The Seal Hunt Is Humane, Sustainable and Well-Regulated

"Any views to the contrary are based on myths, misinformation and misguided emotion."
"Canadian coastal and northern communities continue to depend upon the humane seal harvest as a vital economic activity and they should have every right to do so."
"We will continue to work with Canadian sealers to defend this industry as a healthy, humane and sustainable source of food, clothing and income."
Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, Canada

"To me, the (EU) ban is Orwellian. It's highly judgemental about how we Inuit rely on the seal, and the Europeans assume we have other means."
"Of course there are alternatives; there are always alternatives. I could become a vegetarian if I wanted to, but I'm not going to."
Terry Audla, president, Inuit Tapirisit Kanatami

"Because of the ban, the market has shrunk significantly. But (the Canadian government is) going to continue to support the seal hunt."
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea

"Most people are not accustomed to, or exposed to having to see where their beef, or where their chicken, or where their leather belt or their leather shoes or their Prada bags, how they originate."
David Dakins, chairman, Seals and Sealing Network

"Supporting the seal hunt, politically and openly, is a cheap way for the federal government to look as though they're standing with residents in rural communities in Atlantic Canada."
"In fact, they're doing very little to address the real economic problems that exist there."
Rebecca Aldworth, executive director, Humane Society International, Canada

A harp seal sits on a ice floe in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as a sealing boat from Newfoundland waits in the background.  (JONATHAN HAYWARD/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

 

There is no shortage of voices for and against the continuation of the Canadian seal hunt. In a propaganda war appealing to the emotions, there is never any end of posters showing the adorable, large, moist-eyed seal pups with their white coats to appeal to peoples' emotions, horrified that hunters would stalk those sweet creatures for profit. It is illegal in Canada to hunt and butcher seal pups, though it has not always been.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq is prepared to appear at the three-day World Trade Organization hearing in Geneva, to reiterate the Government of Canada's argument that the seal hunt is humane, sustainable and well-regulated. Animal activist groups in Europe and North America had succeeded in their mission to condemn and outlaw seal products from Canada, persuasively arguing the hunt represented a cruel practise of unneeded butchery.

When the World Trade Organization adjudicated the issue late last year, it agreed that the EU's embargo on imported seal products undermined fair trade regulations and expectations. But it cavilled, permitting restrictions on the basis that they can be viewed through the lens of permissible "public moral concerns" for animal welfare.

Both Norway and Canada had challenged the 2010 decision of the 28-member EU ban in the import and sale of seal fur, meat, blubber and any other seal products.

Minister Aglukkaq will emphasize that the ban does irremediable harm to the livelihood of sealers traditionally reliant on the industry to sustain themselves and their families. Animal rights advocates characterize the commercial seal hunt as a needless slaughter, while pointing out that the ruling protects aboriginal hunts. Inuit hunters on the other hand, state that the European ban and others have completely destroyed their major international markets.

To further still charges of cruelty Canada's Fisheries Department has stated that as of 2014, all license holders taking part in the commercial hunt are charged with the completion of training on an approved three-step kill procedure, involving shooting or striking the animal on the head with a hakapik or club, then ensuring the seal is dead before cutting major arteries to bleed it before skinning takes place.

   A hunter heads towards a harp seal in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence March 25, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan 

 

Last spring the commercial seal hunt off Newfoundland had a federal quota of 400,000. But the hunt results fell far short of the quota, with about 91,000 harp seals landed, an increase from the year before when 69,000 were hunted. Each year, roughly 900,000 seals are hunted around the world. Fisheries and Oceans Minister Shea affirms that her department is working with the sealing industry to develop new products and explore new markets.

Countries such as Japan and South Korea have imported significant amounts of seal meat, while China now is considering following the EU to ban the sale of seal products. Rebecca Aldworth, a Newfoundlander, has campaigned for an end to the hunt for years. She feels the only feasible solution to end the hunt is to buy out the seal industry. Sealers, she suggested, could develop a tourism and seal-watching industry.

"It will be virtually impossible for Canada to win the appeal, because appeals at the WTO can only be founded on issues of law, not issues of fact", stated international trade lawyer Robert Howse. So he feels it is unlikely that Canada will succeed in overturning the EU's ban on the sale of seal products. Largely because the WTO panel concluded it is impossible to prove beyond doubt the humaneness of the hunt, the ban will likely stand, he concludes.