IFAW: Cruelty to continue under ‘new’ seal hunt regulations

(Charlottetown, Canada – March 27, 2008) – On the eve of the opening of Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt, experts with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) have denounced the Canadian government’s claims that new regulations will make the hunt more humane.

IFAW opposes the hunt, which this year has a kill quota for 275,000 seals, because it is inherently cruel, unnecessary and biologically unsustainable. Momentum for an end to the hunt is growing with bans on the trade in seal products from Canada now in place in Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Croatia, as well as the US and Mexico. Germany and Italy are working towards introducing similar legislation.

With growing pressure for an EU-wide ban to be introduced, the Canadian government has announced so-called ‘new’ regulations, an additional condition of licence for hunters, which make no real changes to the way seals can be killed. Tomorrow sealers will take to the ice in Canada’s Gulf of St Lawrence to club or shoot seals before skinning them, primarily for their fur.

“Now that I have seen the actual text of the new condition of licence, I’m left speechless by its inadequacy,” said Sheryl Fink, IFAW senior researcher and veteran seal hunt observer. “The impaling of live and conscious seals on steel hooks and hoisting them onto boats is still permitted – I don’t know anyone who would call that an improvement in humaneness.

“This new requirement in no way reflects the recommendations made by numerous veterinary panels, who have clearly said that seals should be stunned, checked for irreversible unconsciousness and bled out immediately to ensure humane slaughter,” said Fink.

The new regulations simply call for the bleeding out of seals to be conducted at some point ‘where possible’, which could even be after the seal is finally brought onto the deck of a sealing vessel.

Robbie Marsland, Director of IFAW UK, said: “These ‘rule changes’ are obviously designed to deceive the world that this inherently cruel hunt can be made humane, and to forestall a ban on trade in seal products currently under consideration by the European Commission.

“Europeans won’t be fooled by these so-called improvements when current regulations are neither adhered to nor regulated. Meanwhile, more countries are banning seal products and declaring they want no further part in this cruel and unnecessary trade.

“It is time this hunt ended. Every year we witness the ice floes turned red with the blood of hundreds of thousands of seals, mostly pups under three months of age, to provide luxury fur products for the fashion industry which few people buy and nobody needs.”

Ends

For more information, images and footage, or to arrange interviews, please contact Clare Sterling at IFAW on 020 7587 6708, mobile 07917 507717, or email csterling@ifaw.org

Alternatively, for more information on IFAW’s campaign to end the world’s largest hunt for marine mammals, visit www.stopthesealhunt.co.uk

Note to Editors:

IFAW has a team of professional video cameramen and photographers ready to document the hunt. Images will be fed out via www.thenewsmarket.com/ifaw as they are obtained.
Visit www.thenewsmarket.com/ifaw frequently for updated broadcast quality video and still images of the 2007 commercial seal hunt.
APTN satellite feeds will be available once the hunt begins. Feed times TBA.