The New York Times ran a story yesterday about the resurgence of clubbing baby seals to death.
Now, Canada has lifted the quota to a rate unheard of in a half century, buoyed by new markets in Russia and Poland, and changing environmental calculations. A recovering market has turned into a quiet boom.
Here on ice patches of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the hunt looks nearly as brutal as ever. For as far as the eye can see, dozens of burly men bearing clubs roam the ice in snowmobiles and spiked boots in search of silvery young harp seals. With one or two blows to the head, they crush the skulls, sometimes leaving the young animals in convulsions. The men drag the bodies to waiting fishing vessels or skin them on the spot, leaving a crisscross of bloody trails on the slowly melting ice.
The article quotes Rebecca Aldworth, an antihunt advocate with the International Fund for Animal Welfare. I decided to look up her organization and I found their site. There is a link on the home page about a senate resolution calling on Canada to end the practice.
Support US Senate Resolution 269 - Call for an End to Canada's Seal Hunt
On November 20, 2003, Senator Carl Levin introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on Canada to end the commercial seal hunt. The resolution condemns the hunt as a commercial slaughter that fails to adhere to basic animal welfare regulations, and asks the Canadian government to put an end to the hunt.
Anyone know if this resolution is still on the table? Probably not after 5 months, but perhaps the NYTimes article will raise the issue again.