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http://stream.luxmedia501.com/?file=realimpact/hsus/2006-seal-hunt/overview_2006.wmv&type=wmvAUTA! http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.htmlThe Cruel Seal Hunt Has Begun
Canada''''s annual seal hunt, the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet, began at dawn on March 25. Each year, fishermen club and shoot baby seals in the North Atlantic, just to earn a few extra bucks by selling seal skins. Last year, 98.5% of the seals killed were two months of age or younger—and veterinary reports indicate that many seals have been skinned while still conscious and able to feel pain. Our ProtectSeals team already braved frigid waters and harassment by sealers during the Gulf of St. Lawrence phase of the hunt. They continue to meet with resistance while attempting to document the hunt''''s final phase in the waters off Newfoundland and Labrador, where the government will allow sealers to kill at least 232,000 seals.
The shame of seal hunting
The cruel practice of commercial seal hunting has been under way for a few days now. Rarely in my life have I felt so ashamed of being a human. Seals, including baby seals, are battered or shot to death in a barbaric hunt that literally constitutes a dis-grace to the civilized world.
In Canada the practice has been going on for years turning the country into a huge slaughter laboratory that overlays the very basic elements of our globalised society.
The senseless slaughtering of 230,000 baby seals is an affront to the environment and the efforts to protect those wonderful mammals but also a sign that a totally apathetic attitude towards environmental issues is the best and fastest way to destruction.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and other organizations have all these years tried hard to put an end to this cruel practice. Monitoring of the imposed quotas has been the last resort in a diachronic battle against cruelty.
According to the IFAW “rifles are used to kill 90% of the seals on the Front, yet the cruelty continues. Seals are shot, taken onto the boats, skinned, and then tossed back into the ocean. We have already documented several cases of seals being shot, wounded, and then lost under the ice. We caught one poor seal on film that slipped into the water after it was shot, struggled to stay afloat, and then finally disappeared under the ocean”.
The images available on IFAW’s web page are appalling and beyond imagination. Seals are the victims of a global society that has failed to set rules ad observe them, a society willing to sacrifice everything in the name of profit.
Speaking out is the only way to illustrate that there are humans who can make the real difference and put pressure against a totally senseless practice. Raising our voice is the only way to illustrate that sustainable development and respect for the natural en-vironment is the best way ahead.
Seal Hunting to Exceed Quotas
While seal hunting continues in Canada despite the protests of Animal Rights Activists, fixed quotas have been exceeded in some parts of the country, reporters said.
The Speaker for the Canadian Ministry of Hunting said to Radio-Canada that more than 20,000 seals have been killed in the north coast in three days despite the quota of 7,800. Though the quota is 64,000, 84,500 seals have been killed in Terra Nova in the west. The Canadian government had set a quota of 325,000 seals to be hunted this year, claiming that the population of seals in Greenland was 5, 8 million and hunting would not cause this species to extinct. Last year 325,000 seals were hunted in Canada, as well. The US had stopped baby seal export in 1972 and the European Union in 1983. White baby seals are separated from their mothers during the hunting season in Spring, they are dazed by strikes so that their furs are of high quality. They are later skinned alive.
Yhteydet Suomessa
Kanadan Suurlähetystö
Pohjoisesplanadi 25 B
00100 Helsinki
puh. +358 9 228 530
fax. +358 9 601 060
web:
www.canada.fi 
