Rebecca Aldworth/HSI

Stop killing baby seals!

Right now, thousands of baby seals are dying as climate change destroys their sea ice habitat. Unbelievably, the Canadian sealing industry wants to slaughter the survivors and there are growing indications the Canadian government is working to expand commercial sealing.

Climate change has caused the lowest sea ice formations in recorded history off Canada’s East coast. For seals who give birth on the small fragile ice floes, this is a disaster. Despite this, the Canadian government and sealing industry representatives have suggested that the annual seal kill level in Atlantic Canada should exceed 600,000 animals.

This year, tens of thousands of seal pups—having already survived the destruction of their sea ice habitat—will be shot at and clubbed for their fur. Others—some likely while still conscious—will be impaled on metal hooks, dragged onto bloody boat decks, and beaten to death.

If the sealing industry has its way, millions more will be killed in the coming years.

Please urge the Canadian government to end the commercial seal hunt once and for all and issue emergency directives to protect baby seals from the worst kinds of suffering.

Your Message

Subject*

Prime Minister

Justin

Trudeau

Prime Minister

Minister

Diane

Lebouthillier

Canada Minister of Fisheries, Oceans

Minister

Mary

Ng

Canada Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Lebouthillier, and Minister Ng, 

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to end the commercial seal slaughter in Atlantic Canada. The rapidly increasing impacts of climate change—paired with Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s revised harp seal population estimate—justify urgent government intervention. 

In recent years, we have witnessed the lowest sea ice formation off Canada’s East coast in recorded history. For the ice breeding harp seals targeted by commercial sealers, it is a disaster. Harp seals return to their main whelping sites each year and give birth on any ice they can find. When that ice is scarce and fragile, as has been the case in many recent years, it breaks up and melts before the pups are strong enough to survive in the open water, resulting in mass mortality. Canadian government scientists clearly state that the sea ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland will continue to deteriorate and that the resulting pup mortality will have a “severe impact” on the harp seal population.  

Just as alarming is a recent Canadian government study which admits the harp seal population could be as low as 3.5 million—less than half the number of previous estimates. Given this, and the impact of climate change on sub-Arctic sea ice, a government committed to a precautionary approach to wildlife management would immediately stop the Atlantic Canadian commercial seal hunt. 

Climate change is also making commercial seal killing methods even more inhumane. 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 die slowly and are not retrieved. As ice conditions deteriorate, almost all commercial sealing will happen in these conditions. Moreover, when seals are shot in open water or on ice too fragile for a sealer to stand on, they are retrieved with gaffs (long wooden poles with metal hooks) without the sealers first being able to physically confirm that the seal has died. This results in many seals being impaled, while conscious, on metal hooks and hoisted onto bloody boat decks before they are beaten to death. Such gruesome images have been consistently filmed in the commercial seal hunt in years with low ice cover. 

According to Canadian government scientists, 98% of the seals killed in Canada’s commercial seal hunt are pups less than three months of age. These pups struggle every year to survive melting sea ice, storms and other environmental threats. It is unacceptable to allow the survivors to be slaughtered in undeniably cruel ways to produce fur coats; that is why more than 38 countries have prohibited trade in seal products and others are in the process of doing so. 

Alarmingly, there are growing indications the Canadian government is working to expand commercial sealing. Canada’s Fisheries Minister, Diane Lebouthillier, has publicly stated her support for rebuilding the commercial sealing industry and developing markets for seal products, while Canadian government representatives have called for annual seal kill levels as high as 600,000.  

The world community—including a majority of Canadians—has soundly rejected the commercial slaughter of baby seals in Atlantic Canada. It is time this government re-examined its approach to seal management—which is woefully outdated and wildly out of step with the principles of animal welfare and marine conservation—and took meaningful action to end the commercial seal slaughter for good.   

Sincerely,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}
{user_data~Country}

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