The slaughter of seals and in particular harp seals for their pelts continues today. This activity is an outrageously cruel practice and one that has no other function than to serve the fashion industry. Such unnecessary cruelty has no place in a world that claims civility. Learn more about this abhorrent practice so you too will recognize what a truly pointless waste of life it really is.

To begin this seal hunt has nothing whatsoever to do with native hunting rites. The Inuit that hunt seal for meat, skin and bone take only three percent of the seals that are killed. The remaining 97% are taken for fur and other non-essential seal products. Those that participate in these hunts are off-season fishermen who make only a minimal amount of their annual income from sealing. It has been suggested that the Canadian government buy out the participants’ licenses as a way to compensate them. Since the Canadian government does subsidize the seal hunt this would seem to make the most sense economically as well as morally.

Seals are not endangered but they are also not over-populated. It has been suggested that seals have damaged the cod crop but evidence suggests otherwise. The stomach contents (of seals that have been analyzed) contained only 3% cod. Over fishing for human consumption has decimated the cod population and several governments whose citizens make their income from fishing have upped the quota on seals in order to provide the populace with a way to make an income. Seals are also hunted for commercial meat but the biggest payoff is their coats and the method of killing for pelts is inhumane.

Pelts damaged by gun shots are not valued so if a seal is not shot cleanly the seal is left to die – often drowning or dying a slow death. And since they shoot from boats when killing with guns a less than clean shot is very likely. In order to prevent pelts from being damaged by less than accurate shooters most hunters take to the ice to either club the baby seals or pith them with a pickaxe-like tool. Accuracy is still not particularly good and many seals are thusly skinned alive.

I cannot imagine the sort of person that can come face to face with a helpless animal and proceed to bash in its skull – especially when it just isn’t necessary. We do not need seal skin coats to survive. Synthetics can keep us warm in the most bitter weather now. Proponents of seal products claim that synthetics can produce toxic pollutants. If this is so then we must deal with that but such a claim hardly justifies the cruel slaughtering of yet another species in order to serve human ego.

There are many videos that showcase the horrors of the seal hunt. There are many things you can do to help stop this brutal practice. The Humane Society of United States and Sea Shepard both have excellent web information with regard to this issue – both are linked below.

I urge you all to do what you can to stop this unnecessary cruelty. If we are to advance as a society we must stop abusing the natural world in order to serve our needs and desires.

https://www.seashepherd.org/seals/seal-hunt-facts.html

https://www.humanesociety.org/issues/seal_hunt/