Ice To Seal You

By · March 14, 2006 at 17:43 pm · No comments · Latest News · Report an error ·
baby seal.jpg

If you go down to Trafalgar Square today, you’re in for a big, icy, 10 foot high surprise. To alert the public to the beginning of the two-month Canadian seal hunting season and to raise awareness around the barbaric practices involved, the International Fund for the Welfare of Animals (IFAW) has commsioned an ice sculpture of a seal hunter and seal that will be unveiled today in the Square.

The Canadian seal hunt is mainly concentrated in Newfoundland and Labrador and in the hunt season over 300,000 seals (most under 3 months old) will be shot or clubbed to death. Some will be skinned alive. All the spoils of the hunt go into trade abroad, mainly fur but also other “seal products”. Anyone who has seen footage of seal hunters at work, calmly clubbing to death piles of defenceless white baby seal pups and leaving the clean white Canadian snow plains streaked red with seal blood will understand how much the IFAW wants to end the annual hunt and end trade in seal fur and seal products.

The ice sculpture also precedes tomorrow’s launch of a new report conducted by the IFAW titled “Importing Cruelty” that examines all aspects of the hunt and trade in seal products with the UK. Sculpture and report are hoped to combine to increase awareness in the public about Canadian seal hunting with a further aim to put pressure on Ian Pearson, Minister for Trade, to put in place a ban on the import of seal products into the UK.

For more information on the Importing Cruelty report and for a picture of the ice sculpture in Trafalgar Square, please go to the IFAW website here.

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  • canuck

    not to say that i am for the seal hunt, but the picture of the white baby seal is misleading. Just as your comments regarding the clubbing of them are. White seals are protected (as in no hunt for them occurs, in canada), do some research you bandwagon jumper. Same thing goes for the people putting on the demo(IFAW). Way to use sensationlism to ultimately give up any credibility the anti club movement has.

  • Jameso

    Similarly, the hunt takes place on the pack ice on the sea, not some mythical ‘snow plains’. None of the protesting groups has yet addressed the underlying problem the seals pose, which is that they eat tremendous numbers of codfish that the struggling Atlantic fisheries need alive to recover.

  • http://www.londonist.com Hazel

    The post is a brief note to alert readers to the appearance of an extraordinary ice-sculpure of a seal and seal hunter in Trafalgar Square – while no picture of the actual sculpture was available at the time of writing, in what way is the picture of the seal misleading?

    Please also clarify how readers have been misled about the clubbing of seals – we understand the IFAW’s concern that though restrictions are in place such as unweaned pups being exempt from the cull and the birthing grounds are not to be hunted upon, breaches and relaxation of these restrictions occur and will continue to occur as the quota of seals to be culled each year increases.

    Seal hunting may be a traditional, economic and historic part of Canadian life but just as fox hunting has always been a traditional, economic and historic part of English life, it too can be challenged and will be changed according to shifts in local and global need for purported benefits of the hunt.

    If seals are a problem because they contribute to the depletion of cod, and must be culled accordingly, then all other contributors to the depletion of cod should also be culled. This includes
    - the fisheries who have overfished,
    - the quota setting parties who misjudged the acceptable amount of cod that can be safely caught before sustainability is jeopardised
    - those who damage and endanger the environment in which cod live
    - the cod themselves whose poor health has led to the decline in their own species. Tsk. They should really have taken their cod liver oil pills. Oh, the irony.

  • http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/ jill

    How cute is that?

  • David Cantrell

    “all other contributors to the depletion of cod should also be culled” including [various people]. Nice to see the tree-huggers’ true colours coming out at last.

  • Grey Cells

    Everyone who has just arrived home from their well paid job to enjoy dinner with their family, take five from this discussion and go to the barbecue and turn over their steaks.

    The traditional seal hunt is relatively small compared to the beef, swine, chicken and lamb industries. It employs people who struggle to make a life from the seas that urban dwellers are increasingly polluting. They seldom have steak and they are seldom home for dinner. They’re mostly cold and wet most of the time. They certainly don’t take the seals for fun.

  • random

    The picture of the seal is misleading because it’s a whitecoat- a young seal that is illegal to hunt… though videos that the IFAW shows are generally from the past- when such hunts were not illegal.

    The WWF, numerous in dependant scientific commissions, and many others have examined the canadian seal hunt and found it to be humane, safe, and in general, exemplary.

    If you’re opposed to killing any mammals- I can respect that. But, it seems crazy to campaign against the seal hunt… we’re talking about a sustainable hunt which is completely regulated. Seals get to live healthy lives… in the wild. Compare that to beef cattle- who are raised in deplorable conditions…

    Generally speaking however, there hasn’t been a proven connection between seals and cod depletion- that’s largely the result of spanish and portugese over fishing of the grand banks.

    Generally speaking- the reason why organizations like the IFAW campaign against the seal hunt is because it’s profitable for them. They can show photos of cute baby seals, red blood spilled on white ice, the whole show is very dramatic… a video of a slaughterhouse isn’t nearly as effective, because it’s relatively speaking ugly dirty animals in a dirty dank dark building…

    Ironically, a significant proportion of the seal meat harvested is used as feed for Minks- which are grown for their fur.

    Some parts of seals are now however being used for some pharmaceuticals…

    Either way, I don’t get why people get so upset at the whole idea…

  • http://tablemountains.blogspot.com/ wayne

    i wonder how many people who donate to the animal rights groups know of any other type of seal besides a whitecoat.that seal is not hunted but used to rake in the $$$$’s for them.i live in a community where a few extra dollars from that hunt means that a family will have a better life for that year.no difference then hog,cattle or poultry producing.please check out my blog to see our way of life.
    http://tablemountains.blogspot.com/

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