Call To Action! HSI Canada Demands That The Canadian Government Cancel The Cruel 2021 Commercial Seal Hunt

In the wake of the lowest sea ice formation in recorded history off of Canada’s East Coast, Humane Society International/Canada is urging the Canadian government to stop the commercial seal hunt.

Canadian government scientists anticipate mass mortality of newborn seal pups as their sea ice habitat melts. This poses a serious threat given the fact that they are not yet strong enough to survive on their own in open water. Allowing hundreds of sealers to operate in cramped conditions on sealing vessels, much less during a global pandemic, presents a clear threat to public health.

“Climate change is causing rapid deterioration of the sea ice cover off of Canada’s East Coast. For the ice breeding seals who are the targets of the commercial seal hunt, it is a disaster,” Rebecca Aldworth, Executive Director of Humane Society International/Canada, and a first-hand observer of Canada’s commercial seal hunt for 18 years, said in a statement. “No responsible government would allow the few pups who survive these unprecedented ice conditions to be slaughtered just to produce fashion items.”

“Moreover, no responsible health authority would allow this senseless, shameful hunt to proceed during a global pandemic. We are calling on the Canadian government to do the right and responsible thing and stop the 2021 commercial seal slaughter in Canada,” continued Aldworth.

Canada’s government scientists clearly state that the sea ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off of Newfoundland will continue to deteriorate, and that the resulting mass mortality of pups will have a severe impact on the harp seal population. A precautionary approach to wildlife management clearly precludes commercial hunting of an ice dependent species whose ice habitat is quickly vanishing.

Veterinary studies have strongly emphasized the severe suffering that results from shooting seals in or near open water, given the high wounding rates documented in the Canadian seal hunt, and the ability of wounded seals to escape beneath the water’s surface, where they slowly die and are not retrieved.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), who has worked for over 22 years to end the commercial seal hunt in Canada, states that the annual hunt for harp seals in the country, with a quota of 400,000 individuals, has long been the largest marine mammal slaughter on earth.

If the Canadian government refuses to stop the slaughter for good, at the very least, commercial sealing should be suspended in 2021.

To help put an end to this barbaric and outdated so-called “tradition,” please sign the petition HERE!