UK NEWS

HUNTERS GO IN FOR THE KILL

CANADA'S SHAME: The annual seal cull

Saturday March 29,2008

By John Ingham Environment Editor

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(17)

A day’s work begins on the ice as a hunter slowly, deliberately raises his evil, spiked club.

Seconds later, it crashes down on the skull of a seal pup as the latest sickening slaughter started yesterday.

The defenceless victim was the first of 275,000 pups, most of them under three months old.

They are due to die in a frenzy of bloodletting off eastern Canada over the next few weeks in the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world.

But most shaming images do not reach the outside world.

For some reason – surely not embarrassment – the Canadian authorities delayed handing out landing permits to the media and conservationists just as the European Commission considers an outright ban on seal products.

This year’s hunt will take the total number of seals butchered in the past five years to 1.5million.

The director of Humane Society International/UK, Mark Glover, said: “Just two days ago we stood on the ice with baby seals, but now these pups are being brutally clubbed, shot and skinned.

“These are the images the Canadian authorities were desperately trying to conceal from the public. There is no justification for the cruel hunt.”

The Canadian government claims that the hunt provides “economic benefits” to remote coastal communities where jobs are limited, and describes it as a “valuable link to Canadian cultural heritage”.

But Robbie Marsland, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: “It is time this hunt ended. Every year we witness the ice floes turned red with the blood of seals to provide luxury fur products which few people buy and nobody needs.”

MICKLE

29.03.08, 6:05pm

nice talking to you too,
take care ,
speak soon,
to agree or disagree!!

• Posted by: supernova • Report Comment

SN

29.03.08, 5:18pm

Unfortunately there is a need to continue with this cull, its not a sport but a necessity

67%? these bloody immigrants get everywhere

Good night SN and don't be having any bad dreams

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

MICKLE

29.03.08, 4:44pm

there is no justification for the cruel hunt.
you are just making excuses for a barbaric sport.
it damages canada's reputation
it is opposed by 67% of canadians, plus many other countries
people are boycotting canadian seafood
seals should not be brutally killed for their fur
and please stop refering to the poor animals as waistcoats.
have a good day or night where ever you are.

• Posted by: supernova • Report Comment

SB

29.03.08, 4:14pm

The Atlantic harp seal population is plentiful; nearly triple what it was in the 1970s. The current estimate of harp seals is approximately 5.5 million animals".
These animals consume from 1-5% of their bodyweight in fish per DAY their bodyweight is 103KG-227LB, Certain Whales also have Herring and Capelin on their diet,
Would you sooner see whales starving?

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

MICKLE

29.03.08, 2:16pm

so are you one of the hunters then?
if the candians did not overfish, there would be no need for this barbaric inhumane killing every year,
its just to keep the locals in a job!!
go out and get another job!!
and let nature be!!

• Posted by: strongbow • Report Comment