognized around the world from China to Australia. With their beautiful white fur, cute little faces and doe-ball eyes. So how come we sit back and allow these beautiful animals to be slaughtered each year?

95% Of Seals Killed Are Between 1-3.5 Months Old

The average life span of a seal is up to 35 years, if they are lucky enough to survive the onslaught of thousands of out-of-work fishermen each year, equipped with rifles, clubs and hakapiks (clubs tipped with metal hooks). Although the seal hunts are regulated, and certain laws try to keep the seal hunts humane video footage filmed by Sea Shepherds show less than 15% of seals were killed in a way that abides by Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations.

Although the seal industry is slowing dying, Canadian government continues to spend millions of dollars each year to maintain the seal hunts and fight against bans around the world, the money spent is also used to fly the seal pelts to China to be made into clothing. Canada has a federal debt of C$602.4 Billion however estimates show they spend around C$10 Million each year fighting against the bans on seal products in the EU alone.

A Professor At The University Of Guelph Found That By Banning The Seal Hunts Canada Would Save $7 Million Yearly

With the seal industry dying out thanks to bans in countries such as USA, Mexico, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia the price of a seal pelt has fell from $62 in 2007 to $23 in 2011. Russia prior to the ban imported 95% of Canada’s seal pelts. In 2009 the profits of the seal hunt barely made it over C$1 Million. The seal hunt accounts for 1% of income to people in the Newfoundlands, where most of the killing takes place. With yearly expenditure of almost C$5 Million each year, I’m pretty sure that Canada could use this money elsewhere to ensure that fishermen could find other ways of making money out of the fishing season.

Estimations show that over 400,000 seal pelts are locked up in storage across the world, and with more and more countries banning the sale of seal products the seal hunts are only going to become less and less profitable and one day hopefully won’t make any profit at all. The meat from a seal isn’t used as food widely and even the locals don’t eat it as they say “It’s too fatty and distasteful” a majority of the seal meat sold is to China, whom signed a deal with Canada to buy and import seal products after the European ban. However most of the seal meat is left to rot on the ice floor or thrown into the sea after the hunts as it’s doesn’t gain much profit for the killers.

Seal oil even though it’s been funded by the Canadian government hasn’t really took off with shoppers more likely to buy Flax Seed or Hemp Seed Oil rather then “Healthy” oil from horrific seal deaths. “Marine Oil” as it’s advertised are mainly sold either in Canada or are sold to Asia where it can be found in grocery stores. Some “Marine Oil Capsules” have been found for sale in the US in many Asian grocery stores and on online or mail order suppliers where it’s illegal to sell such items. So although the seal oil capsules makes some profits (Mainly Illegal) The small demand for such products doesn’t justify the number of seals bludgeoned to death each and every year.

Seal fur is one of the main things that the seals are killed for in The Canadian Seal Hunts, but what creates this demand for fur isn’t just seal fur clothing it is in fact the fur industry all together. That’s right if you wear any kind of fur you are promoting the hundreds of thousands of seal deaths each year.

So even though the industry is at an all time low in terms of profitability and the people of Canada would rather money be spent elsewhere than to promote such inhumane killings why do we allow for this to continue? Well I for one will do all I can to help save the lives of these precious seals and hope you will too?

How To Help

With the bans in place around the world, we can’t boycott the seal industry directly anymore but what we can do is boycott any product that helps pay for these seal hunts to continue, such as the Canadian sea food industry and tourism. Canada exports most of it’s sea food to the USA so we don’t buy it, then shops won’t buy it from wholesalers and wholesalers will stop stocking it meaning until Canada stop murdering these seals they won’t be making profit off of the fish they catch, thus causing them not to have enough money to fund the seal hunts in the first place. This is the same situation with tourism, if we don’t go on holiday to this country it cuts another large sum of money from being used to promote and pay for this evil hunt. Could you live with yourself knowing you was helping these evil people pay for the inhumane hunts that result in hundreds of thousands of seal cubs and seals die each year?