Purpose: This bill urges the Canadian government to end the commercial clubbing and shooting of close to one million baby harp seals during the last four years, the highest quota for seal killing in Canada’s history and the largest commercial kill of marine mammals in the world.
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Status: Passed.
Action: SUPPORT. Please contact your two U.S. Senators and urge them to support S.RES. 84. Tell your Senators that killing the seals won’t bring back the cod, whose precipitously declining numbers mean unemployment for Newfoundland fishermen. Last year’s seal hunt resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of seals between the ages of 12 days and 3 months. It is time for the Canadian government to end its promotion and subsidies of these cruel and ineffective commercial seal hunts.
Talking Points for your letter:
- Despite polls reflecting that 71 percent of Canadians believe the seal hunt should be banned outright, or limited to seals over one year of age, the Canadian Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans has permitted the commercial killing of close to one million baby harp seals, the highest quota for seal killing in Canada’s history and the largest commercial kill of marine mammals in the world. The majority of these seals were pups between just 12 days and 12 weeks of age, most of which had not yet eaten their first solid meal or learned to swim.
- A 2001 report by an independent team of veterinarians invited to observe the hunt by the International Fund for Animal Welfare concluded that the seal hunt failed to comply with basic animal welfare regulations in Canada and that governmental regulations regarding humane killing were not being respected or enforced. In addition, the veterinary report concluded that as many as 42 percent of the seals studied were probably skinned while alive and conscious. The commercial slaughter of these seals is inherently cruel, regardless of whether the killing is conducted by clubbing or by shooting.
- The commercial hunt for harp and hooded seals is not conducted by indigenous peoples of Canada, but instead it is a commercial slaughter carried out by non-indigenous people for seal fur, oil, and penises. While the fishing and sealing industries in Canada continue to justify the expanded seal hunt on the grounds that the seals in the Atlantic are preventing the recovery of cod stocks, there is no credible scientific evidence to support this claim. In fact, two Canadian government marine scientists reported in 1994 that the true cause of cod depletion in the North Atlantic was over-fishing, and the consensus among the international scientific community is that seals are not responsible for the collapse of cod stocks. Because harp and hooded seals are a vital part of the complex ecosystem of the Northwest Atlantic, and because the seals consume predators of commercial cod stocks, removing the seals might actually inhibit recovery of cod stocks.
- It is time for the United States to join the world community in condemning this cruel and needless commercial seal hunt, and to sanction the provision in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which bars the import into the United States of any seal products.