Seal Pup Hunt Begins Despite World Protests

Seal hunters and protesters gathered on the Canadian ice floes yesterday for the start of a hunt that could see the slaughter of up to 325,000 pups in the coming weeks.

The first leg of the seal hunting season began around the Gulf of St. Lawrence in eastern Canada. Some 80,000 young harp seals will be killed there before the hunt moves on to Newfoundland.

The cull, with its evocative images of wide-eyed baby seals being bloodily dispatched on pure white ice, has become a cause célèbre for animal rights activists. It has attracted a long list of famous names who condemn the cruelty as unnecessary. Sir Paul and Lady McCartney broadcast a last-minute video appeal from London to ask that the hunt be stopped. 'We pleaded to the Canadian government to stop the seal hunt, but they have refused,' Heather McCartney said. Sir Paul urged a plan to compensate sealers financially if the hunt were banned.

However, the Canadian government shows little signs of heeding activists' demands, despite being put under an increasingly uncomfortable media spotlight each spring. 'We're the victim of an international propaganda campaign,' the newly elected Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said recently.

Government officials say the harp seal population of six million needs to be controlled while fishermen insist the hunt brings in vital revenue to isolated parts of Canada.