Charlottetown, Canada: Conservationists around the globe condemned the Canadian annual seal hunt which will soon witness the death of 270,000 harp seal pups – the largest legal and organized hunt in the world.
This cruel hunt for seals involves inhuman ways of shooting and clubbing to death.
Canada’s department of Fisheries and Ocean (DFO) opened the hunting season yesterday in the southern part of the Gulf of St.Lawrence while the remaining part of the gulf will open for hunting from Wednesday.
98% of the 354,000 seals killed last year were less than three months old according to official statistics.
Fishermen are allowed to kill pups as soon as they begin to molt their white coats. Often these seals are as young as twelve days old.
Over the past 200 years, commercial hunting has brought species of seal like the elephant seal to the brink of extinction.
“This is an unacceptably cruel and unnecessary hunt,” said Sheryl Fink, observer and senior researcher with International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
She said that one of the seals was hauled alive onto the deck of the boat with a steel hook before finally being beaten to death.
Thousands of harp seals pups are assumed dead due to lack of ice floes, which are required by the mother seals to give birth and nurse the young ones.
The increasing Global warming has resulted in this situation thereby adding more threats to their survival.
“We may not be able to save these seals from the effects of global warming, but the Canadian government can save the survivors from being hunted. I can only hope that they will do the right thing and cancel the hunt” says Ms Fink.
Canada has been receiving sharp international criticism and many European countries have taken steps to stop the trade in seal products.
The wildlife Trust of India’s international partner, IFAW continues to urge other government, as well as the European Parliament to close down the market for seal products.
