Seal Hunt Goes On, Despite Protests

The largest seal hunt in almost 50 years continues today on the ice floes and islands off eastern Canada as a picture in some of this morning's newspapers shows a seal hunter apparently about to beat one of the animals to death.

Armed with rifles and spears, some 12,000 sealers began the hunt yesterday, accompanied by protesters condemning the £10m harvest as barbaric. Up to 10,000 seals were being killed every hour, reports claimed.

Hunters are allowed to kill 350,000 young seals this year, the largest amount since the government instituted quotas in the 1960s. Sealers say the harp seal population is burgeoning at 5.2 million and pelts are garnering record prices of about £27 each as it enjoys a boom in popularity with fashion designers.

However Rebecca Aldworth of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which will monitor the cull, said: "I believe this hunt is inherently cruel and the regulations to protect the seals are woefully inadequate."

She said hunting guidelines have been routinely ignored during her five years of monitoring the hunt, and her group has documented nearly 700 violations of hunting regulations since 1998. She said she has seen "seals whimpering in agony after being clubbed, and even though we begged the sealers to finish them off, they refused."

The hunt off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador received international attention beginning in the 1960s, and bloody television images of baby harp seals being clubbed to death led to bans on white seal fur and boycotts of Canadian fish products in many European markets.

Since then, the Canadian government has tried to ease protesters' concerns by banning the killing of seal pups under 12 days old - when their fur changes from white to grey - and implementing regulations designed to make the hunt more humane.

Many countries, including the United States, still ban imports of seal products, but the Ottawa government has supported the hunt to help Canada's economically troubled coastal towns. The industry earned about £8m last year, primarily from pelt sales to Norway, Denmark and China.

Earlier this year, the Humane Society of the United States took out full-page newspaper ads urging Americans to cancel trips to Canada and boycott Canadian products.

US Senator Carl Levin introduced a resolution condemning the hunt, and some of those attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier this year wore T-shirts reading: "Club Sandwiches, Not Seals".

However, some of the major activist groups that targeted sealing in the past said they have more pressing issues to address this year.

Andrew Male of Greenpeace Canada said the organisation was "not actively campaigning" against the hunt, instead focusing on such issues as genetically modified foods and climate change.

Despite its newspaper ad, the Humane Society does not oppose the hunt itself, only some of the methods used by sealers, spokesman Nicholas Braden said.

Although most seals are shot instead of clubbed, many wounded animals are left to drown, he said. A study by the organisation found that 40% of the seals killed were still alive while being skinned, despite rules designed to prevent this, he said.

But Steve Outhouse, a spokesman for Canada's Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, disputed the accusations of campaigners. A Canadian Veterinary Medical Association study found that 98% of the seals were killed "in a medically humane manner with the minimum of pain," he said yesterday.

The Canadian government has filed charges of illegal hunting more than 100 times during the past five years, Mr Outhouse said.